Environmental Science Students Use Board Game to Explore Climate Change

To learn more about climate change and energy transition, juniors in the Environmental Science class have been playing “Energetic,” a collaborative board game that challenges players to decarbonize New York City. 

In the game, each player takes on a role — politician, engineer, entrepreneur or activist — and together all of the players must come up with a plan. Complications are also thrown in the mix. Players draw cards that introduce variables such as a public protest halting a project or a research failure with an idea that seemed promising.

“The students really got into it and were discussing all of the tradeoffs while asking questions about things like carbon capture and hydrogen. It was really cool,” said Upper School science teacher Brad Turner.

The game gives everyone the chance to see the scope of the change and cooperation needed to transform New York City’s energy demand and supply in time to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. It has been used by students at schools including Brown University, Yale University, Vanderbilt University, and Harvard University.