SimCity, the Green Energy Edition: Website Unveils Alternative Energy Educational Video Game
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 09. 8.08
image: AlternativeEnergy.com
Other than a brief addiction a few years back to some Tom Clancy video games which shall remain nameless, I’m not really much of a video gaming person. That said, using video games to teach kids about renewable energy and raise awareness about green ideas is really a pretty cool idea. And that’s just what the folks over at AlternativeEnergy.com have done.
GreenCity is a new 10-lesson online “enrichment program” (which I suppose makes it more palatable to educators than ‘video game’) aimed at students in grades 6-12. Based on Electronic Arts’ SimCity Societies each of the lessons has two parts, a game play section and a part on real world applications:
Game Will Allow Students to Plot Virtual City's Green Future
As I haven’t had a chance to actual play the game, I’ll let AlternativeEnergy.com explain how GreenCity will work:
Through an initial Web tutorial, students will learn to build their own virtual SimCity based on societal model, and in the proceeding lessons, set specific goals, monitor their city’s energy use and chart growth. The students will then control their city, choosing more environmentally-friendly and alternative energy options for city infrastructure.Students can choose to implement over 500 unique objects into their city, ranging from workplaces to residential buildings and venues, and they can even choose to “bulldoze” pollution-causing buildings or allocate more money to energy research within their city.
As the program progresses, students will monitor their city’s pollution, energy output and health risks, while researching green initiatives, environmental issues and real-world green design applications at home.
Teachers, or anyone else for that matter, who wants to find out more can take a look at :: GreenCity
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Awesome!
In an old-school version of SimCity I used to try putting solar power plants in my cities and no coal ones, but the city would suffer from Brown Outs, and there were no other green options. That was lame. Instead you'd need to build a nuclear power plant.
Good to know there's a game where you're rewarded for using green products, and can explore (moderately accuate?) models of future planning designs. This is a great sort of educational tool. Sort of the green equivalent of the Army's computer game where you train yourself to be a soldier.