In Bloom, you’ll create trade networks and enact policies that keep farmers in business, while stopping excess manure from entering local lakes and rivers.
In Bloom: The Saga of the Poop Fertilizer Economy, players serve as the director of SAGA:The Sustainable Agricultural Growth Administration. In this role, their goal is to foster economic growth across five different counties while reducing agricultural runoff and gross algal blooms. To win, players must develop local trade networks, employ a range of economic and environmental policies, and balance the needs and perspectives of bickering townsfolk. A key focus of the game is learning about the relationship between agricultural runoff and water quality, while exploring how markets that allow farmers to sell excess manure can lead to cleaner water and economic sustainability.
As the director of SAGA, players can use tax revenues to build roads (and other infrastructure) and enact economic and environmental policies. Their objective is to create local trade networks and utilize new technologies to develop a fertilizer market, whereby excess manure can be bought and sold, rather than inefficiently spread on fields.
Players start by overseeing a single county. As the game unfolds, additional counties are unlocked. In addition to managing the economy within each county, to be successful players must develop strategies for developing trade between counties.
Players' progress is saved and a player code, which is assigned at the start of the game, can be used to return at a later point. Note that when players return to a game they start at the beginning of the most recently unlocked county. Therefore, it is recommended that if players plan on returning to a saved game that they stop playing after a new county is unlocked, so that they don’t lose any progress they have made.
Systems and System Models - Standard SCI.CC4
Students use science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and an understanding of systems and system models to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Stability and Change - Standard SCI.CC7
Students use science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and an understanding of stability and change to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Earth and Space Science 3 (ESS3) — Earth and Human Activity - Standard SCI.ESS3:
Students use science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and an understanding of earth and human activity to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Asking Questions and Defining Problems - Standard SCI.SEP1:
Students ask questions and define problems, in conjunction with using crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas, to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Analyze and Interpret Data - Standard SCI.SEP4:
Students analyze and interpret data, in conjunction with using crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas, to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Mathematics and Computational Thinking - Standard SCI.SEP5
Students use mathematics and computational thinking, in conjunction with using crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas, to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Construct Explanations and Design Solutions - Standard SCI.SEP6:
Students construct explanations and design solutions, in conjunction with using crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas, to make sense of phenomena and solve problems.
Standard SS.Econ1:
Wisconsin students use economic reasoning to understand issues.
Standard SS.Econ2:
Wisconsin students will analyze how decisions are made and interactions occur among individuals, households, and firms or businesses (Microeconomics).
Standard SS.Econ3:
Wisconsin students will analyze how an economy functions as a whole (Macroeconomics).
Standard SS.Econ4:
Wisconsin students will evaluate government decisions and their impact on individuals, businesses, markets, and resources (Role of Government).
Standard SS.Geog5:
Wisconsin students will evaluate the relationship between humans and the environment.
Bloom was designed with our amazing partners at UW-Madison’s Scalable Systems Lab and the experts at U.S. Environmental Protections Agency, including Gerardo Ruiz-Mercado (EPA), David Cole (UW-Madison), and Lauren Knose (EPA). Special thanks to Victor Zavala and his students for sharing their time and expertise. Throughout the design and testing process, we relied on the experience and insights of Field Day teacher fellows and student play-testers from across Wisconsin.
Our team is based at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. We make learning games that bring contemporary research to the public, and we use the game data to understand how people learn.
Interested in making something together? email David Gagnon
for all other inquiries, please contact Reyna Groff
Read the stories behind our games and meet the researchers and teachers who have teamed up with us.
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