Creating Environmental Awareness in Education Through IoT and Gamification.

In this paper, we present our efforts and plans for creating environmental awareness towards plants and greenery, while educating children and their teachers in ecological learning spaces. Our approach aims to stimulate knowledge and appreciation of plants and the effects of plants in classrooms, offices, homes and open learning spaces, which have hitherto been undervalued. By promoting plant appreciation at young ages and the use of plants for learning, we aim to lay the foundations for wider environmental awareness and positive attitudes towards nature. In parallel, we enhance the learning experience with advanced sensor and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, stimulating interactive learning via gamification. Utilising this technology-enhanced approach with gamified data sets, pupils will not only learn basic facts about plants, but also learn about the needed care and responsibilities towards them, in order to establish a wide-ranging plant supported school climate. Towards that goal, we describe a number of gamification elements in the context of smart IoT planters and an accompanying visualisation dashboard.