Skewb Climate - accelerating Climate and Social action through digital education

by Startacus Admin

Skewb Climate is on a mission to help utility companies engage as a force for good in their communities via their bespoke digital education tools.

Aside from knee-jerk, uneducated cries that videogames are dumbing down the population and causing violence - from the same kind of people who used to claim that Dungeons & Dragons was satanic and comic books were the cause of all violence - it’s a pretty well-known fact that games can improve problem solving skills in players, and help them to think more creatively and outside the box. 

They have been used as educational tools for a couple of decades, but increasingly so in recent years. Such engaging content naturally delivers lessons and information in a way that sticks in the players’ minds better than simply reading a textbook. So how about using one of the most popular games in the world to teach young people more about climate change?

Skewb Climate is an arm of the water, gas, and electricity tech company Skewb, and has partnered with Lithuanian educational content developer Three Cubes to bring educational content to children via Minecraft. Despite releasing back in 2011, Minecraft has sold well over 200 million units, and has between 2.8 and 3.6 million players every day so far in 2022. 

This is for the same reason that makes it ideal for educational purposes: its simple yet deceptively deep mechanics, and its ability to allow creation, limited - in a not-hyperbolic way for once - only by the player’s imagination. Skewb Climate is using Minecraft to teach children about a range of subjects, from carbon monoxide risks, to water management and energy efficiency, to Antarctic expeditions to learn about climate change.

Skewb Climate is still in the trial phase, but it is already working with utilities clients and already has positive feedback and numerous suggestions from children aged 5-15, who have helped improve the Minecraft modules. From September, Skewb Climate has a range of education programs to roll out, with free training for teachers and ready-to-go lessons within the Minecraft worlds they have built. 

 

 

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• #innovation
• #games
• #education
• #learning
• #digital
• #climate change
• #environment
• #social impact

Published on: 26th August 2022