McPHERSON, Kan. — A group of McPherson College students is taking their educational game nationwide with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign that will support large-scale production. Funds raised will help stock the game for retail and online sales, broadening its impact and creating more opportunities for student involvement across campus.
Students in the spring 2025 Stewardship Seminar, taught by Dr. Dustin Wilgers, professor of biology, developed the game EcoPyramid, which is based on a visual model representing the structure of an ecosystem. The project recently received a $10,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks’ Chickadee Checkoff program to help distribute the game to every school district in Kansas. Initial support came from a McPherson College Horizon Fund grant for entrepreneurship.
The Kickstarter campaign aims to raise funds to grow inventory for retail sales and to involve students from the college’s business and accounting programs in managing the business aspects of the project. Students from the graphic design and teacher education programs have already contributed to the game’s design and created educational materials based on the game that support science activities in elementary and middle school classrooms.
“Every part of this game has been and will continue to be student-designed,” said Wilgers. “The wonderful part of this game is that it was meant to be educational for the players, but the process has ended up being just as impactful on the student creators’ college educational experience.”
Inspired by nature, EcoPryamid is designed to be both educational and engaging. Students spent hundreds of hours refining the wording, art concepts, and gameplay through testing at elementary schools, summer programs, and a gaming event.
Each game set includes four decks representing distinct ecosystems — Yellowstone, Prairie, Amazon, and Ocean. Players use their own deck of cards to build a trophic pyramid while strategically disrupting their opponents’ pyramids with unique action cards. Each card features detailed graphics and fun facts about the ecosystems.
The campaign’s goal is to raise $2,300, with any additional funds used to produce more decks for inventory. Supporters can purchase a boxed starter set of EcoPyramid by going to www.kickstarter.com/projects/dustinwilgers/ecopyramid. All pre-orders will be fulfilled and shipped in early February. The campaign runs through December 14.
