Incorporating immersive learning tools transforms the learning experience by allowing students to “learn by doing,” putting them at the center of the learning process.
Gamified experiences promote career readiness by introducing students to diverse career opportunities and allowing them to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world applications.
What is Immersion, and Why is it Important?
The CHS Foundation and Discovery Education have partnered once again to provide high school students nationwide with digital curriculum resources that cultivate ingenuity and success through an understanding of the cooperative business model. HARVEST: From Seed to Success is a gamified learning experience designed to immerse students in the world of agriculture and cooperative business. This innovative digital resource provides students with a hands-on, engaging platform that puts them in the role of a farmer, responsible for making critical decisions about soil health, crop selection, and harvest timing and goes beyond textbooks and lectures, helping them explore real-world challenges within an industry that is critical to our global economy.
Interactives like HARVEST are more than just a game—they’re a powerful educational tool designed to cultivate essential life skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. Alongside the interactive, educators can take advantage of the downloadable Educator Guide, which is full of practical resources to help ease introduction of the material, scaffold lessons, and offer students an enriched learning experience that prepares them for future career paths in agriculture and beyond.
By stepping into a real-world role—such as a co-op farmer-owner in HARVEST—students can:
1. Practice Critical Thinking and Decision-Making Skills
Interactives aren’t just about agriculture or the other hands-on content they highlight, they’re about teaching students to think critically, solve problems, and collaborate effectively. As students progress through games, they must weigh the consequences of their decisions, learn from their mistakes, and adjust their strategies—skills that are crucial in any career path they may choose. In HARVEST, students select crops based on soil composition and plan harvesting at the optimal time for maximum yield. This mirrors the kinds of challenges they will face in the workforce, particularly in sectors like agriculture, technology, and business.
2. Engage with Real-World Challenges
Agriculture is a complex, multifaceted industry, and HARVEST allows students to get hands-on experience with the same kinds of decisions farmers and agricultural professionals make daily. From analyzing soil samples to operating a combine, students gain a deep understanding of the agricultural process and how cooperative businesses work to share resources and maximize success. While students cannot always take their learning outside and get their hands in the dirt to learn about agriculture, interactives provide a chance to experience the challengesof a new career industry from the comfort of the classroom.
3. Make Learning Fun through Gamification
Gamification, the integration of game mechanics into non-game settings, has been proven to boost student engagement and motivation. Games provide an environment where students can experiment and learn through trial and error. HARVEST allows them to do just that, rewarding exploration, creativity, and perseverance, which are key to both educational and personal success. The interactive nature of HARVEST also provides students with immediate feedback on their choices, helping them understand the direct consequences of their decisions.
Think of gamified resources as the jelly in a sandwich, with the educator materials serving as the bread around it—supporting and enhancing the learning experience. By leveraging the power of gamification and immersive learning with programs like HARVEST, educators can help students explore new career paths, develop transferable skills, and gain the confidence to tackle future challenges in any ‘field’.
