1. Youth Civic Engagement
Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) Meeting
October 7, 2016

2. Playbook: Gaming Approaches for Youth Civic Engagement
Augmented Reality
My rough notes:
-We are very excited to be here to talk about grand challenges.
-At the Bryan Johnson Foundation, we believe in getting kids excited as early as possible about the impact they can have on the world -When we first discussed with the Office of Science and Technology Policy our mission to get kids to go after audacious goals, we realized that a good starting point was identifying the current research supporting best practices for doing so and resources and gaps available to those wanting to design games for youth civic engagement -We focused on gaming, as play-based approaches are especially attractive to kids K-12 -Jason Haas, an MIT grad student here today, went through the scientific literature to suss out and synthesize guiding principles for designing games to foster social citizenry for youth - These principles include balancing the role of fantasy, creating peer engagement, and promoting enduring connections to people and places
-If you are interested in the paper, please contact me as we would love to get input on the draft before we finalize it -- ultimately we hope it will be a resource to all of you and the broader community -My colleague Cynthea is going to now discuss two projects that work off these principles

3. The Playbook applied to Grand Challenges: Game X
Augmented
Reality App on
Climate Change
An MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program Partnership
Contact: Judith Perry
Opportunity to leverage an existing platform developed by MIT that could be readily applied to a Grand Challenge, such as helping youth conceptually understand what affects climate change and apply it to the real world through gameplay and fact meets fiction narrative on mobile devices
Game X - called that as this tool of empowerment can be used as template for any challenge --- using a Location-based augmented reality (AR) game to engage with a topic or issue through playful, yet meaningful, gameplay in real-world locations on their mobile devices.
The pilot was designed for middle-school youth to explore key ideas of global climate change and apply them using role-based play - something children readily adapt as a form of engagement and entertaingment, trying on new things without fear of real-world harm (unless kids aren’t looking where they are going!)
In the narrative, children are challenged by the Town’s mayor to seek solutions to address climate change issues affecting the town and must come up with a plan which then must be submitted back to the mayor with interesting results! As kids travel to locations, come upon objects and characters (real and imagined), a bike rack suddenly becomes much more than just a bike rack for world of possibilities to help reduce emissions!
Blending fact and fiction, this type of gaming challenges players to an understand the underlying causes of problems, gather information, make decisions as they move through the narrative. Seeing the consequences of their decisions and gaining a deeper understanding of the complex topic. 

4. The Playbook applied to Grand Challenges: Fuzzy Planet
Online community of young social citizens
Fuzzy Planet: an online community of young social citizens
Fuzzy Planet is an online community for children in grades K-8 who want to make a positive impact on the world. From helping kids learn how to run a book drive to giving them tools to design solutions for clean water or energy, Fuzzy Planet endeavors to empower kids to build their own world for the betterment of humanity.  Kids choose the challenges they want to tackle and share on the site, and the possible topics span both STEM and the humanities.
Currently a pilot site, Fuzzy Planet's long-term vision is to help its explorers share their discoveries, complete challenges, and embark on journeys through project-based learning, peer collaboration, and subject matter expert mentorship.

5. bryanjohnsonfoundation@gmail.com Lisa Munoz – OSF Chief of Staff
Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) Meeting
Lisa Munoz – OSF Chief of Staff
Cynthea Liu – Executive Director