Students design Chesapeake Bay board game; funding will produce copies for Fairfax County schools

Students and school staff presented a student-designed board game aimed at teaching Chesapeake Bay watershed science and said they received funding to reproduce copies for loan to schools across Fairfax County.

The presentation opened with a staff member framing the work as part of efforts to prepare students for the 21st century, citing the Portrait of a Graduate initiative and the Get to Green team. "When I think about our role and responsibility to our students and preparing them for this 21st century world and for careers that we have yet to even imagine," the staff member said, "I think of all the work around Portrait of a Graduate and fostering those attributes, and really the work of our Get to Green team really highlights this important work here at the town."

A staff member described student activities through the Caring for the Watershed Club, including trash cleanups and classroom-based water-quality testing led by Miss Carnahan. "Miss Carnahan cares for [the trout] daily, trains our students to test for water quality for the past 3 years and puts in a lot of her own time to make sure that the management of that is done properly," the presenter said. The presenter noted students observed plastic on a nearby field that can travel through drains into the watershed and harm brook trout.

Students summarized the classroom project that resulted in the game. "We decided to create a board game so we could interact with all ages to show our awareness of the Chesapeake Bay watershed," one student said. Students said they modeled gameplay on familiar mechanics: action cards that can create positive or negative effects for pieces representing organisms in the watershed.

The students described the game's learning goals as helping players understand both human impacts and the challenges faced by brook trout. "What you can learn in this board game is how to protect our Chesapeake watershed and, like, the struggles and difficulties brook trout go through during this journey," a student said.

Presenters said their research showed few existing games that teach watershed science, which motivated the project's focus on Chesapeake Bay education. The staff member said the group applied for and "did win some money to fund this, and they will be reproducing these games," with the hope that copies will be loaned to schools throughout Fairfax County so "all of our students can be educated by our amazing Caring for the Watershed Club."

The presentation concluded with the presenters describing distribution plans and educational goals; presenters did not specify the grant amount or an implementation timeline. The presentation emphasized hands-on student learning, local water-quality testing done over the past three years, and an intent to broaden access by lending game copies to other schools in Fairfax County.