The following case study looks at the use of the Sustainaville games based learning product in a primary school. The product was developed by pixelfountain under its games-ED brand. The workshop was delivered in Mellor Primary School, Stockport. The class was made up of a split year group aged between nine and eleven. The workshop was held on 20th December 2010. The workshop and learning approach proved a real success and achieved significant learning improvements – 67% improvement in subject understanding and between a 40% and 70% improvement in personal, learning and thinking skills. The children enjoyed the challenge of running a virtual town. They said that the workshop was fun and took away important messages about the need to look after people and the planet. They also came away with a sense of perspective - “It is harder than I thought to run a town.”

1. Sustainaville Games Based Learning:
Mellor Primary School Case Study
December 2010
“I liked how every decision
made a different effect on
Sustainaville”
“It was really good fun and it
increased my knowledge of
working together and sharing”
“Work together, be eco
friendly, help the community”
Author: Paul Ladley (pladley@games-ed.co.uk) Tel: 0161-427-8684 www.games-ed.co.uk

2. Sustainaville Games Based Learning: Mellor Primary School Case Study
Summary
The following case study looks at the use of the Sustainaville games based learning
product in a primary school. The product was developed by pixelfountain 1 under its
games-ED brand. The workshop was delivered in Mellor Primary School, Stockport. The
class was made up of a split year group aged between nine and eleven. The workshop
was held on 20th December 2010.
The workshop and learning approach proved a real success and achieved significant
learning improvements – 67% improvement in subject understanding and between a
40% and 70% improvement in personal, learning and thinking skills. The children
enjoyed the challenge of running a virtual town. They said that the workshop was fun
and took away important messages about the need to look after people and the planet. They also came away with a sense of perspective -
“It is harder than I thought to run a town.”
Background to Sustainaville Games Based Learning
Sustainaville is a games based learning product that looks at the issue of sustainable development. The game requires the class to work
together in sub-teams to deal with social concerns such as crime, environmental matters such as climate change and economic problems
such as unemployment. The sub-teams play the roles of utilities, enterprise, housing & regeneration, local council, health sector,
community & voluntary, education & skills and transport. Just like in the real world the pupils have to work with limited budgets. They also
have to deal with incidents such as floods and cuts to rural transport.
Sustainaville is played by the whole class on a laptop and projector and can be used in schools, colleges and universities. Sustainaville
utilises the games-ED approach that ensures educators remain in control and that the learning outcome is as important as the fun.
The Workshop
The game was run as a workshop with external facilitators 2 taking the lead. The workshop was run over a two-hour lesson. Prior to
playing the game, a presentation was given to ensure that the pupils understood the basics of sustainable development and their role as a
virtual mayor.
“I loved keeping a budget. It’s the best workshop ever… [I understand] that our planet needs help and we can make this world a better
place.” Pupil
The Sustainaville game ran over three rounds using plan > do > review phases. The rounds and phases created natural breakpoints in the
game play to enable reflection to take place. The approach supported multiple learning conversations. The learners talked in their sub-
teams, between sub-teams, at a class level and with the facilitators. The game anchored these conversations. A natural set of questions
(shown in the table below) flowed during the course of the plan > do > review phases. It is through these questions that learning flowed.
Plan: Strategy / Planning: Do: Decision-making / Negotiating: Reviewing the Situation (Reports & Score):
o What are our individual goals and o What will happen if we buy that? o Have we achieved what we wanted to?
what are our collective goals? o What will happen if we don’t buy that? o What could we have done better?
o What should we prioritise? o Will you buy that, if we buy this?
o How can we achieve win-wins? Do: Facilitator inputs the purchases:
o What have you bought?
o Why did you buy it?
o Does anyone have other ideas?
1 games–ED products build on pixelfountain’s serious games and education experience to specifically develop games based learning for
the education market.
2 games-ED products can also be run by teachers and lecturers.
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3. Sustainaville Games Based Learning: Mellor Primary School Case Study
“I liked that we had a lot of freedom and it was exciting to find out the difference after each round. I also liked the money thing… I
[understand] that we are very lucky to have all the resources that we have, and how well we are looked after.” Pupil
Outcomes
Games based learning might sound trivial, but Sustainaville enabled complex learning material to be put into context. The pupils became
the leaders of a virtual town and made all the decisions. The process engages the pupils and accelerates the learning process.
Learning Improvement
Sustainable Making Decisions Cause & Effect of Working Together
Development Decisions
Average understanding before
5.2 5.6 4.6 6.4
(out of 10)
Average understanding after
8.6 8.6 7.8 9
(out of 10)
o 67% improvement in understanding of sustainable development.
o 56% improvement in decision-making skills.
o 69% improvement in understanding the cause and effect of decision-making.
o 41% improvement in group working.
The pupils got to develop personal, learning and thinking skills. Sustainaville goes beyond
learn by doing by emphasising the situation and the roles of organisations; this can be thought
of as learning by being.
Reviewing the situation
o Learn by Doing (Skills): Decision-making, negotiation, engagement, communication and group working.
o Learn by Being (Knowledge): Environment, enterprise, attitudes, society, diversity, culture.
Learn by doing AND learn by being are supported by reflection, scaffolding and assessment:
o Learners were able to reflect and make tacit knowledge explicit. They built abstractions.
o Facilitators guided and nudged the pupils as and when required.
o Assessment in the form of score and visual reports provided immediate feedback.
Key themes from the pupil’s quotes (What did you like most about the workshop?):
The children enjoyed the constructivist learning style, for example:
o “[I liked] the way you were free to make a decision by yourself and your team mates and whatever you did it affected the village.”
o “I liked the way we had a lot of freedom, and it was exciting to find out the difference after each round. I also liked the money thing.”
o “It was fun and a great way to learn.”
o “[I liked] that it helps me with lots of different skills.”
o “[I liked] that is was very educational.”
They enjoyed the roles and situation, for example:
o “It was very fun and you learnt a lot. It was great being in charge of the town and seeing what the result was.”
o “It was like you were a proper business man.”
They enjoyed the challenge, for example:
o “I liked finding out what score you got at the end and looking at the improvements.”
o “When you could see the town from the past years how it changed.”
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4. Sustainaville Games Based Learning: Mellor Primary School Case Study
They enjoyed decision-making budgeting and spending money, for example:
o “I liked making the decisions on what to buy and how much to buy.”
o “I loved keeping a budget of money. It is the best workshop ever.”
o “You got to make the city better and spend money.”
Key themes from the pupil’s quotes (How do you think we could improve the workshop?):
Most responded along the lines of “It was so good it doesn’t need improving.” Some said they would have liked more time, others said they
would have liked more to buy, a bigger city and more animations.
Key themes from the pupil’s quotes (What key learning messages will you take away?)
Plan > Do Review, such as:
o “I will take away… planning, working together, making the right decisions.”
o “Work together, make group decisions.”
o “How to discuss and think about decisions.”
Environmental, such as:
o “By kind to the environment.”
o “We need to keep the environment healthy and public transport is better than cars.”
o “That our planet needs help and we can make this World a better place.”
Inputting the decisions
Social, such as:
o “Make it fair.”
o “That when your managing somewhere you need to make sure people are happy and that little things can be very important.”
o “When managing places you need to make sure people are happy.”
Sense of reality, such as:
o “That it is harder than I thought to run a town.”
o “That people have harder jobs than I thought.”
o “Sometimes there is a disaster that you don’t know.”
Wider Outcomes:
Parents reported back that their children
enthusiastically talked about the experience. They
were impressed that the children had been able to
make links between different aspects of sustainable
communities.
Conclusion
This was the first time that a games-ED product had
been used in a primary school workshop. Previously,
pixelfountain have run workshops in secondary
schools, FE and HE. Other workshops have involved
adult audiences. What is remarkable is that, with only
minor modifications, the game delivers the same level
of engagement and improvements in understanding.
Mellor Primary School Score - A good adult score is between 6.5 and 7.5!
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