Empathy, Education, and Awareness: A VR Hackathon’s Approach to Tackling Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change education is crucial for fostering informed and engaged future generations. However, traditional pedagogies often fail to engage learners fully and provide real-world, experiential learning. This paper presents a novel approach to climate change education through a three-day virtual reality (VR) hackathon. The hackathon focused on four United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—Quality Education, Affordable and Clean Energy, Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Climate Action. Using VR technology and game design software, engineering students worked in teams. They competed against each other in designing immersive environments that demonstrated their understanding of these SDGs and climate change. Our goal was to encourage the development of empathy, education, and awareness around these critical global issues. The hackathon also integrated authentic assessments, mirroring real-world engineering tasks and providing a more practical and relevant learning experience. Our findings suggest that this VR hackathon has significantly enhanced students’ understanding of the SDGs and climate change issues, their competency with VR technologies, as well as their teamwork and problem-solving skills. This paper discusses the hackathon’s design, implementation, and outcomes, highlighting the potential of such innovative approaches in tackling climate change education and awareness.