NACTA 2026 Webinar Series: Session 4 - Wednesday, May 27, 2026

NACTA is excited to wrap up its Webinar Series for 2026! The fourth and final session, Game-Based Experiential Learning for Agriculture: Practical Strategies You Can Use Tomorrow, is set for Wednesday, May 27, 2026, at 11:00 AM EDT / 10:00 AM CDT.

Game-Based Experiential
Learning for Agriculture:
Practical Strategies You Can Use Tomorrow

Presented by:  Barbara Chamberlain, New Mexico State University

Wednesday, May 27, 2026
11:00 AM EDT / 10:00 AM CDT

Agriculture educators frequently teach complex systems, interconnected processes, and decision-making under constraints — all areas where game-based learning is especially powerful. In this interactive session, Dr. Barbara Chamberlin from New Mexico State University’s Learning Games Lab will demonstrate how simple games — digital or paper-based — can strengthen student engagement, systems thinking, and career-relevant life skills.

Participants will explore:

• Games for teaching agriculture concepts
• How games strengthen experiential learning and reflective practice
• Strategies for integrating gameplay into existing labs, lectures, or online modules
• How to connect game-based activities to workforce competencies such as communication, teamwork, and decision-making

Everything presented will be directly relevant to teaching agriculture, food, the environment, and applied life sciences, and will be adaptable even in high-enrollment, lab-based, or extension settings. By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Identify simple teaching games that model agricultural or natural resource systems.
2. Apply two or more game-based strategies in their own classrooms without needing new technology or software.
3. Guide reflection and debriefing to strengthen experiential learning outcomes and student professional skills.
4. Adapt game-based learning to fit different course types: introductory undergraduate courses, labs, community college programs, and extension workshops.
5. Evaluate learning using quick, classroom-friendly assessment methods.

This session focuses on intentional engagement design, showing how game-based strategies can transform abstract agricultural concepts into immersive, decision-driven reflective practices of learning experiences. Participants will explore Strategies for integrating gameplay into existing labs, lectures, or online modules and how games and simulations connect game-based activities to workforce competencies and foster communication, systems thinking, collaboration, teamwork, and applied decision making core competencies in modern agriculture.

We look forward to seeing you May 27!