Environmental Toxins
In Humanities we were asked an essential question: Are environmental Hazards/Toxins killing us equitably? The answer is no. In this project we researched several cases in which lower class, rural areas, with undereducated populations were being lied to by larger corporations about health and safety in their community. One of the most famous cases is known as the Erin Brockovich case where a large corporation by the name of Pacific Gas & Electric, had been hiding the fact that they were leaking Hexavalent Chromium into the water. This specific kind of Chromium has been linked to cancer in the past. Which had lead to several reports of illnesses in this small town. However, the town had never known about the issue. In fact they had been told that the Chromium was harmless. The only reason the company got away with it for so long was because the small town of Hinkley was viewed as a lower class district, and they did not have the access to information or health care in the same way that a large city would have. In addition, because the community was so far off, the issue never directly affected anyone living in a larger city. We looked at this issue and aimed to raise awareness on the growing problem, especially here in the U.S. We were tasked with creating slideshows to showcase the information to our class while we were presenting.
Developing a Game
After each person in the class presented their slideshow, we were split up into groups and were now tasked with choosing one of our slideshows as a topic to create a board game. However our group chose a different approach. I had the idea of doing a board game based on the infamous 1986 Chernobyl accident. Featuring electronics and random events. The game went through several iterations before finally settling on the final version of the game. Focusing less on playing against each other, and instead encouraging the team work together in an attempt to repair the reactor.
Designing a Board
This board went through many different designs before it became the finely tuned, electronic, laser cut piece that it is now. It started of as a simple piece of paper in a journal that mapped out the Chernobyl reactor. Once we had the concept down we had to build a prototype in order to prove that this game would indeed work. It was made up of basic office supplies, things like index cards, post it notes, and project paper. We play tested it with a group of 11th graders. Based on their feedback we changed the gameplay mechanics, but the board stayed relatively the same. When it was finalized I was authorized to laser cut the game board to use in our final draft.
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