Skip to content

Southern Fried Science

Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online

  • Home
  • About SFS
  • Authors
  • Support SFS

An environmental educator’s field guide to Pokémon Go.

Posted on July 19, 2016 By Andrew Thaler 1 Comment on An environmental educator’s field guide to Pokémon Go.
Education

Pokémon Go is officially a thing.

In the last week, this game has outpaced even Google Maps in number of downloads. It has more daily active users than Twitter. Its user retention rate is astronomical. It is either a herald of the end of western capitalism or a huge boom for small businesses. People are going outside, exploring their neighborhoods, finding dead bodies, walking off cliffs, experiencing nature, getting robbed, making new friends, and getting shot at.

It is the best of tech. It is the worst of tech. Or maybe, it’s just tech, and people can interact with technology in as many ways as there are Pokémon to be found.

Last week, I wrote a brief introduction to this phenomenon, which I won’t rehash here.

But of course, the big question emerging within the sphere of environmental educators is “how can we capitalize on Pokémon Go to engage with the public on environmental issues?”

After spending more time with the app, and focusing on specific features that can facilitate environmental education, I have five suggestions. 

1. Don’t. Radical, right? Here’s the thing: Pokémon Go encourages active, creative, exploratory play. It gets users outside and acts as a facilitator of explicit permission to enter public places. And yes, that can be a huge deal. Many people feel that public parks are not “for them”, but games like Pokémon Go, with it’s huge (and, frankly, shamelessly enthusiastic) user base, helps break down those social barriers and provides inertia for people who otherwise might not have made that journey.

Rather than trying to force a ham-handed connection between your environmental education initiative and Pokémon Go, just keep doing good work and resist the urge to discourage players from playing in your territory. Exploratory play leads to more exploratory play, and reinforcing that kind of play, whether it be through a smartphone or turning over rocks, helps lay the foundations that make a good naturalist.

2. Put up a sign. Most public places, especially parks, are going to have a few PokéStops. These stops let players collect the resources they need to hunt Pokémon. Putting a physical sign at the location of the virtual Stop means players have to spend less time looking down at their phone to make sure they’re close to the stop. If convenient hanging some information packets at the Stop, especially maps (hey, why not put those PokéStops on the next time you print a park map?) will help welcome players into your park.

3. Drop a lure. Hey, you’ve already got people coming to you PokéStop. Why not drop a lure to attract all the Pokémon as well? Better yet, drop a lure and station a ranger, touch tank, hands-on experience, or demonstration at the PokéStop. Here’s the thing about Pokémon Go: despite the sheer volume of cynical think pieces, most of the game is not walking around staring at a screen. Most of the game is hanging around, socializing, waiting for a Pokémon to pop up. So attract players to a Stop, and use it to introduce them to your environmental education program.

4. Host a Poké-walk. One of the many features of Pokémon Go is hatching eggs. Eggs contain rare Pokémon and can only be hatched by walking, either in 2 km, 5 km, or 10 km, increments. Take advantage of this by adding nature hikes to you program that players can use to hatch their eggs (front-country, good data signal access, clear lines for GPS). An interpretive trail would be perfect. And then take players on a hike. Since egg hatching is relative passive in the game, there’s plenty of space to talk about the actual nature around you.

5. Blend your BioBlitz. BioBlitzes are events where citizen scientists catalog the biodiversity of an area using smartphone apps like iNaturalist. Hosting a blended BioBlitz, where participants can hunt for real organisms and Pokémon is a perfect opportunity to get the whole family out and exploring. Drop some lures on every PokéStop, set up your education stations, get your hikes scheduled, and find clever ways to reward participants for finding the most of any one thing (real or virtual), the most biodiversity (real and virtual), an any specific targets you want to catalog.

There are probably dozens of other ways environmental educators can capitalize on Pokémon Go. If you’ve come up with any particularly engaging methods, please share them in the comments below. There’s no need to be heavy-handed in your approach, the real power of  Pokémon Go is that the game encourages active, creative, exploratory play, which reinforces behaviors that produce good naturalists. I’d love to see parks try clever techniques to integrate Pokémon Go into their programming, but that’s just icing on the cake. The biggest benefit is that the game encourages people, particularly young people, to explore.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon

Related

Tags: environmental education Pokémon Go

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Fun Science FRIEDay – Open-Acess Science for the Masses
Next Post: Join us at the International Marine Conservation Congress! ❯

You may also like

Weekly Salvage
Deep-sea Disco, Giant Icebergs, Pokémon Go, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: April 24, 2017
April 24, 2017

One thought on “An environmental educator’s field guide to Pokémon Go.”

  1. Jodi Bucknam says:
    July 20, 2016 at 8:07 am

    Great suggestions, thanks!

Comments are closed.

Recent Popular Posts

It's 2025. Why do so many scientific journal articles still display weird when shared on social media?It's 2025. Why do so many scientific journal articles still display weird when shared on social media?May 20, 2025David Shiffman
Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine is a fake documentaryShark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine is a fake documentaryAugust 10, 2014Michelle Jewell
Our favorite sea monsters – Ningen (#4)Our favorite sea monsters – Ningen (#4)September 7, 2010Andrew Thaler
Alberta, Canada is the proud owner of the largest man-made pyramid on the planetAlberta, Canada is the proud owner of the largest man-made pyramid on the planetOctober 16, 2012Andrew Thaler
What is a Sand Shark?What is a Sand Shark?November 12, 2017Chuck Bangley
What can the funniest shark memes on the internetz teach us about ocean science and conservation?What can the funniest shark memes on the internetz teach us about ocean science and conservation?November 8, 2013David Shiffman
I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.June 21, 2021Andrew Thaler
A quick and dirty guide to making custom feeds on BlueskyA quick and dirty guide to making custom feeds on BlueskyFebruary 7, 2024Andrew Thaler
Deep-sea Mining: It’s science fiction, until it isn’t.Deep-sea Mining: It’s science fiction, until it isn’t.May 14, 2025Andrew Thaler
Here's what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservationHere's what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservationApril 10, 2024David Shiffman
Subscribe to our RSS Feed for updates whenever new articles are published.

We recommend Feedly for RSS management. It's like Google Reader, except it still exists.

Southern Fried Science

  • Home
  • About SFS
  • Authors
  • Support SFS


If you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to our Patreon campaign.

Copyright © 2025 Southern Fried Science.

Theme: Oceanly Premium by ScriptsTown