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This town-building game teaches complex systems. Made in partnership with the Scalable Systems Lab at UW-Madison. Played by thousands of kids a month.
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In this strategic building game, you’ve decided to build a new town called Lakeland. In order to grow your town and keep your people alive, you need food and resources.
Luckily, you’ve got some friendly advisors to help you get started. Your Farm Advisor shows you how to grow corn. Now your people have food! Then you start a dairy farm. People love dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream… what could go wrong?
As it turns out, a lot. Cows don’t just produce milk. They also produce lots and lots of poop, which means the lakes your people love are about to turn into a toxic cesspool of blue-green algae. Your mission: grow your town without destroying their lakes.
This game puts kids in charge of building their own town. Players add houses and farms, export produce, and manage resources like food, money, and manure. Students will get an introduction to the complex relationship between farming, soil nutrition, and lake pollution.
Want to learn more about Lakeland and Victor Zavala's research? Read the Story
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Field Day Lab