Svanhovd – A climate mystery

Vitenparken has developed a tablet game called Svanhovd: a climate mystery together with NIBIO. The game is designed for children between 9 and 13 years old and is intended to give children and young people insight into what climate change is, how scientists study climate change and motivate children to see research as an attractive and possible career choice.
Svanhovd is available in Norwegian, Russian, Ukrainian, Northern Sami and English.

A game where you learn about climate change

In the game Svanhovd you follow the young research assistant Katja who has traveled all the way to the NIBIO Svanhovd research station. Katja meets a brown bear in the middle of winter. The bear should be sleeping in the winter, so why hasn't the bear gone into hibernation? This will be the start of a series of discoveries by the young research assistant who, led by senior researchers, must investigate and understand the reason behind it.

The game allows you as a research assistant to work with phenology and investigate plants in an ecosystem. The game addresses, for example, how extreme or mild weather can affect seed germination and plant growth, and what consequences this can have for the environment and the ecosystem services we depend on.

Partners

The game is developed by Egil Paulsen (content developer at Vitenparken ) for NIBIO Svanhovd, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy to have as an activity in their visitor center. The game is used in school programs and for leisure visits and is specifically aimed at grade 7. Project leaders at NIBIO were Victoria Gonzalez and Anne Wikan. The game was part of the project “Linking climate change and ecosystem services to promote research as a career choice among young people” and is supported by PROFORSK, the Norwegian Research Council.

Availability

The game is free and can be downloaded for both iOS and Android.

DOWNLOAD IN THE APP STORE // DOWNLOAD IN GOOGLE PLAY