School pupils in the north-east are examining the impact of climate change and ways to fight it through an unusual medium: game design.
The project, which is led by the Aberdeen University Business School, encourages students to create, develop and market a game that focuses attention on the issue.
One lucky group will ultimately have their design promoted and possible used as a tool to educate other people about how humans are impacting the environment.
Primary seven pupils at Dunnottar School became the first to take part in the competition last week, first learning about how organisations like the university are pushing down their own emissions before using their knowledge and understanding of climate change to design their game.
After carrying out market research and developing their ideas, the final challenge was a Dragons’ Den-style presentation in front of a panel of judges.
The groups of students came up with widely differing interpretations of the brief, with some producing computer games, some altering games already in existence and some coming up with original ideas.
Sarah Reid, who teaches at the Stonehaven school, said: “Climate change is something as a class that we are passionate about.
“It was fantastic to be able to make the topic fun and educational and the class had a great time learning about the university and marketing, talking about games and coming up with their own ideas. ”
Pam Cumming, schools engagement officer at the business school, said: “With COP26 taking place in Scotland everyone is talking climate change. How can we save our planet?
“It was a privilege delivering this workshop to such enthusiastic young people. They engaged fully with the project and developed their employability skillset to create and present their ideas of a game that would educate others.”