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NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE 2024 Problem situation: Climate change is a critical issue, but many students struggle to understand how daily decisions impact the environment. This gap in awareness about carbon emissions and pollutants can lead to disengagement and a lack of focus on sustainable practices.

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alysonsz/Earth-in-Your-Hands

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NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE 2024

Earth in Your Hands 🌍🙌

Earth in Your Hands is a cross-platform educational game that empowers middle school students to understand the impact of climate change through interactive simulations. Players take on the role of environmental scientists managing the policies of a country, making critical decisions that influence CO2 and CH4 emissions, and ultimately influence global climate outcomes.

Table of Contents


Introduction

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our era, and yet many students lack the tools to fully understand how their everyday decisions impact the environment. Earth in Your Hands aims to bridge this knowledge gap by offering an engaging educational experience where players simulate managing a country’s environmental policies. Using real-world data, players make decisions that affect greenhouse gas emissions and witness the consequences of their actions on global climate phenomena like global warming and sea levels.


Features

  • 🌍 Interactive Climate Simulations: Players can make decisions in real time that influence the environment and see immediate results.
  • 📊 Data-Driven Missions: Missions are grounded in real-world data from the EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research), providing realistic scenarios.
  • 🌱 Focus on Sustainability: Engages players in making informed choices that promote sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  • 🔍 Educational Insights: In-game tools provide explanations on how each decision impacts the environment, fostering a deeper understanding of climate science.
  • 🎮 Cross-Platform: The game is accessible on multiple platforms to ensure a wide reach.

Prototype

To see the design and structure of the Earth in Your Hands application, please visit our interactive prototype on Figma:

Figma Prototype - Earth in Your Hands


Idealized Gameplay

  • Role of Players: Assume the role of a scientist responsible for managing environmental policies in various countries.
  • Missions Based on Data: Players select countries based on their emissions profile, using real-world data to guide decision-making.
  • Actionable Decisions: Choices include reducing emissions, planting forests, or changing land use, with the game providing real-time feedback on how these actions affect CO2 and CH4 levels.
  • Dynamic Changes: The game world evolves as players make decisions, with visual representations of global warming, sea level rise, and other climate changes.
  • Final Evaluation: At the end of each mission, players receive a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of their actions, helping them understand the long-term effects of their decisions.

Data Sources

This game leverages trusted data sources to offer realistic climate simulations:

  • EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research): Provides accurate data on global CO2 and CH4 emissions.
  • NASA Open Data: Supplies information for simulations related to sea levels and temperature changes.

Installation

To install and run Earth in Your Hands, follow the steps below:

  1. Clone this repository:
    git clone https://github.com/alysonsz/earth-in-your-hands.git
  2. Navigate to the project folder:
    cd earth-in-your-hands
  3. Install dependencies:
    npm install
  4. Start the development environment:
    npm start

Future Features

  • Expanded Missions: Future updates will include more countries with detailed environmental challenges, allowing players to experience a broader range of real-world scenarios.
  • Deeper Insights: We plan to enhance the feedback system to provide players with more comprehensive data on the environmental impact of their choices.
  • Multiplayer Mode: A planned feature is to allow multiple players to collaborate on environmental decisions, fostering teamwork in tackling global climate issues.
  • Localized Content: We aim to introduce localized content for different regions to highlight country-specific environmental concerns.
  • Mobile Support: Development of a mobile version is in progress to make the game more accessible across different platforms.

Contributing

Contributions to Earth in Your Hands are welcome! To contribute:

  1. Fork the repository.
  2. Create a new branch for your feature:
    git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
  3. Commit your changes:
    git commit -m "Add feature or fix"
  4. Push to your branch:
    git push origin feature/your-feature-name
  5. Open a pull request for review.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Teammates who participated with me in this project: https://github.com/eng-wilson https://github.com/AntonioHamilton https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-guimarães-aa1801236/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-guilherme-mendes-lima-2274a9240/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshebernard/

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NASA SPACE APPS CHALLENGE 2024 Problem situation: Climate change is a critical issue, but many students struggle to understand how daily decisions impact the environment. This gap in awareness about carbon emissions and pollutants can lead to disengagement and a lack of focus on sustainable practices.

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