10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
[AHW18-06] Development of Rainfall-runoff modelling game using Scratch and its application for hydrology education
★Invited Papers
Keywords:Hydrology education,, Scratch, Rainfall-runoff process, Game experience
Teaching river basin water cycle in elementary and secondary education is important for increasing the number of students who might become interested in hydrology and for improving their literacy about water disasters and river basin management. Considering the school curriculum, teaching the river basin water cycle efficiently in a short time is necessary, but developing an experience-based impressive educational tool is difficult mainly because the rainfall runoff process is a complex system including the interactions of various phenomena. For this study, we developed a visually comprehensive rainfall runoff model using the educational program language Scratch, and developed enables users to experience the calibration of the land surface condition as a game. Then, a workshop using the developed game focusing on urbanization and flooding was held at the open campus event of Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo. We analyzed whether engaging in hands-on games in addition to lecture-style explanations would deepen participants’ understanding of the rainfall runoff process. Results demonstrated that participants’ qualitative understanding of the relationship between urbanization and flooding can be deepened through lectures. However, it was found that the quantitative understanding of the runoff processes, such as the changes in the amount and timing of peak runoff depending on the degree of urbanization, can be enhanced by conducting interactive experiments, thereby suggesting the effectiveness of the developed game. Findings also confirmed that younger generation can more effectively deepen their understanding through hands-on games rather than through lectures.