Farm It Right Simultation

Farm It Right: Sustainable Farming Simulation

Farm It Right is an interactive simulation for educating university level archaeology students about sustainable farming practices. Based on an ecological model of the 9th century Nordic region, it allows students to compare statistical and visual data to appreciate the effects of modifying various input parameters to the model.

The user is tasked with simulating the grazing of sheep on an area of grassland. A successful outcome is if the player manages to farm their land sustainably for a full ten years. A failed outcome is if all sheep die (for whatever reason) before the ten years have expired. Maintaining a sustainable population of sheep is a balance of ensuring enough food is produced (by grazing or hay production) to feed the sheep whilst preventing overgrazing of the grassland (which reduces the grazing potential and in turn the number of sheep that can be supported by the land).

The player can adjust various parameters to affect this balance (or imbalance). This project was completed under very tight time line (ONE month!) with a small budget. Funding provided by University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.

More Info: Design Overview (pdf)

Demo: Farm It Right (swf)

Bradford University Report: Schmidt, A. (2008). E-Learning Case Study for ESD and Archaeology. Final report. University of Bradford. UK.
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/archsci/sustainability/Report2.pdf (pdf)