Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Forever-Glades

East and Center Ballrooms

The Biscayne Bay Campus Honors classes have been involved for the past several years in an interactive learning laboratory, mapping "Campus as Text" (CAT) for the FIU campus. This mapping experience has evolved into the development of a board game to teach local students (K-12) about the place they called home, originally designed to teach the treasures of three South Florida counties, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe. The game has evolved into a design on “The Everglades” for each of the “topic” areas” that affect this “treasure of South Florida.” The main theme for this educational experience, an instructional game, allowed the Honors students- through mapping- to gain insightful information about their home. This year the students elected to develop the game specifically for “the river of grass” called “The Everglades” due to its importance and preservation of fresh water, flora and fauna and its designation as a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve. The place is Everglades National Park; the people: the American Indian tribes of South Florida and the locals and the Federal and State of Florida governments interact in historical and current conflicts affecting this river of grass, South Florida’s fresh water system. This game created for young students enables them to become more informed and educationally proficient as well-rounded citizens knowledgeable about their local community. The workshop and the poster explain the creative evolution as the Honors students clarified and analyzed the data and knowledge used to create this active learning conceptual game.