Collaborated with students and educators to explore how games can support sustainability education.
Handpicked games from a exhaustive list of games for their impact, clarity, and playability.
Classroom pilots + student surveys measured what worked and what connected.
Mapped to real-world sustainability goals — from biodiversity to climate action.
Can students learn about sustainability not through lectures and slideshows,
but by jumping between melting glaciers or running a sustainable village?
How do young people engage with sustainability concepts when they’re presented through games rather than lectures and slideshows? This question drove a summer pilot project at RCE Greater Phoenix, exploring whether environmental video games could spark interest, support learning, and resonate with middle schoolers.
We set out to co-create knowledge with middle school students by gathering structured, first-hand reviews of educational sustainability games. Rather than relying on public reviews or expert opinions, we asked students directly: What did you like? What did you learn? What didn’t work? This kind of structured, youth-centered evaluation is still rare—especially when it comes to how games feel, play, and land with their intended audience.
Developed by The Cloud Institute and Funatomic Educational Game Studio.
Catch as many fish as you can—without destroying the ecosystem.
In this turn-based strategy game, students take on the role of a fisherman balancing personal success with ecological responsibility. Over 10 rounds, they must decide how many fish to catch while maintaining the trust of other fishermen and keeping the population stable.
The Fish Game is a clever simulation of the tragedy of the commons, encouraging players to cooperate—or face collapse. It teaches system dynamics, ecology, and the challenges of collective resource management.
This toolkit is supplied under CC–BY-NC-SA license.
The Fish Game is a powerful tool for teaching systems thinking and the consequences of short-term gain. Students quickly grasp how their actions affect the group—and the fish. While it lacks flashy graphics, the message sticks. Teachers can boost engagement with discussion prompts,
Developed by Field Day Labs – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Explore the deep sea and protect marine ecosystems.
In this richly animated science adventure, students take on the role of Olivia, a young marine biologist navigating the ocean’s challenges in a high-tech submarine. Alongside her AI companion, V1CTOR, players explore coral reefs, Arctic waters, and kelp forests to study biodiversity, track environmental changes, and investigate threats like climate change and invasive species.
Through hands-on missions, students build systems-thinking skills, analyze marine populations, and use scientific modeling to support ocean conservation.
This toolkit is supplied under CC–BY-NC-SA license.
Wake succeeds in blending scientific thinking with immersive gameplay. Students connected with its story and visuals, but benefitted most when they had guidance and discussion prompts. The game is a strong choice for supporting NGSS-aligned instruction and for sparking inquiry about environmental change and marine biology.
Developed by Field Day Labs – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Balance farming and water health in your growing town.
Lakeland introduces students to the complexities of land use and water pollution. Players manage a rural town by building farms and raising livestock—but must do so without polluting the nearby lake. As the town grows, the need for food, fertilizer, and money must be weighed against the risks of phosphorus runoff and algae blooms.
This simple simulation makes visible how everyday decisions impact ecological health, while teaching players how to sustain both people and the environment.
This toolkit is supplied under CC–BY-NC-SA license.
Lakeland is an approachable entry point for systems thinking. Students quickly grasp how choices ripple through an ecosystem, and enjoy the cause-effect gameplay. While the interface is simple, its message about agricultural sustainability comes through clearly—especially with class discussion or a companion worksheet. It’s a great fit for cross-curricular lessons that tie science with civic decision-making.
Developed by Field Day Labs – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tell the story that helps a town survive.
In this choice-driven adventure, students play as El, a young journalist covering a flood in the town of Twin Lakes. As waters rise, players must interview residents, make tough decisions, and craft compelling, fact-based news stories. Each choice affects what El learns—and how well the community can prepare for disaster.
With narrative depth and meaningful stakes, Headlines and High Water teaches the power of information, journalism ethics, and the role of storytelling in crisis response.
This toolkit is supplied under CC–BY-NC-SA license.
Headlines and High Water stands out for its language arts integration and real-world urgency. Students are exposed to the weight of their decisions and learn how information flow affects public safety. Some students disengaged during slower narrative sections, but others were deeply invested in the outcomes. With framing and follow-up discussion, this game opens powerful windows into civic literacy, science communication, and climate action.
Developed by Johan Peitz
Survive a melting Arctic—if you can.
In this fast-paced arcade platformer, players guide a polar bear across breaking ice, dodging oil spills and collecting fish to stay alive. It’s a test of reflexes and timing—but beneath the simple mechanics lies a deeper message about climate change and pollution.
Polar Panic brings urgency and emotion to environmental education, with its high-stakes gameplay mirroring the real-world survival struggle of Arctic animals.
This toolkit is supplied under CC–BY-NC-SA license.
“It’s hard for animals to live when things are melting.”
“Don’t throw oil in the water.”
“The environment affects everything—even food.”
Polar Panic is quick, engaging, and surprisingly thought-provoking. While not all students recognized its deeper message, many responded to the urgency and challenge. Its strength is in sparking empathy, especially when paired with discussion or media about polar environments. Best used as an entry point into environmental topics, not a standalone teaching tool.
As a gamer and educator, my goal was to make classroom learning more engaging by incorporating video games with strong educational value. I compiled a large list of online titles and narrowed it down to five that were both educational, fun and connected to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Providing clear instructions, gameplay tips, and on-the-spot support helped students stay on track and improved their experience. Having a facilitator familiar with the games proved especially valuable.
While I personally gravitated toward narrative-driven games like Wake and Headlines and High Water, students tended to prefer fast-paced or familiar formats similar to Minecraft.
I hope you and your students enjoy exploring these games as much as I did.
Over several virtual sessions during a summer enrichment program, students were introduced to five sustainability-themed games – each focused on a different environmental topic – from overfishing to water pollution to climate change.
For each game:
The survey questions were designed to assess:
We partnered with students to evaluate five browser-based games, carefully selected from a larger list curated by our resident gaming expert, Shane. Each game was chosen for its educational potential and its alignment with key themes from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We wanted to know: What did students enjoy? What did they take away? What was confusing or frustrating? And most importantly—could these games realistically support learning in a classroom setting?
Surveys were conducted at Somerton Middle School (Go Cobras!), where 96.5% of students identify as Hispanic and 87% are economically disadvantaged. Students in this pilot were 7th and 8th graders participating in a summer learning program. The student body is evenly split by gender, with a student–teacher ratio of 18:1.
We focused on middle schoolers not only because they are digitally fluent, but because this age marks a critical window for shaping environmental values and critical thinking. It’s also a stage where meaningful engagement can shape how students connect with complex challenges—like climate change, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity—all of which have are especially relevant in Arizona’s fragile desert ecosystems.
Across the five games tested, students responded positively to the idea of using video games to explore environmental topics. They were eager to play and generally open to learning through digital formats.
Some consistent patterns emerged:
Importantly, students demonstrated an ability to articulate what each game was “really about” and often connected game mechanics to larger sustainability principles. Several even described how they might apply the lessons learned to real-life decisions or behaviors.
This pilot offers more than a list of recommended games—it highlights what sustainability-focused games look like through the eyes of middle school students. Their feedback provides a useful perspective that’s not often captured in traditional educational reviews.
For educators, these insights can help identify which games are likely to resonate with students and how to introduce them effectively. For developers, it offers a glimpse into how young players experience gameplay, messaging, and design.
As sustainability education evolves, involving students in the evaluation process and co-creating with them can lead to more engaging and effective learning tools.
