Exploring the Potential of Data-Driven Educational Tools to Engage Students with Climate Change Complexity at Kenya Coffee School
This is a specific research focus, and the search results connect it directly to the work of Lorenzo Miani and colleagues at the University of Bologna.1
The core theme is investigating how innovative digital tools and real-world data can help students grasp the vast, interconnected, and non-linear nature of the climate crisis (its “complexity”).2
📊 Key Concepts and Tools Involved
The research uses a sophisticated, data-driven approach, often focused on simulations and scenario-building, which aligns with the “Graasp Climate” project mentioned in the previous query:
- Data-Driven Learning: The emphasis is on using real-world, scientific data from sources like environmental observatories, satellite observations, and climate models (e.g., IPCC data) to make the lessons evidence-based and relevant.3
- Addressing Complexity and Uncertainty: Climate change is a “wicked problem” characterized by feedback loops, time delays, and non-linear effects that are difficult to understand with traditional textbook methods.4 The research aims to prepare students to deal with this scientific uncertainty and the complexity of policy-making.
- The FyouTURES Game: A key tool developed by the researchers is FyouTURES, a scenario-making game built around the En-ROADS Global Climate Simulator.5
- En-ROADS is an interactive, system-dynamics model that allows users to test the impact of various climate policies (carbon pricing, electrification, reforestation) on long-term outcomes like global temperature and sea level rise.6
- The game structure, which includes “wildcards” representing unpredictable events, challenges students to collaboratively frame problems and balance environmental, social, and economic factors in their decision-making.7
🎯 Educational Goal
The ultimate goal of this research is to move students beyond simply knowing facts to developing critical thinking skills, fostering a sustainable mindset, and empowering them to engage with complex, multidisciplinary climate issues despite the inherent uncertainties.
The search results include a video on Leveraging data analytics to study climate change impacts on critical infrastructure system. This video is relevant as it directly demonstrates an application of data analytics—the core of “data-driven educational tools”—to study climate change impacts, which is the exact subject matter of the research abstract.