Intermediate

Idea Generator Game

By the Land Art Generator Initiative (2021)

The Land Art Generator initiative (LAGi) is mentioned in the renewable section of our website. LAGi's goal is to "accelerate the transition to post-carbon economies by providing models of renewable energy infrastructure that add value to public space, inspire, and educate—while providing equitable power to homes around the world" (Land Art Generator, Retrieved October 16, 2021). In order to inspire next generation climate enthusiasts to consider the art in designing energy spaces, the initiative offers teacher resources through lessons and units. There are several to choose from here, but I will focus on the Idea Generator Game as it is a good place to start, and requires very few materials to start.

The Idea Generator Game game is intended to get students thinking about renewable energy technologies in their everyday life. By rolling dice that are each part of a specific design category students are encouraged to create "land art generators" that they would see, use, and interact with in their day to day lives.

Grade 7 Science in British Columbia covers electromagnetic forces, which has an electricity component to the overall big idea of this unit. By getting the students to think about how to use their environment in a creative way to harness electrical energy, they are discovering various ways of generating electricity, and the impacts that these methods have on the environment.

This activity would need to be at the end of the unit on electromagnetism because students will have to be familiar with the types of renewable energy: kinetic (human kinetic), hydro, bio, wind, and solar.

Gameplay

1. In groups of 2-3, have one person roll the dice to come up with a combination of scenarios that help you come up with your design. Write down your combination of scenarios in table on the worksheet.

- LAGi has provided a net of the die in each of the scenarios shown in the carousel to the right. Depending on time and group of students, you may choose to use all dice or a combination of less.

2. Repeat step number one 3-5 times, but with other group members rolling the dice to come up with different scenarios.

3. Finally, take the scenarios that are recorded in the table and draw your land art generator with all of the elements that were rolled.

Example

To the right you can scroll through

an example of a roll,
the filling out the table based on that roll,
and the final creation based on that roll.

Final products can be displayed in the classroom, or could be acted upon by which students would try and create at least one of their final products. Regardless of whether the students do create a final project or not, the idea for this activity is that they will be looking at the spaces that surround them in their lives in different, more energy sound ways.

Note: All images on this webpage are adopted from the Land Art Generator (2021) website, and can be found in their pdf of the Idea Generator Game.