Participatory gaming simulation as a science communication arena

Participatory gaming simulation that is used for science communication at the science café or science workshop is a powerful technique for understanding the specialized scientific knowledge. In general, there is a short talk by an invited speaker on a new or controversial science-related topic at the science café. And followed by a discussion, the audience gets the chance to ask any questions they may have. However, the audiences, who are ordinary citizens, don't have enough technical knowledge about the topics, so it is not easy to understand the complicated scientific issues. To help solve the problem, we have been working to develop participatory gaming simulation as educational communication tools. In this paper, we report the findings of an analysis of a science communication trial using participatory gaming simulation that deals with global warming.