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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. 

A compact high-flux, short-pulse neutron source would have applications from nuclear astrophysics to cancer therapy. Laser-driven neutron sources can achieve fluxes much higher than spallation and reactor neutron sources by reducing the volume and time in which the neutron-producing reactions occur by orders of magnitude. We report progress towards an efficient laser-driven neutron source in experiments with a cryogenic deuterium jet on the Texas Petawatt laser. Neutrons were produced both by laser-accelerated multi-MeV deuterons colliding with Be and mixed metallic catchers and by d ( d , n ) 3 He fusion reactions within the jet. We observed deuteron yields of 10 13 /shot in quasi-Maxwellian distributions carrying ∼ 8 − 10 % of the input laser energy. We obtained neutron yields greater than 10 10 /shot and found indications of a deuteron-deuteron fusion neutron source with high peak flux ( > 1 0 22 cm −2  s −1 ). The estimated fusion neutron yield in our experiment is one order of magnitude higher than any previous laser-induced dd fusion reaction. Though many technical challenges will have to be overcome to convert this proof-of-principle experiment into a consistent ultra-high flux neutron source, the neutron fluxes achieved here suggest laser-driven neutron sources can support laboratory study of the rapid neutron-capture process, which is otherwise thought to occur only in astrophysical sites such as core-collapse supernova, and binary neutron star mergers.