The Lizard Lab is an informal educational tool featuring an immersive, life-sized board game that explores the effects of humans on rattlesnake populations. By allowing the participant to embody the snake, the game creates a sense of empathy and curiosity on how we can dissuade fears and protect local rattlesnake populations, as well as inspire environmental stewardship in the next generations. The Lizard Lab is an intentional misnomer, designed to spark further curiosity about how interconnected our ecosystems are.

 

This game challenges the assumption that scientific learning is restricted to the classroom, and allows ecological and biological concepts to be learned in a non-intimidating, immersive, and joyful way. 

 

The game has been played in a variety of locations such as schools, environmental educational centers, and museums, with a discussion about how humans affect the environments around them as part of a workshop series. 

 

The Lizard Lab is textile-based and consists of an 8x10 foot game board, giant foam dice, stuffed animal snakes representing the three species of rattlesnakes found in Colorado, felted tiles as the game pieces, and three-dimensional soft toys of the resources that these snakes would naturally seek out. 

 

In the Lizard Lab, the three species of rattlesnakes are competing against the humans for their specific two resources on the board. Meanwhile, the human’s goal is to build a bike path from their home base to where the bike is placed on the board. But watch out! While the human isn’t targeting the snakes directly, they can build right over those precious resources, creating a huge impact on the environment. 

 

The Lizard Lab creates a joyful, tactile experience that inspires wonder, sparks curiosity, and fosters a sense of stewardship for the natural world.