Tiny game jams in the scope of science
“Let science show you the way to creativity”
This year I participated in a co-lab play bio workshop organized by the Open Science School (@ossparis). This was an interdisciplinary weekend workshop dedicated to learning about biomaterials -derived from natural substances or synthesized in the laboratory- and applying game design elements to them. Among many showcase ideas, fun experimentations in a lab and within a conducive environment for creativity, my favorite session was one called “Toy Jam”.
In general, a design jam is a focused brainstorming session including participants from different scientific disciplines who need to come up with a “result” on a specific design problem or challenge. For instance, game design jams are one of the most popular ones where participants meet for a specific period of time (24–72 hours) with the objective of creating a playable game (computer, board, escape games etc. ). At the beginning of the game jam, participants are given a theme and constraints concerning their deliverables.
In our case, during this “toy jam”, we formed a small group of 4 and in one hour we had to develop an idea around a toy -something small to play with- linking it with a simple application of materials science.
By using a paint brush, some water colors, scotch and magnets, we created a lovely drawing tool which attains the “world of magnetism”. One needs to explore how magnetic fields work so as to make a drawing!
Up to this point, our toy seems like a plain and simple outcome to this specific “challenge”. However, the whole idea generation process was pure fun. And this got me thinking.. How it would be if more jams like these could be organized by teachers in an elementary school environment? What are the benefits for children of fiddling with science experiments in a playful way?
The idea that popped into my mind is basically the organization of mini jams like the aforementioned during the school hours. It could be organized by the teachers themselves or by external educators who want to experiment in the realm of primary education with this idea; including diverse thematics based on scientific experiments. Taking as a target audience pupils of grade 2+ and having as a “starting point” a science experiment conducted by the teacher & the students, children will be invited to turn the experiment into a toy or a group activity.
This “jam” should be conducted in an informal atmosphere and should be as flexible as possible to adjust to the learning needs of the students. Some of my thoughts to proceed with this jam are along the following lines. Facilitator(s) should describe again the task and prepare some related questions like: “What things give us fun?”, “What make us play with an object?” “How do we feel when we play with a toy?” “What do we learn from others when we get involved in group activities?” in order to foster brainstorming. After all, STEAM education is based on practical problems, students are encouraged to complete the project through collaboration and practical, problem-solving.
Some basic prerequisites needed for the organization of a jam would be: a list of STEAM projects (very few) which could induce children to learn more about STEAM pedagogy and which will be their potential source of inspiration/source of “replication” for creating a toy or a group game activity. Here are some random examples:
As Yakman et al. (2016) claimed, STEAM education is to provide some guidance to students so that they can combine their learning on different disciplines and the application of an interdisciplinary mindset in order to solve practical problems. The same principle applies to the jam proposed: a/children will receive guidance from the facilitators (adults), b/they will use concepts they have already seen in class (recall prior knowledge), c/they will produce an outcome for the jam (find a solution).
The outcome of this jam can be a physical object, a group activity or the combination of the two, all results expected should be certainly science related. It can also take the form of a “storytelling” activity. In any case, the educator can break the experiment in smaller parts, explain in simple words complex concepts and gather elements with the children so as to co-create beautiful stories/activities inspired by scientific elements.
The prime focus in this example is not on a subject, but on guiding students to adopt a cross-disciplinary fusion in their learning process, their use of interdisciplinary thinking to solve practical problems and come up with new ideas to boost their creativity and their sense of collaborative work. All in all, this article is an attempt to express some of my thoughts, I will come up with more ideas-solutions to enrich this practice when I will actually (play)test a session like this with children to find out how it will go.
Until then, I hope that you will come with many ideas to unlock creative thinking and innovative potentials and integrate them in your work! *
Works that inspired me:
Vaajakallio, K., Lee, J.-J. & Mattelmäki, T. “It has to be a group work!”: co-design with children. In Proc. IDC 2009, 246–249.
Yakman, G., “What is the point of STE@M? — A Brief Overview”. 2009
“Back to the Childhood: Co-Designing with Kids.” MonsterPost. 09 Jan. 2014.
Jolly, Anne. “STEM vs. STEAM: Do the Arts Belong?” Education Week Teacher. 29 Apr. 2016.
Magazine, User Experience. “Kidsteam: Co-designing Children’s Technologies with Children User Experience Magazine.” User Experience Magazine.
Saxena, Written By Saomya. “STEM to STEAM Learning: Learning Science in the 21st Century.” EdTechReview. 23 Apr. 2014.
