The BCcampus Research Fellows program provides support for B.C. post-secondary educators to conduct research on improving student learning and to share their results and experiences with peers in B.C. and beyond.
Project Leads/Fellows: Fernanda Tomaselli and Abhirami Senthilkumaran
Institution: University of British Columbia
Project Title: Towards a Robust Mental Model of Climate Action: Evaluating Learning Outcomes from Playing a Cooperative Board Game in an Undergraduate Course on Climate Change
Research Focus: The project will evaluate the effects of incorporating a co-operative board game in a large undergraduate climate change course. Through multiple pre- and post-activity measures, we will assess learning outcomes related to systems thinking and decision-making. We hope our findings will contribute to more effective learning about climate change in higher education.
Biographies: Fernanda Tomaselli is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry and coordinator of UBC’s Land One program. She teaches courses related to conservation, climate change, and sustainability.
Abhirami Senthilkumaran earned an MSc in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MA in education (learning sciences and human development) from the University of California, Berkeley. Her most recent research project was on increasing trust in scientists and climate change acceptance among the American public.