CAADRIA
(Ed.)
Abstract. Green building education prioritizes workforce development to promote high-performing and net zero building adoptions. However, the concept and principles of net zero and building energy have rarely been reflected in the curriculum and instruction of K-12 science education in the United States. This research investigates the design and development of simulation game development paired with a science curriculum to teach green building design and energy principles in rural middle schools. This paper presents our education game development aligned with the newly developed curriculum unit that will be distributed to science classrooms. Green Building Design Studio game was developed from the following research phases: (i) Game scenario design, (ii) Energy simulation module creation, (iii) ML-prediction model development, and (iv) Cost estimation module creation. In ML prediction, the XGBoost algorithm demonstrated reliable performance and accuracy. The game was tested in a 3-day science immersion summer camp with twenty-seven middle school students in Missouri. The research team observed that the game enabled students to iterate de sign changes and promptly see the updated results from the dashboard. This paper describes the game development framework, methods and tools for energy simulation, ML prediction, and game development, as well as the findings and challenges.
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