We have developed a fun board game called Designing Homes for Nature. It was developed in collaboration with an Education Specialist & Primary School Teacher, Ecologist & Environmental Economist and Illustrator. It was designed as a teaching and consolidation resource in support of the Key Stage 2 (Year 4) curriculum requirement:
“(Living things and their habitats) to consider positive and negative human impacts on the environment, and the positive effects of nature reserves.“
Key Stage 2 Curriculum
Designing Homes for Nature can be played by two to four players, who are aged eight years old or over. It has been designed to be printed off on both A4 and A3 size paper. To play, you just need some scissors to cut the boards and cards out and a pencil to keep a note of your scores.
The game includes one set of instructions and each player or team will have three Nature Homes (Habitat Boards) set out in front of them. During the game, players select from a series of twenty-one different Species Cards and eight different Activity ‘Wild’ Cards.
Players get to decide what type of Nature Home their Species will live in based on a points system. There are two kinds of points: Human and Nature points. Human points reflect whether humans like seeing or interacting a Species, whilst Nature points depend on whether the animals like living close to humans or not. The Activity Wild Cards change the points scoring system depending on how people interact with nature during the activity.
‘Nature facts’ are incorporated on each Species card to help players make decisions about which Habitat Board they want to place them on. A reference system for species taxa reinforces curriculum learning and the Activity Wild Cards introduce an element of jeopardy.
The winner of the game is the player or team which designs the Nature Homes with highest number of points…. BUT is this Human or Nature points? The players get to debate and decide who wins – humans or nature or is it a compromise for both!
The game has been designed to introduce the following concepts to players:
The overarching concept of the game is for players to think about who or what are we designing our new Nature Homes for? Are we designing them for humans to benefit most? Or are we designing them in a way that works best for nature.
If you would like to access a FREE copy of the game to print out and play at home or in the classroom, please email Diana Tingley at d.m.tingley@exeter.ac.uk and include put ‘Designing Homes for Nature’ in the subject heading.
In return for being given a FREE copy, we would love to have your FEEDBACK on the game’s design. We will send a copy of our feedback form when we send out the game. Thanks in advance for your assistance with this!
The artwork for our game was designed by Jonny Glover, an award winning graphic artist based in London. You can see more of his work here https://www.jonnyglover.com/ and email him via studio@jonnyglover.com
The art work in our game Designing Homes for Nature was produced for us by @Jonny Glover. We are using it under a license issued by Jonny to the University of Exeter for a fixed period of time only. Reproduction of any artwork in the game, for any reason other than playing this game itself, is not permissible.