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Game-based education for disaster prevention

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Abstract

Taiwan experiences typhoons on a yearly basis, and the accompanying heavy rain often causes flooding and damage. Local decision makers invest heavily in flood prevention measures and thus need to allocate resources wisely to minimize the destruction caused. To educate future decision makers, we developed a flood game to encourage players’ active learning by exploration. The game design is based on “Shikakeology” and “game-initiated learning” methods. Through the design of the game, a change in behavior is initiated by allowing players to face real-world flooding problems and discuss problems related to flood disaster management. Following gameplay, the instructors will introduce information useful in solving flood-related problems. From the feedback of review meetings, game-initiated learning was recognized as an educational method with great potential in teaching disaster management. Five public activities have been held, including three high school camps and two exhibitions. Among the students who participated in the high school camps, 92 % of the students thought the game was helpful in teaching disaster prevention strategies. Ninety-six percentage of those that attended the exhibitions said they would like to play the game again, and 98 % of the participants indicated that they would pay more attention to the issues surrounding disaster prevention. This indicates that game-initiated learning is able to stimulate learning for the participants.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by Taiwan’s National Science Council (NSC) under contract 101-2515-S-002-002. The authors are grateful to the project’s contributors from National Taiwan University: Sarah Chen Lin, Kai-Lin Kao, You-Rong Kuo, Pei-Yen Liao, Ting-Ju Chen, Da-Yio Tseng, Chih-Tian Shih, Yi-Zhi Tsai, Ting-Ying Chang Jian, and Ting-Ju Chen. The authors further thank our project reviewers Prof. Ko-Chiu Wu from the National Taipei University of Technology, Dr. Renate Fruchter from Stanford University, Prof. Jing-Yuin You from National Taiwan University, Prof. Chang-E Zhou from the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, Prof. Yu-Chen Lin from National Taiwan University, Dr. Jihn-sung Lai and Pi-Yun Lee from the Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research, and Dr. Jin-Cheng Fu and Dr. Shen Chiang from National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction for guiding the students and reviewing the educational methods. Finally, we would like to acknowledge our gratitude for the supports from the Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Hu-Wei high school, Chung Hsing University, and National Taiwan Science Education Center during camps and Exhibitions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Meng-Han Tsai

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan

    Ming-Chang Wen, Yu-Lien Chang & Shih-Chung Kang

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  1. Meng-Han Tsai
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  2. Ming-Chang Wen
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  3. Yu-Lien Chang
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  4. Shih-Chung Kang
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Correspondence to Meng-Han Tsai or Shih-Chung Kang.

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Tsai, MH., Wen, MC., Chang, YL. et al. Game-based education for disaster prevention. AI & Soc 30, 463–475 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-014-0562-7

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