Increasing and Decreasing Human Impacts on Earth Systems Science Games

In this series of games, your students will learn about the environmental strains of a growing human population, and how scientists, lawmakers, and individuals can help reduce these negative impacts. The Increasing and Decreasing Human Impacts on Earth Systems learning objective — based on NGSS and state standards — delivers improved student engagement and academic performance in your classroom, as demonstrated by research.

Scroll down for a preview of this learning objective’s games and the concepts they drive home.

Concepts Covered

Human population is growing, and fast. Between the year 1 and 1800, it increased from about 200 million to 1 billion. Since 1800, the human population has skyrocketed to about 7 billion.

As a result of this massive growth, we use up more resources than ever. Resource use by each person, or “per capita,” has also grown. As a result, the negative effects of using resources have increased every step of the way, from extracting resources to disposing of them.

Everybody can do their part to help make resource consumption less harmful. Scientists and engineers can design new technologies, cleaner materials, and more efficient processes. Lawmakers can restrict harmful uses of resources, or offer rewards, called “incentives,” for cleaner consumption. And everyday individuals can reduce, reuse, and recycle to ease the strain on our environment.

A preview of each game in the learning objective is found below.

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