# Presentation: 487029

## XRT: eXtraordinary Road Trip

**2006 National Air Quality Conferences:**
**Air Quality Forecasting, Mapping and Monitoring**
**And**
**Communicating **
**Air Quality and Communities in Motion**
**Quality of Air Means Quality of Life**
**February 5-8. 2006**
**San Antonio, TX**

## XRT: eXtraordinary Road Trip

**Teaching Drivers to be Stewards of Air Quality**

## Today’s Message

**Partnership Experience**
**Recommendations for others**
**What is XRT and what are the benefits of the XRT program**
**Rapid learning lesson**
**Preview the XRT computer game and website**

## Multi-Agency Partnerships

**Identify the roles**
**Identify funding sources**
**Define the scope of work**
**Share in the decision making and process**
**Share in the pitfalls**
**Share in the success**

## Partners and Planning

**WI DNR, IL DOT and NIRPC**
**EPA/OTAQ; DOT/FMHA-CMAQ**
**Fluid Entertainment; Knupp & Watson; Discovery World**
**Technical Assistance – WI high school student interviews, UW educational gaming research, driver ed; Ford Motor Co. eco-driving research, DNR/AM technical content and review; coordination with IL and IN**

## Project and Partnership Recommendations

**Was the experience good?**
**Successes and Pitfalls**
**What we would do differently**
**What we would recommend**
**Would we do it again ?**

## What is XRT?

**Game-based learning**
**Teaches eco-driving skills**
**Through a learning environment that builds on the educational properties of games**
**Competitive, thought-provoking, fun**

## XRT Components

**CD ROM – computer simulation game**
**Web site: www.eXtraordinaryRoadTrip.org**
**Museum venues where kids and adults can learn by doing – interactive children’s museums; museums of science and industry**
**Driver education module**

## XRT CD = Edutainment

**Computer Simulation**
**Player goal - adjust the choices of 25 personalities to achieve healthy air in their world**
**Learning goal -  how driving and consumer choices affect air quality**

**Notes:**
XRT: eXtraordinary Road Trip is an educational computer game designed to simulate the driving, commuting and vehicle maintenance behaviors of people. Playing alone, with a partner, or in teams, top XRT players learn how to analyze the transportation variables affecting air quality.  The main goal of XRT is to adjust the driving, commuting and vehicle maintenance behaviors of 25 different personalities in order to achieve a green and healthy environment.  As these choices are modified through game play, the overall condition and color of the world’s air quality changes.  The colors associated with air quality in XRT are the colors of the EPA’s National Air Quality Index. 

## Research: Computer Games Aid Learning

**Computer games simulate worlds**
**that embody particular social practices and problems**
**that prompt integrated thinking, social interaction and use of technology**

**Notes:**
Even harshest critics agree we learn something from playing computer games.
Computer games important because they let people participate in new worlds and inhabit roles otherwise inaccessible to them.
Rich virtual worlds make games powerful contexts for learning.
In virtual worlds, learners experience the concrete realities that words and symbols describe and allow understanding of complex concepts without losing the connection between abstract ideas and the real problems they can be used to solve.

## Research: DNR Air Outreach

**1993: 67% of SE WI aware of ozone alerts**
**2003: 89% aware of Ozone Action Days**
**56% reduced car use when air quality is bad**
**35% made long term behavior changes as suggested in the Ten Simple Steps**** **

## Research: Teaching Teens

**Early adopters of environmental values**
**Early adopters of technology**
**Need wheels, any wheels**
**Lessons about air quality must**
**Empower with new skills**
**Resolve conflict of values between desire for car and desire for clean air**

**Notes:**
For most American teens, the automobile represents the ultimate icon of hip culture and more importantly, freedom.  The automobile is also a symbol of one of the world’s largest sources of air pollution.  Recognizing that teen attitudes and impressions influence a lifetime of driving behavior and purchasing habits, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources teamed up with the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (the Tri-State Partnership) to reach out and empower the teenage population to make safe and environmentally sound driving decisions.  With the support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Transportation and Air Quality and the United States Department of Transportation, the Tri-State Partnership developed an outreach program for the teenage audience called XRT: eXtraordinary Road Trip.

##  Eco-Driving = The Lesson

**safe, smooth driving**
**reduces gasoline consumption and exhaust emissions**
**fosters consumer choices for efficient transportation technology**
**fosters smart urban growth**

**Notes:**
Driving choices affect air quality – behavioral choices with physical and emotional behaviors, choices of transportation technology, vehicle maintenance.

## XRTeXtraordinary Road TripThe Game

## Reggie Korthals, Director

**Reggie Korthals, Director**
**Environmental Planning & Programs**
**Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (MPO)**
**(219) 763-6060**
_**rkorthals@nirpc.org**_
**Elizabeth (Betsy) Tracy**
**Air Quality Specialist**
**Illinois Department of Transportation**
**Office of Planning and Programming**
**(217) 785-2368**
_**tracyer@dot.il.gov**_
**Sara Burr, President**
**The Burr Group. LLC**
**(608) 576-2195**
_**burren@tds.net**_
**Formerly, Air Education Manager, WDNR**
**Elisabeth Olson**
**XRT Project Manager/Outdoor Air Quality Educator**
**Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources**
**(608) 264-9258**
_**Elisabeth.Olson@dnr.state.wi.us**_