Children who take more risks on the playground make safe decisions more quickly when crossing a busy street. That’s the central finding of a study that put 424 children aged seven to 11 from Norway and Canada through two virtual-reality tasks—essentially video game-style simulations they experienced through a headset while moving around a real gym. In one, children explored a virtual balancing structure with different height levels. In the other, they had to decide when it was safe to cross a street with oncoming traffic. The researchers tracked how willing each child was to take risks during play, then looked at how those same children performed when the ‘stakes’ were higher.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have developed a game-based rainfall–runoff model that allows users to explore how floods form by adjusting land and environmental conditions. A classroom study with high school students showed that interactive, trial-and-error gameplay with score-based feedback improved their understanding of complex hydrological processes.

New research published in the open-access journal Nature Conservation reveals that schools with mountain-related lyrics in their anthems are significantly more likely to utilize nearby green spaces for environmental education.