The University of Reading organised a number of outreach sessions for secondary schools to mark the British Science week, a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths.
One of the IFNH members, Dr Natalie Masento, took part in a session testing a nutrition escape room based game with Year 7 students. Dr Natalie Masento has been working on the EIT Food funded project Games of Foods in partnership with Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, the University of Warsaw, the University of Helsinki, EUFIC and VTT. The project aims to design and implement educational puzzles in an escape room based game format for children and adults to learn about nutrition and health.
Zombie Attack, an escape room based game that teaches about protein was designed with other EIT Food partners during 2018 and tested with University students with success in encouraging new nutrition knowledge and motivation to learn about protein.
In 2019 the Games of Foods project will be taking Zombie Attack to secondary school classrooms to determine how the game is received by children aged 11-14 years old and whether they show similar results of improved knowledge and interest in learning about nutrition and health.
During British Science Week, Natalie was able to share the Zombie Attack game with two Year 7 classes from the Brakenhale School and Blessed Hugh Faringdon. Dr Natalie Masento said following the outreach session:
“It was a really great opportunity to see Zombie Attack in action with some very enthusiastic players during British Science Week. Activities like this are a great way for children to learn but also to be inspired to found out more about where food comes from and the relationship between food and health. I hope the children will take away the message of how protein plays an important role in our diets and is needed for good health!”
EIT Food is a European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
For more information about EIT Food, take a look at their website: https://www.eitfood.eu/