Citizen Science

Citizen Science is an online flash-based computer adventure game in which the player is a young adult who becomes concerned about the health of a local lake threatend by eutrophication. Based at Lake Mendota in Madison, WI, the player’s goal is to restore the lake. By focusing on the ecological needs of Lake Mendota as well as the surounding community, the game is able to bring together real-world issues and scientific practices.

Citizen Science encourages students to connect ecology content to civic action. It is designed to introduce questions like, “What can I do to change things?” The purpose of Citizen Science is to help players develop a conceptual understanding of lake ecology while giving them experiences of confronting pressing ecological issues, conducting scientific inquiry to address these issues, and taking action in the (virtual) world to affect change.

Citizen Science was developed for upper-elementary school and early middle school students. It is intended to be implemented as part of a class curriculum.