Ecolonization's ongoing mission is to provide a constructivist, or hands-on, approach for students to learn environmental concepts through an interactive, challenging and creative environment.

The program is a supplemental activity that allows students to visually interact with abstract and complex ideas to help gain deeper understanding. Both students and adults enjoy using Ecolonization to learn and are continually motivated to strive towards attaining their "mission" goals.

Ecolonization provides teachers with an alternative way to introduce and reinforce environmental concepts through the use of a game. The program creates a uniquely motivating environment by embedding concepts inside of a scenario (story) about space exploration and colonization of other planets.

Although Ecolonization can be used as a stand-alone program, it is recommended that teachers use the program in a collaborative (group work) environment where the teacher scaffolds students.

 

Rationalization for Ecolonization's Creation

One of the primary goals of Ecolonization is to help teachers integrate environmental education (EE) into their classrooms.

What is EE? In the most simplest terms, it is education of students to be aware of and understand the environment and its problems. It includes everything from a basic understanding of environmental, such as what a tree is, to participation towards solving environmental problems, such as pollution.

Although teachers, administrators, and the public may believe that EE is important, there are a number of barriers that exist between the desire for and the implementation of EE. Amongst the many problems cited, the most common are:

But, even if all of these problems were overcome, there is a reoccurring concern expressed by environmental educators and teachers that training is needed.

One solution to this is to provide formalized training at environmental education centers. However, due to the financially tight constraints that many schools are facing, there simply isn't enough funding to support this.

Another option is to develop a way to integrate EE into classrooms without requiring formalized training. Ecolonization was designed as a prototype for an informal method of integrating EE. The teachers' website (which you are reading now) provides support through lessons, resource links, the game itself, and direct access to the program's creator. Further, the Ecolonization game is so user-friendly that it does not require training to use.

While Ecolonization provides a constructivist, or "hands-on", approach to EE, it is not intended to replace field trips where students can experience the real environment. What the game does do is provide a supplemental activity that allows students to visually interact with abstract and complex ideas to help gain deeper understanding.

Using Ecolonization, students could learn about environmental concepts in the classroom and then go outside to conduct real experiments. They would be able to draw their own parallels and connections between what happens "theoretically" in the classroom and what they see happening in the real world.