Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Laysan Island?

Laysan Island teaches high school and college students the impact of invasive species through an examination of what happened to the bird biodiversity on Laysan Island in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Students will explore how biology, history, and activism together shaped these birds' survival outcomes. 

How much does Laysan Island cost?

Laysan Island is free as an Open Educational Resource. The only cost to you will be downloading the file and printing it. You can choose to print it yourself on a home computer or have a local commercial printer do the job in order to obtain playing card quality pieces. We recommend sending Laysan Island to a commercial printer to save time. If you send the game file to a commercial printer, you may need to transform it into a PDF first. 

How was Laysan Island's logo created?

Laysan Island's logo is taken from a photograph of the Laysan Island Cyclorama at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History. 

How can I personalize Laysan Island?

Laysan Island is currently in game development; therefore, we would advise waiting until Human(ities) Games releases Laysan Island as a completed product. However, we would love for you to personalize Laysan Island with your own scenario now (if you want to workshop through improving the game yourself) or in the future. Simply take the PowerPoint file and swap out our text and images for yours. If you need help doing this, feel free to contact Cody Crawford at cody-j-crawford [at] uiowa.edu for a consultation. 

Who designed Laysan Island? 

Amy Chen designed Laysan Island in consultation with Cody Crawford.