Improving education for the environment through pervasive games: the case study of ancient traditional gardens of Qazvin

Education in general and education for the environment in particular are among the fields that have benefited from the interactive function of augmented reality. The traditional methods of environmental education have not been very effective due to the lack of factors such as vitality, presence and belonging to place. As severe damage to the environment continues to occur, we need, more then ever, to raise the level of public awareness to increase protection of the environment . This article examines the use of a pervasive game based on augmented reality for environmental education that extends application into real world environments outdoors. As a practical example, we introduce ancient traditional gardens of Qazvin (named “Bāghestān-e Sonnatī” or simply “Bāghestān”, in local language). Our target population in this research is sixth to eighth grade students, and our purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of augmented reality interactions in the process of environmental education. Studies show that the use of augmented reality is a suitable interactive method for environmental education that embraces the outdoors.