Games in Education Networking & Demos

Demonstrations of education games and game-based learning projects at whatever stage of development. Come see what's coming up & maybe collaborate? This is the third of three informal Sunday events for the Games in Education academic track - new this year.

If you'd like a table to demo your game/s or game-based learning project/s please drop by the "Games in Education" stand (by the playtest area) to book your space.

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Projects included (so far):

Jim Thompson - Playful Tour Guide

To support academics, who might not be familiar with play and games, to develop playful responses to teaching their subject at HE level.

Laura Mitchell - BAD LOGIC

To develop technical expertise in logical sequencing of arguments, To engage students in business ethics ideas without having to do hours of reading preparation, and to facilitate peer conversation on ethics and sustainability themes.

Jessica Metheringham - 25 Days Until We Vote (and other political games)

25 Days Until We Vote is a set of puzzle games and role playing games, and is the first (or a pilot version?) of what will hopefully be a set of quick political card games. 25 Days Until We Vote is intended to be used as a teaching resource for 16-18 year olds. It is the result of a project supported by the Electoral Commission (the government regulator for elections) and 178 copies have been given (for free) to schools and families to test. The specific aim of this game is to provide information about registering to vote, the process of voting in a polling station, the process of using a postal vote, and the new requirements for voter ID. 
The aim of the set of games is to encourage young voters to vote and to increase their confidence in politics as a whole. Other games in development in this set include a game on parliamentary process, a game on dark money in politics, and a game on building a campaign. All are 20 minute games with between 54 and 120 cards. 

Matt Coward-Gibbs - Seize the Power (Bez Bonnie-Beth Shahriari and Tiz Creel)

Seize the Power is a game about privilege, bigotry, negotiation, and subjugation of power. Some characters will be discriminated against. There is no balancing. Life is just harder for some.
Go to school to be educated. Get a job. Get money. Buy food and shelter.
Meanwhile, money is also used to gain power. Whoever wins a rule auction can decide to enforce that rule – or not – as they wish. Players are free to make threats or ask for bribes for preferential treatment.
The world itself is unfair. Those with fewer arms, eyes, or no eye stalks will be discriminated against. Their starting position will be worse – usually with less money and education – and rules in-game will also disadvantage them.

Pen Holland - Catastrophic: the card game

Catastrophic is a card game designed to help players understand how the small things in life affect large scale processes. The game was designed to help students make connections between topics rather than focusing on specific knowledge; to motivate students to spend more time with the learning materials and ideas; to build a learning community that feels comfortable supporting each other to engage with learning and critical thinking in the discipline (biology); and to support students in the transition to university.

Robert Grayston - Resilience games

To create awareness and understanding around issues of organisational and societal resilience, through accessible and quickly-delivered gaming tools.

Jo Pennock - Breakout! The Immunology Escape Game

Our primary aim is to create an escape room style game around vaccine development to help pupils learn about immunology in an exciting and engaging way.

Olive Kilby - D & D & Philosophy

Our project aimed to discover whether some of the big ideas of philosophy could be introduced using an RPG where the characters played real life philosophers in scenarios involving thought experiments.

Jess Enright - Lice to See You

To express outcomes of a modelling project on control of sea lice.

Liz Cable - A Day in the Life / 100 Citizens

A Day in the Life is a game for interprofessional education (IPE) for up to 120 players based on a semi-fictional Yorkshire town under threat of flooding. It was run for 12 schools at Leeds Trinity University in 25 and was co-created by staff and students from several different degree programmes. We are improving the game by creating 100 accurate representations of the citizen NPCs using genuine Healthcare Equality Index data supplemented by data from the Born in Bradford research project. We want to run a game jam with a group of game designers to see what other serious games for healthcare and other professions can be created from the 100 citizens NPC cards.

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UK Games Expo is presenting its first ever academic track to bring together designers, teachers, academics, students, researchers and parents to explore what ideas, projects and partnerships can be formed going forward.

From a game designer’s point of view, access to academic research can inspire, inform, or even transform the nature of a game. Research funds can also pay for development and dissemination. There’s a growing opportunity for game designers to be involved in research bids and grant proposals.

If you are involved in providing any stage of formal or informal learning, and want to use games in your practice, come along.

We’ll be asking how we can use table-top and other analogue game formats to

·               Build community

·               Teach and encourage learning, especially social and higher order thinking skills

·               Share research in accessible ways

·               Provide authentic educational experiences and assessments

·               and solve real-world problems

Our track on Sunday will involve some short talks presenting the opportunities and possibilities, a roundtable for discussion, and networking including the opportunity to show off your projects at whatever stage of development.

10.30-11.30                     Games in Education Short Talks

11.30-12.15                       Roundtable

12.15 - 12.30                    Break

12.30-1.30                       Networking and Show your Work

Games in Education Short Talks: Jim Wallman, Liz Cable, Laura Mitchell & Alex Moseley will kick off with a discussion of their experiences bringing learning to life through non-digital games in education and training.

Roundtable: A discussion around the opportunity for educators and game-designers to work together.

Networking and Show Your Work: everyone is welcome to show their games in education project, whether it's finished, a work in progress, or just an idea…