The effects of children’s participation and co-creation in science

Abstract

The scientific literature shows that children’s participation in video games is increasingly common. However, there is no analysis of the involvement of children in the development of video games promoting social science learning. The framework of the EU H2020 funded project “ALLINTERACT. Widening and diversifying citizen engagement in science” contributes to filling this gap by analysing the co-creation process between children, families, teachers, and researchers of a video game for children to distinguish between hoaxes and evidence to overcoming bullying. To this end, a 24-h Science Game Jam was recorded, which took place in a virtual space for group meetings in which five children, five family members, four teachers and four researchers participated in the co-creation of the video game and a collaborative document in the cloud including the guidelines of the video game, with their proposals for the development. Finally, they participated as well as in the co-creation of the video game itself. The key finding is that co-creation through an egalitarian dialogue, solidarity, and focus on scientific knowledge allowed these children to play a leading role in developing a video game where children of all educational stages learn to distinguish hoaxes and evidence in overcoming bullying. The involvement in science and the co-creation of science-based products benefited these children; as they were protagonists in science, they could express their concerns and the real problems they faced in their schools, which increased their scientific knowledge and strengthened their critical capacity about bullying. Furthermore, the adult participants also benefited from the knowledge provided by the children, especially in the development and creation of the video game.