Science Hunters: an inclusive approach to engaging with science through Minecraft

Abstract

Science Hunters is an outreach project which employs the computer game Minecraft to engage children with scientific learning and research through school visits, events, and extracurricular clubs. We principally target children who may experience barriers to accessing Higher Education, including low socioeconomic status, being the first in their family to attend university, and disability (including Special Educational Needs). The Minecraft platform encourages teamwork and makes science learning accessible and entertaining for children, irrespective of background. We employ a flexible approach that adapts to the needs of the users. More than 8000 children have been engaged in the first four years, with overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Science Communication Demands a Critical Approach That Centers Inclusion, Equity, and Intersectionality

“…ISL also offers evidence for the value of inclusive public engagement from museum settings (Dawson, 2012a(Dawson, ,b, 2014a(Dawson, ,b,c, 2019Feinstein and Meshoulam, 2014), gaming and design-based learning in afterschool primary and secondary school settings (Kafai et al, 2016;Hobbs et al, 2019), and community-engaged research (Haywood and Besley, 2014;Petersen et al, 2016;Soleri et al, 2016). Bevan et al (2018) compiled many examples of effective ISC projects, emphasizing the importance of reflection, adaptation, and institutional change.…”

Using Minecraft to engage children with science at public events

“…As a Widening Participation project, Science Hunters particularly aims to reach children who face one or more barriers to accessing higher education, such as disability, low family income, being of the first generation in their family to attend university, being of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background, or being in care/a care leaver (Lancaster University, 2019). While it is more difficult to target these groups, and to monitor uptake, at public events than it is in schools and at Minecraft clubs, where attendees are known to the school or project, activities are always designed to be relaxed, informal and accessible to all, in order to enable as wide a range of people as possible to participate (Hobbs et al, 2019). For example, we readily adapt delivery and the Minecraft challenges set to cater for a range of ages, abilities and needs.…”

“…This would be followed by a related challenge, which could be to build a volcano, to create a particular rock type using interactions in Minecraft that are analogous to processes occurring in the real world, or to build features in order to manage a volcanic hazard (see Figure 2 and Figure 3). Detailed descriptions of session structures can be found in Hobbs et al (2018aHobbs et al ( , 2018bHobbs et al ( , 2019.…”

“…Evaluation information collected centrally by main event organizers is not included here. As the reasons behind the project's successful attraction of participants at public events (Hobbs et al, 2019) cannot intuitively be linked to either the use of Minecraft or communication of science, as part of project evaluation for Science Hunters, we asked people attending public events through their own choice to tell us: (1) how often the child participating plays Minecraft; (2) whether the child participating or the adult accompanying them decided to attend the session; and (3) how interested that person is in science and in Minecraft, and which element most strongly influenced his or her decision to take part in the session. All data were gathered using self-completed paper questionnaires handed to accompanying adults at the following public events (see Table 1): Lancaster University Community Day (2017); Lancashire Science Festival (2017); Science Hunters at Lakeland Wildlife Oasis (2018); and Geronimo Children 's Festival (2018).…”

“…Science Hunters was initiated in 2014 as a small project aiming to use the computer game Minecraft to communicate scientific concepts and inspire interest in, and enthusiasm for, science in children. This approach draws on the knowledge of the increased efficacy of learning when it is fun (Lepper and Cordova, 1992) and the long history of using computer games to enhance education (for example, Betz, 1995;Amory et al, 1999;Jayakanthan, 2002;Hobbs et al, 2019). Now in its fifth year, the project has grown substantially and currently engages around 6,000 children each academic year.…”