Games & Tools

Games and tools developed/adopted by REIS members for outreach and collaborative activities with students, companies and communities.

SUSTAINABILITY WORKSHOP by Sara Lupini, Giovanna Bertella

In April 2023, we arranged a workshop with a group of tourism companies from the Tromsø area: sustainability, creativity, business models and music were used to fuel discussions. Many thanks to the participants and, not least, the students who assisted Sara, including our guest Malek Elmi, visiting PhD student from Universita' di Cagliari and expert in startup competitions. This was an excellent way to test the prototype of our game :-) 

The prototype of our Game for Sustainability was tested with tourism companies Foto: xxx

KLIMAKOLLASJ WORKSHOP (CLIMATE FRESK) by Sara Lupini, Giovanna Bertella

In October 2022, Sara arranged a 3-hour Climate Fersk workshop at the School of Business and Economics. Jeanne Allard, our amazing coach, guided the participants through a journey of discovery: by activating the group’s collective intelligence, the worhsop enabled us to understand the causes and effects of climate change. Want to learn about this methodology? Visit Climate Fersk website.

 

MAPPING THE SUSTAINABLE VALUE OF PRODUCING FOOD ON SVALBARD by Giovanna Bertella, Sara Lupini

Food production challenges in Svalbard presented by PPS owner and manager. Foto: Sara Lupini

In close collaboration with Polar Permaculture Solutions, we arranged a workshop  focused on the challenges and opportunities of food production on Svalbard. The workshop was one of the outreach activities of the company as member of the EU funded Food-e project, and an extracurricular activity for bachelor students enrolled in the BED-1009 Innovation course. Central frameworks from the sustainable business models literature where applied to elaborate posters and stimulate discussions among the participants.

MR WOLF WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY by Giovanna Bertella, Sara Lupini, Cecilia Rossi Romanelli, Xavier Font

Reflecting on stakeholders' perspectives and innovation archetypes. Foto: Maite Pett

In autumn 2020, we arranged a series of workshops in collaboration with Tromsø Kommune, Visit Tromsø, Tromsø Sentrum AS, Næringsforeningen and Flow Coworking.

Applying the core principles of Design Thinking and the Theory of Change and adopting business model tools, the participants engaged in various activities with the following: eaboratw a shared vision for a more sustainable Tromsø, identify long- and short-term goals and activities, and start developing a plan for the coming months. Read more about Mr Wolf : Faculty's blog, Annals of Tourism Research.

 

GAMES FOR SUSTAINABILITY by Giovanna Bertella, Sara Lupini, Ukeje Agwu, Siri Ulfsdatter Søreng, Line Mathisen, Tahrir Jaber, Elin M. Oftedal

Based on the report SDG Quality in higher education: Developing a platform for sharing of ideas and practices within the universities and in line with the UiT strategies concerning sustainability and digitalisation, the Games for Sustainability project (2021-2023) aims at developing learning tools to promote sustainability thinking among students. The focus is on  skills and knowledge necessary to examine and evaluate business and sustainability challenges. The learning tools will be developed as a board game and a digital game. The tests of the board game with students are planned for 2021, while 2022 will be dedicated to the test of the board game with companies, and the development and test of the digital game.

The first test occured on Wednesday 27th October 2021, thank to the help of our guest Annapia Ferrara (PhD candidate from the Universita di Macerata, Italy) and the enthusiastic participation of 5 bachelor students enrolled in BED1009 Innovation. In spring-autumn 2022, we tested the game again and our assistant Marlene Holmen Johansen collected and analysed data from five local companies that will be used to develop a database of fictive companies for the the game. The next workshop is planned for spring 2023, when we will use the newly designed toolkit.

Working with persona cards and empathy to explore the stakeholders' perspectives on value. Foto: Annapia Ferrara
THE HALL OF FAME & THE ICE CREAM BUSINESS MODEL by Ukeje Agwu, Samira Sahebalzamani, Tahrir Jaber

Engaging with pupils in discussions about ice cream and business. Foto XXX

The theme for Forskningsdagene in 2019 was The Environment. As the focus of REIS research group is on sustainability, we decided to contribute to this using some input from out research, experience and knowledge. 3 PhDs from the research group took on the task of arranging our work for Forskningsdagene. Over two days, we were assisted by Master students from HHT as well as Heidi Hemmingsen from administration. Our idea was to provide our target audience with introductory knowledge and skills on how to set up a sustainable business model.

For the first day our target audience were lower high school pupils (ungdomskole) in groups of 3 – 5. We explained the idea of a sustainable enterprise to them, and explained the different parts of the Business Model Canvas in simple terms for them to fully understand. We asked them for ideas of environmentally friendly businesses that they would like to run and gave them guidance on how to fill in the business model canvas. Most students were able to fill in the sections with little guidance after the initial explanation. We encouraged them to brainstorm amongst themselves, giving tips along the way. We made it important for them to know that this was an ideation phase, and in line with this, there are no bad ideas, so they should not focus on logic or feasibility. The pupils were able to give ideas ranging from wild and wacky to well detailed and viable. We picked a range of well completed Canvases and placed them on a whiteboard as entrants into the “Hall of Fame”.

For the second day, our target audience were preschool (barnehage) and primary school kids. To explain the idea of a sustainable enterprise to them, we used stickers to represent different sections of the business model canvas for a typical organic and environmentally friendly ice cream shop. We explained this to the kids and their parents and guided the kids on how and where to place the stickers and the reasoning behind why each sticker should be placed in a specific section.