ESD - Education for Sustainable Development

Based on the assertion that we can learn from past societies how human action can seriously impact on the environment, it was decided to create an e-Learning resource that demonstrates how this can be used to incorporate ESD into archaeology teaching. A web-delivered computer game is being developed that allows students to explore the relationship between environmental factors and human decision for an early farm in the harsh environments of Iceland.

Farm It Right

A game exploring the sustainability of early Norse farming in Iceland and Greenland

Scenario

Iceland was settled by the Norse in 874. In their ships they brought sheep, cattle and horses and started farming in the way they were used to in Scandinavia. The impact on the environment was severe and led to the eroded landscape we see today. However, the community survived overall. Unlike in Greenland where the Norse settled in 984 but disappeared in the mid 15th ct.

Hence the game is to explore how sustainable farming practice can lead to different outcomes, considering local environmental conditions.

Background

There are many interdependent ecological and environmental variables and several ecological models have been discussed in the literature. The most relevant are Farmpact (McGovern, New York, for Greenland) and Bumodel (Simpson, Stirling, for Iceland). However both are highly complex and have implemented the relationships in Excel spreadsheets that are difficult to understand. While Farmpact calculates the annual change in stock and household size, Bumodel also considers the land cover of an area and how it changes, hence clearly reflecting the environmental aspect of the scenario.

Game

The relationships laid out in Bumodel were simplified into an ecological model so that that they could be implemented in a computer game.

Game with full graphical user interface
DOS-mode realisation (press the space bar to stop and start, Esc-key to abort)
Description of the underlying ecological model
Report on the implementation of the project

Acknowledgement

This project was funded by the Higher Education Academy.