On RFD-TV: Jenny Keshwani

RFD-TV Author

07/26/2022 Added

77 Plays

Description

Encroachment of eastern red cedar threatens to change the prairie into forest. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have created the new Prairie Protector video game to help the public understand this threat. Jenny Keshwani, associate professor of biological systems engineering, talked about the project live of RFD-TV, July 25, 2022.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.510]Well, Nebraska is home to one of the largest intact grassland systems in the world, however, the eastern
[00:00:06.450]red cedar is threatening to change the prairie and to forest.
[00:00:10.470]Well to help inform the public, researchers have created a new Prairie Protector video game.
[00:00:16.620]Jenny Keshwani, with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of the game's creators, and she joins us now for
[00:00:23.160]an update.
[00:00:24.030]And Jenny, thank you very much for your time here this morning.
[00:00:26.850]So video games and conservation, not necessarily what you think of.
[00:00:30.390]So why did you guys decide to create this game?
[00:00:34.170]Yeah, thanks for having me, today.
[00:00:35.700]I was working with a team of researchers from Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas really focused on studying
[00:00:41.220]grasslands management.
[00:00:43.230]And as part of the education team, we were looking for different resources that we could use to guide the
[00:00:48.780]development of education materials.
[00:00:50.700]So we read a blog from the Nature Conservancy that really compared the spread of eastern red cedar to
[00:00:56.670]arcade games like Mission Control and Space Invaders and things like that.
[00:01:01.080]And since me and a lot of our other research team members had experience with educational games, we
[00:01:06.150]thought it made a lot of sense, really to lead to the creation of Prairie Protector.
[00:01:11.850]Why is an invasion of eastern red cedar considered to be a bad thing?
[00:01:17.460]Yeah, so basically, trees belong in forests, not in grasslands.
[00:01:22.320]Really, fire has historically been part of grassland ecosystems.
[00:01:26.000]And it wasn't until settlers started moving in and building homes and towns and really trying to prevent
[00:01:32.780]fire that species like eastern red cedar, which is actually native to prairie grasslands, really began to
[00:01:39.650]take hold.
[00:01:40.670]So when this happens, there's the issue of trees replacing grasslands.
[00:01:45.920]Less grass means less profit for ranchers, but also a decrease in the biodiversity of other plants and
[00:01:53.360]animals that really belong in those native grasslands.
[00:01:57.260]And why do players learn from playing Prairie Protector?
[00:02:00.560]What what exactly do they learn from this process?
[00:02:04.010]Right, so players take on the role of a land manager in the game.
[00:02:07.730]So they're given plot of land, and they get to make decisions on how to remove trees from that property.
[00:02:14.390]They have a variety of tools to choose from, so they can use fire or other mechanical tools like a chainsaw,
[00:02:19.250]and bulldozer.
[00:02:20.360]And really, this allows them to learn strategies for how to keep eastern red cedar in check.
[00:02:25.370]So they start from the edges and move in towards the center.
[00:02:28.370]They also build empathy for land managers.
[00:02:31.070]And they learned that trees aren't always a good thing, sometimes in the land of Arbor Day it's confusing
[00:02:36.500]because we think of trees as being good for the environment.
[00:02:38.990]But sometimes, it's something that shouldn't be in an ecosystem.
[00:02:42.830]Now, how can people access the game and also the resources that go along with it?
[00:02:48.680]Definitely. So you can head over to prairieprotector.com to play the game.
[00:02:53.090]It's all free.
[00:02:54.140]As well as go to growable.unl.edu to access our educational resources supporting the game.
[00:03:01.190]All right. Well,thank you very much for joining us, Jenny.
[00:03:03.380]We appreciate it.
[00:03:04.160]She is with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln connecting with us here today.
[00:03:07.970]Again, you can go online to prairieprotector.com for more information.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

On RFD-TV: Jenny Keshwani

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments