<< Background >>The responsible management of natural resources, including land, water, air, minerals, forests, and biodiversity has a direct impact on the preservation of the natural environment and the quality of life of present and future generations. It creates a balance between social, economic, and environmental factors. It leads to the well-being of people and communities, the preservation of jobs, and the protection of biodiversity. Sustainable natural resource management is of high priority in the 21st century as it can contribute to the avoidance of land degradation, the avoidance of desertification, the mitigation of climate change, and more. It is included in UN sustainability goals, such as sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, climate action, life in land, and life under water.Achieving sustainable natural resource management starts with awareness-raising and education. Society is faced with climate change, the rise of temperatures, and the destruction of habitats with direct consequences on biodiversity presentation as well as the long-term health of natural ecosystems. In this environment it is imperative to develop educational initiatives that prepare the young generation to become responsible, active adults in relation environmental sustainability in all aspects of life in the industry and communities.Raising a young generation that adopts responsible natural resources management behavior requires the development of scientific and technical knowledge on the function of ecosystems and the life supporting effects of those. It further requires critical and analytical thinking, innovative mindsets for designing environmentally sound solutions, and ability to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams. While digital tools do exist for contributing to natural resources management more can be done for enriching environmental education through digital technologies. NATURE will develop an experiential learning intervention for building the capacity of higher education students to adopt responsible behavior on natural resources management and to design solutions for environmental sustainability in everyday and professional activities. The proposed learning intervention will:-Build awareness on the importance of sustainable natural resources management for the well-being of communities and plant and animal species.-Develop theoretical knowledge and practical skills that empower students to become active citizens designing environmentally sustainable solutions.-Develop soft skills that foster innovative mindsets that help students become the problem-solvers of tomorrow towards sustainable practices in the industry and society.Digital learning games will enable students to experiment with scenarios inspired by real-life. Through digital applications students will be encouraged to undertake the role of stewards of natural ecosystems in a manner that would not be possible in an off-line physical laboratory. They will be challenged to design solutions that maintain the balance of environment preservation, economic activity, and quality of life. The learning games will introduce clear learning objectives, interesting roles, and rich actions that students may undertake to design environmentally sustainable solutions. They will provide real-time, immediate feedback on the consequences of their choices, thus developing awareness and knowledge on the effects of human activity to natural ecosystems. They will be designed for deployment in broader learning offerings that combine theoretical knowledge and hands-on practice.The impact of the proposed environmental learning intervention will be an updated scope and increased relevance of environmental education, modernization and enrichment of environmental education through emerging learning design and digital technologies, development of green skills, and enhanced dialog towards societal change on responsible natural resources management.<< Objectives >>NATURE introduces an experiential learning intervention that builds awareness , knowledge, and skills on responsible natural resources management through digital experimentation that engages higher education students in scenarios that they would not be able to be exposed to through off-line activities.The project aims to achieve the following objectives:-Educating students: building theoretical knowledge and soft skills applicable on responsible natural resources management.-Training instructors: supporting the seamless integration of the proposed experiential learning design and digital learning games in existing instructional practices through reference material in diverse media.-Modernizing higher education through digital technologies: developing an open digital games developed specifically for learning purposes that promotes interactive exploration, fosters motivation in learning, promotes long-term student engagement, and helps students understand the link between actions and effects on the environment.The outcomes of the project will be:-An active, game-based learning methodology for environmental education through exploration, collaboration, and experimentation.-A digital serious game that challenges students to engage in scenarios related to responsible natural resource management inspired by real-life.-Educator support content in the form of learning activities, videos, and a reference guide that facilitates the integration of project outcomes into teaching practices..Project outcomes will be validated and disseminated widely to promote adoption:-The NATURE learning intervention will be validated in practice through piloting activities with higher education students in in Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Evaluation activities in diverse academic, cultural, and economic environments will ensure the European relevance of results.-Multiplier events will be organized in Latvia, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy for community-building and promoting the adoption of project outcomes.-Project activities and outcomes will be disseminated widely through digital channels, press releases, scientific articles, informational material, a periodic newsletter, and more.The desired impact of the project is:-Enriched awareness, knowledge, and skills of students on natural resources management.-Increased relevance of environmental higher education.-Enriched learning opportunities on environmental aspects, with long-term effects.-Updated scope of environmental higher education.-Development of green skills.-Contribution to societal change in relation to responsible natural resources management.-Strengthened communities that have the capacity to act towards environmental sustainability.-High quality educational practices on responsible natural resources management.-Deployment of digital technologies in environmental education.-Modernization of higher education through emerging learning design.-Promotion of cross-themed education, as environmental learning requires the integration of knowledge from diverse fields.-Linking higher education outcomes to the needs of society and industry. -Enhanced interaction among higher education institutions on environmental education at the regional, national, and European level.-Enhanced interaction among higher education institutions and authorities at the regional and national level.-Improved practices, strategies, and policies on environmental education and responsible natural resources management. -Development of soft skills desired by industry and society, including critical, analytical, and entrepreneurial thinking.-Good practice development and exchange between countries on responsible natural resources management.<< Implementation >>A.Methodological learning design:Focus will be on the design of an innovative experiential learning framework that is based on serious games and challenges students to develop awareness, knowledge, and skills on responsible natural resource management through activities that are inspired by real world environmental sustainability practices. They will include:-Analysis of the stakeholder groups that stand to gain from the project.-Analysis of current practices and initiatives related to responsible natural resources management.-Analysis of related digital tools deployed in environmental education.-Analysis of learning needs of students on building knowledge on responsible natural resources management.-Analysis of the instructional skills needed by educators for designing and delivering engaging environmental education activities that deploy emerging learning design and digital technologies.-Design of an experiential methodological learning framework that promotes learning by doing through experimentation in the context of digital learning games. B.Implementing a digital learning game and learning scenarios for responsible natural resources management:-Design of the basic game functionality common in all learning scenarios, such as tools for designing the scenario surrounding environment, setting scenario goals, defining student roles, and facilitating collaboration. -Software development of the NATURE digital learning game.-Design of learning scenarios on natural resources management that will be integrated into the digital learning game.-Evaluation of the digital learning game with external groups of students in Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Spain, and Italy and integration of input into project outcomes.C.Activities on instructor support content development that promotes the seamless integration of project results into existing educational practices:The activities will produce reference material that instructors will use for directly deploying in their classrooms the project experiential learning design and NATURE digital learning game. They will further support instructors on designing and integrating into the NATURE digital learning game their own scenarios that address specific learning objectives related to the interests and needs of their students. They will include:- Development of a reference guide for the NATURE digital learning game on responsible natural resources management.- Development of learning sheets that describe end-to-end educational activities based on the NATURE digital learning game that instructors will be able to use in their classrooms.- Development of videos that demonstrate the functionality of the NATURE digital learning game. D. Dissemination and adoption:Multiplier events will be organized in Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Portugal, Spain, and Italy during which audiences will be exposed to the proposed experiential, game-based learning design and will use the digital learning game hands-on. The events will demonstrate the benefits of the proposed learning intervention and will promote the uptake of project outcomes beyond the consortium.Dissemination activities will use a wide range of channels for effectively reaching higher education stakeholders, including students, educators, authorities, policy makers, educational organizations, industry, and the general public. They will include:- A project web portal.-Informational leaflet.-Newsletter.-Internet and social media presence.-Press releases.-Scientific articles.-Presentations.-And more.<< Results >>The following outcomes are expected:Result 1: An experiential, methodological learning framework for building awareness, knowledge and skills on responsible natural resources management. The framework will be based on an analysis of stakeholder groups that stand to gain directly or indirectly from project activities on environmental education. Direct stakeholders The learning framework will be designed based on the results of a learning needs analysis of students and educators in relation to building knowledge on natural resource management. It will further take into account existing practices and policies in environmental education as well as related activities, initiatives and projects, ensuring that the learning framework can be effectively integrated into existing educational practices.The analysis will inform the design of an experiential methodological learning framework that promotes learning by doing through experimentation in the context of digital learning games. The methodology will follow an open science approach that will complement formal educational practices. Through the proposed learning design, students will have the opportunity to build knowledge and skills by exploring environmental education scenarios inspired by real world challenges. Game-based approaches will foster students’ internal motivation for engaging in learning through gaming elements such as clear goals, rewards, recognition, social interaction, and more. Result 2: A digital learning game and educational activities on responsible natural resources management.The game will challenge students to engage in learning scenarios inspired by real-world challenges on natural resources management. It will follow an open science education approach through open ended activities that will foster student creativity and critical thinking. In addition to scenarios that will be prepared by the consortium, the game will offer rich functionality through which users will be able to design scenarios of their own. Educators will be able to define the objectives of a learning activity as well as student roles; they will be able to structure the scenario surroundings for addressing specific educational goals related to a particular scenario using buildings, public services, business, recreation areas, natural resources bodies such as water bodies, forests, and mineral sources, and more; they will further be able to overlook student work. Students will be provided similarly rich opportunities for introducing environmentally sustainable solutions to the given challenges through terrain formatting, city building, design of technical infrastructures, and more. Result 3: Instructor support content that will build the capacity of educators to adopt the proposed experiential learning design for environmental education.The content will act as reference material that will support educators in the use of the NATURE learning game and will inspire them for creating their own learning activities. It will use a variety of channels including:-A learning game reference manual.-Learning sheets describing end-to-end learning activities.-Videos that demonstrate the game functionality.