ERIC Number: EJ1215881
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-2479
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
BLACKOUT: Teaching Students about the Power Grid through Experiential Workshops and Video Gaming
Nease, Jake; Adams, Thomas A., II
Chemical Engineering Education, v53 n3 p167-177 Sum 2019
BLACKOUT! is a turn-based video game that introduces undergraduate and high school students to the types of power generation available in most electricity markets. The workshop portion of BLACKOUT! introduces students to the advantages and disadvantages of power generation by coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar. The students then take the role of electricity providers in an open market. Players build power plants with capital and operating costs, estimate renewable production per turn (each turn is one hour of "real" time), and bid to sell their capacity to fulfill the grid demand, which changes every turn. The player that sells the most power by the end of the game is the winner. Survey data collected from high school students show significant improvements in perceived knowledge about the power grid after playing. BLACKOUT! is publicly available for classroom use and is accessible via http://psecommunity.org/LAPSE:2018.0136.
Descriptors: Experiential Learning, Video Games, Workshops, Power Technology, Utilities, Game Based Learning, Instructional Effectiveness, High School Students, Chemical Engineering, Foreign Countries
Chemical Engineering Education, Chemical Engineering Division of ASEE. P.O. Box 142097, Gainesville, FL 32614. Tel: 352-392-0861; Fax: 352-392-0861; e-mail: cee@che.ufl.edu; Web site: http://journals.fcla.edu/cee/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A