The GAIA case study examines how game-based learning experiences including monitoring and analysis of data from the school building can be used to promote efficient use of energy in schools.

In this case study, participants will get to know about, and be inspired by, GAIA, a current innovative initiative involving several school communities. GAIA uses playful learning to raise awareness of the need to save energy and of ways in which this can be achieved in everyday life, primarily among the users of school buildings (students, educators, other staff), and through them, indirectly, their wider communities (families, local  communities). Based on this, the eventual aim is to encourage the development of behaviours in users’ everyday life which can contribute to increased energy efficiency in the school building.

GAIA designs and implements educational activities which go far beyond merely informing the target audiences about energy efficiency. Indeed, the educational activities utilize games and playful learning methodologies to turn students, their teachers, and those acting as the building managers of the schools into active agents collaborating with each other to monitor and shape energy use in the school. Users of the school building experiment with, and eventually adopt, behaviours which they have themselves experienced as proven effective ways to achieve the goal of saving energy without compromising school life quality – and that, following their decision and will rather than being instructed to do so by an external authority.

Students and school staff are playfully motivated and facilitated by appropriate technological tools to:

• Closely monitor and understand various aspects of their own and others’ habits and behaviours that affect the use of energy in their school building
• Based on this, make informed decisions to take action in order to increase energy efficiency, by changing their habits and behaviours, and
• Observe and analyse the impact of their action in terms of saving energy as well as in terms of comfort, functionality, and avoidance of disruption of school life.

The focus lies heavily on students’ own deep personal engagement with the goal and process of the efforts for energy efficiency, with rich guidance and help from the teacher, so as to maximize the chances for true long-lasting impact.

The above core educational activities within the school community are complemented by outward-looking initiatives aiming to spread the word for energy efficiency in the local community, involving students’ families and local communities in awareness raising activities and encouraging the emergence of local initiatives informed and inspired by the mobilisation of the school community for energy efficiency and its relevant experiences and achievements.

The content of the case study aims to inspire participants to become creative practitioners in their professional settings, designing a concrete educational scenario involving the use of the games, tools and activities proposed by GAIA.

The GAIA case study is based on the activities and outcomes of the GAIA project.