SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn

Hundreds Years Forestry Management

Shuya Kawaguchi

, Tsugunosuke Sakai

, Haruya Tamaki

, Hiroshi Mizoguchi

, Ryohei Egusa

2,3

Yoshiaki Takeda

, Etsuji Yamaguchi

, Shigenori Inagaki

, Fusako Kusunoki

Hideo Funaoi

and Sugimoto Masanori

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda-shi, Chida-ken, Japan

Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Hyogo, Japan

Department of Information Design, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan

Faculty of Education, Soka University, Tokyo, Japan

Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan

Keywords: Vegetation Succession, Simulation, Environmental Problems, Competition, Science Education, Children,

Experience.

Abstract: Global environmental problems continue to worsen. In this situation, it is important to understand and

experience changes in the natural environment in realistic ways. However, it was difficult to experience

these changes in real time because they happen over large time scales. To overcome this problem, the

authors developed a game-like learning tool that enables players to learn about vegetation succession. This

game is Windows-based and enables players to simulate the conservation of SATOYAMA, rural natural

areas. The player selects the actions within a designated time and the vegetation succession of the

SATOYAMA changes according to that action. At the end of this game, the score is based on the

SATOYAMA conserved by the player. Thirty-seven students participated in this experiment whose result

suggested that this game would enable children to develop an interest in vegetation succession and motivate

them to learn about it.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the environmental problem has been

worsening globally. In this situation, it is important

to understand and experience changes in the natural

environment in a realistic way. However, one of the

difficulties in this endeavor is the fact that

theoretical learning about the subject (as taught by

teachers and textbooks) does not provide a real

experience of the actual world. As a result, rural

natural areas known as SATOYAMA are gaining

attention as places where one can acquire practical

knowledge of the environmental problem. The key

concepts in understanding SATOYAMA involve

complex mechanisms that are concerned with the

actual situation of vegetation succession. However,

practical knowledge of these concepts cannot be had

simply by reading textbooks or watching films.

Moreover, since real vegetation succession happens

over large time scales such as tens or hundreds of

years, it cannot be completely experienced in

SATOYAMA-based fieldwork. For that reason, it is

difficult to understand vegetation succession in a

realistic way. To overcome these problems, it is

necessary to develop game-like learning tools that

enable students to learn about vegetation succession

without being limited by the large time scale

involved in it. There have been many studies related

to using games for learning (Facer, et al., 2004,

Squire and Klopfer, 2007). These earlier studies

have revealed that the simulation provided by games

can help students gain the ability to understand the

microscopic and macroscopic worlds. However, ours

is the only pedagogical initiative that focuses on

learning about environmental problems through

vegetation succession in SATOYAMA.

The authors have developed “Human

SUGOROKU” that has the conservation of

SATOYAMA as an exercise for learners to work

with a familiar environmental problem. In this game,

Kawaguchi, S., Sakai, T., Tamaki, H., Mizoguchi, H., Egusa, R., Takeda, Y., Yamaguchi, E., Inagaki, S., Kusunoki, F., Funaoi, H. and Masanori, S.

SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn Hundreds Years Forestry Management.

DOI: 10.5220/0006355304810486

In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 1, pages 481-486

ISBN: 978-989-758-239-4

481

the change of the dominance of the indicator plant,

due to the environmental disturbance factor (felling,

landslide, precipitation and so on), is expressed in

the SUGOROKU format. In addition, we have

conducted advanced research on a learning material

that visualizes vegetation succession of the

SATOYAMA using animation (Deguchi, et al.,

2010, Deguchi, et al., 2012). As a result, it was

found that the game enhances the will to learn,

deepens the understanding of complex vegetation

succession, improves the ability to solve problems in

matters related to vegetation succession, and so on

(Adachi, et al., 2013, Nakayama, et al., 2014,

Yoshida, et al., 2015). However, the scene in which

the game was set was restricted to a particular area.

In this game, large-scaled ultrasonic sensors were

used and learners worked on the squares arranged in

the virtual world disguised as indicator plants; but

this merely realized restricted immersion. Therefore,

the following four observations were made:

 Competitive relationship between plants and

environmental disturbance factors in various

areas could not be expressed.

 The propagation of this game was difficult

because of large scale devices used in it and its

lack of portability.

 Restricted embodiment could not provide the

learners with the experience of complete

immersion in the virtual world.

 The contents of the game could not be adapted to

the intelligence of the learners.

Therefore, in order to deepen understanding and

improve the problem-solving abilities of the learners

in the area of vegetation succession, the authors

decided upon the following objectives for the current

study:



Developing a wide range of contents including

main vegetation succession in each area of Japan.



Making a portable game by using mobile

devices.



Making the contents of the game adaptable to the

intelligence of learners.

As the first step in this endeavor, this paper

presents the details of the current implementation of

the game and the experiments conducted with it.

2 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE

CURRENT GAME

2.1 Purpose of the Game

We name the game introduced in this paper,

SATOYAMA Management Game. SATOYAMA is

the nature of human beings. The SATOYAMA

Management Game can simulate the management of

the environment for the players. Events to be

managed include the following:

 Afforestation

 Deforestation

 Pesticide Application

 Removing Deer

The player chooses either one or none of the

above-mentioned actions within a fixed time. The

SATOYAMA`s vegetation changes according to the

selected behavior. Players manage the SATOYAMA

starting from the ideal environment through 20 turns

each. Then, at the end of the game, the final state of

the SATOYAMA compared to the ideal state is the

score by doing so, the players can experience the

Figure 1: Game screen.

CSEDU 2017 - 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

482

Figure 2: Game flow.

Figure 3:

The appearance of pine longicorn and deer.

vegetation succession in a realistic way.

The following six kinds of plants grow in the

SATOYAMA Management Game:



Small plants: Rubus microphyllus

Mallotus japonicas



Medium sized plants: Pinus densiflora, Quercus

serrata



Tall plants: Ilex pedunclosa, Castanopsis spp.

These plants have different growth rates and

sizes. R. microphyllus and M. japonicas are rapidly

growing small plants, P densiflora, and Q. serrata

grow at moderate rates, I. pedunclosa and

Castanopsis spp. are tall and slow growing plants.

Moreover, there is competition between plants.

This occurs when two or more plants grow in the

same place. For example, if a tall plant and a small

plant grow in the same densely forested area, the tall

plant gets the sunlight it needs to grow but the small

plant does not. Therefore, the number of small plants

will decrease. In the SATOYAMA Management

game, the beginning starts in an ideal environment.

The ideal environment is one in which many

medium sized plants grow. An ideal SATOYAMA

is shown in Figure 1. If the players do not manage

the SATOYAMA, the competition between the

plants will result in the vegetation consisting only of

tall plants. To prevent this, the player can choose

between “Afforestation” and “Deforestation.” Figure

2 shows the changes in vegetation caused by the

player selecting one of these events. However, when

planting trees or causing deforestation, deer and pine

longicorn appear. Figure 3 shows the appearance of

pine longicorn and deer. To remove these, the two

actions of “Pesticide Application” and “Removing

Deer” can be used.

Players can visually understand the state of

vegetation succession through the SATOYAMA

Management Game. Therefore, students playing

games can easily understand the mutual action that

occurs between plants, the effect of different events

on the SATOYAMA, and the management of the

SATOYAMA. The vegetation succession is

represented by the relative relationship of each plant.

2.2 Configuration of the System

The system consists of a screen, a short focus

projector, a personal computer (PC), and a mouse.

When the player uses the mouse and selects an event

on the screen, a corresponding change occurs in the

SATOYAMA. These operations and controls were

implemented using a C# program that we developed

using Visual Studio 2013. With this program, it is

possible to increase or decrease the numbers of each

plant arbitrarily.

Table 1 shows the relationship between each

event and the increase and decrease of the number of

plants. SATOYAMA starting from the ideal state

changes every time. If the player selects

“Afforestation,” medium sized plants will increase.

Selecting “Deforestation” reduces the number of

tall plants. When the number of P. densiflora reaches

six or more, the pine longicorn appears. When the

number of R. microphyllus reaches three or more,

deer appear. Their appearance is not random. The

influence on the vegetation by the two organisms

depends on the characteristics of the plants. Pine

longicorn appears in P. densiflora, so P. densiflora is

markedly reduced. On the other hand, the small

plants increase owing to the competition between the

SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn Hundreds Years Forestry Management

483

Table 1:

The relationship between each event and the change in the number of plants.

Plants

Events

R. microphyllu

M. japonicus

P. densiflora

Q. serrata

I. pedunclosa

Castanopsis spp.

Afforestation

Increase Increase

Deforestation

Increase Increase Increase Increase Decrease Decrease

Pine longicorn

Increase Increase Decrease

Pesticide Application

Stopping the decrease in plants caused by Pine longicorn

Deer

Decrease Decrease Decrease Decrease

Removing Deer

Stopping the decrease in plants caused by Deer

and grow in every turn. If the total number of or are more than 0, the other plants decrease.

plants. If “Pesticide Application” is chosen, it can

prevent the decrease of P. densiflora. While the deer

eats all kinds of plants, it prefers small plants and

seedlings. Therefore, when the deer appear, there is

a great decrease in the small plants. On the other

hand, if the player chooses the option of “Removing

Deer,” the number of the small increases more than

the other plants. In the meanwhile, the tall plants

continue to whether or not events occur.

Furthermore, when the tall plants grow, the number

of small and medium plants decreases owing to the

competition.

3 EXPERIMENT

3.1 Method

Participants: Thirty-eight 6

grade students from

elementary schools affiliated to a national university

corporation.

Procedures and challenges: A game simulating

the management of undeveloped woodlands near

populated areas was played thrice by each

participant. The game was played by one participant

at a time. Each participant was asked to consider a

strategy before the commencement of each game.

After playing three rounds, the participants were

asked to evaluate their gaming experience by rating

their response to the two types multiple-choice of

statements. The first one listed the following four

options: 1) “I enjoyed playing the woodlands

management game,” 2) “The game got me engaged

in woodlands management,”; 3.) “I was emotionally

affected by the score (happy, disappointed etc.),”

and 4) “I was happy when I was able to accurately

predict changes caused by such actions as tree

planting, lumbering, pesticide spraying, and deer

culling.”

Figure 4: Environment of the Experiment.

The other type comprised the following two

CSEDU 2017 - 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

484

statements pertaining to the user interface: 1)

“Viewing the screen of the woodlands management

game made it easy to see the condition of the

woodlands,” and 2) “The woodland management

game was easy to play.” The responses to each of

the six statements were rated on a 7-point Likert

scale that ranged from “Strongly Agree” to

“Strongly Disagree.”

The survey was conducted from December 19 to

22, 2016. Figure 4 shows the environment of the

experiment.

3.2 Result

We sorted the responses into positive (Strongly

Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree), and

neutral/negative (Neither Agree nor Disagree,

Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree).

We then analyzed the number of positive and

neutral/negative responses by using Fisher’s exact

test, with a 1 x 2 contingency table.

Table 2 summarizes the questionnaire results.

When evaluating the results of user engagement with

the woodlands management game experience,

positive responses to all four statements

outnumbered neutral/negative responses. A

significant bias was observed among the number of

responses.

We then evaluated results for the woodlands

management game interface. Positive responses to

both questions again outnumbered neutral/negative

responses, and a significant bias was again observed

among the numbers of responses.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This paper concerns development and evaluation of

a game for managing undeveloped woodlands near

populated areas; the game also provides practical

training by simulating woodland management

experience. Positive responses outnumbered

neutral/negative responses for all four items

regarding user engagement of the game, and for both

the items concerning the user interface. The

difference between the numbers of responses was

significant.

These results show that the participants played

the woodland management game with enthusiasm.

The results also show the participants put

considerable thought into game strategies pertaining

to simulated changes in the woodlands.

Possible additions to the study may be the

conducting of a video analysis of the participants

playing the game, and qualitatively evaluating the

effectiveness of the game as a tool for studying plant

succession and learning woodland management

support. Other possibilities would be to conduct a

comprehensive analysis of data obtained by

evaluation tests, and to discuss ways in which the

game may be improved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant

Numbers JP26282061, JP26560129, JP15H02936,

JP16H03059, and JP16H01814. The experiment was

supported by Kobe Elementary School.

REFERENCES

Facer, K., Joiner, R., Stanton, D., Reid, J., Hull, R. &

Kirk, D. (2004) ‘Savannah: mobile gaming and

learning?’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol.

Table 2: Subjective assessment of woodlands game experience.

Statements 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I enjoyed playing the woodlands management game. ** 22 15 1 0 0 0 0

The game got me engaged in woodlands management. ** 17 15 6 0 0 0 0

I was emotionally affected by score (happy, disappointed etc.) ** 16 16 4 2 0 0 0

I was happy when I was able to predict accurately the changes caused by such

actions as tree planting, lumbering, pesticide spraying, and deer culling. **

9 22 5 2 0 0 0

Viewing the screen of the woodlands management game made it easy for me to

see the condition of the woodlands. **

19 9 8 2 0 0 0

The woodland management game was easy to play. ** 22 8 5 3 0 0 0

N = 38, 7: Strongly Agree, 6: Agree, 5: Somewhat Agree, 4: Neither Agree nor Disagree, 3: Somewhat Disagree,

2: Disagree, 1: Strongly Disagree, **; p < 0.01

SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn Hundreds Years Forestry Management

485

20, no. 6, November, pp. 399-409.

Squire, K. & Klopfer, E. (2007) ‘Augmented Reality

Simulations on Handheld Computers’, The Journal of

the Learning Sciences, vol. 16, no. 3, April, pp. 371-

413.

Deguchi, A., Inagaki, S., Kusunoki, F., Yamaguchi, E.,

Takeda, Y. & Sugimoto, M. (2010) ‘Vegetation

Interaction Game: Digital SUGOROKU of Vegetation

Succession for Children’, In Proceedings of the 9th

International Conference on Entertainment

Computing(ICEC2010), September, pp. 493-495.

Deguchi, A., Takeda, Y., Kusunoki, F., Tanaka, M.,

Inagaki, S., Yamaguchi, E. & Sugimoto M. (2012)

‘Development and evaluation of a digital

environmental learning game for children’, In E-Book

Proceedings of the ESERA 2011 Conference: Science

learning and Citizenship, pp. 26-32.

Adachi, T., Goseki, M., Muratsu, K., Mizoguchi, H.,

Namatame, M., Sugimoto, M., Kusunoki, F.,

Yamaguchi, E., Inagaki, S. & Takeda, Y. (2013)

‘Human SUGOROKU: full-body interaction system

for children to learn vegetation succession’, In

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on

Interaction Design and Children(IDC2013), June, pp.

364-367.

Nakayama, T., Adachi, T., Muratsu, K., Mizoguchi, H.,

Namatame, M., Sugimoto, M., Kusunoki, F.,

Yamaguchi, E., Inagaki, S. & Takeda, Y. (2014)

‘Human SUGOROKU: learning support system of

vegetation succession with full-body interaction

interface’, In Proceedings of CHI EA’14- CHI’14

Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing

Systems(CHI2014), April, pp. 2227-2232.

Yoshida, R., Adachi, T., Muratsu, K., Mizoguchi, H.,

Kusunoki, F., Namatame, M., Sugimoto, M.,

Yamaguchi, E., Inagaki, S. & Takeda, Y. (2015) ‘Life-

size board game “HUMAN SUGOROKU” to teach

children about vegetation succession’, In Proceedings

of the 7th International Conference on Computer

Supported Education(CSEDU2015), vol. 2, April, pp.

295-300.

CSEDU 2017 - 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

486