Gamification helps build young people’s confidence in making healthy choices
A recent study showed that year 10 students enjoyed learning about nutrition through gaming, opening an avenue for improving gamified education.
The project, led by Dr Sally Moore at the School of Food Science and Nutrition, started with a new knowledge transfer partnership with Fit Talent, a Berlin-based software game company. They worked alongside Dr Arthur Lau at the School of Medicine and pedagogic practitioner Blyan Parkinson.
Their intention was knowledge exchange between Fit Talent and the University of Leeds to improve the learning potential of the food decisions game, increase its relevance to real life, and find out if using the game can support nutrition education.
In the Food Decisions game, players use their knowledge of nutrition, health, and food labels to win each round, and can choose to select foods in a market, supermarket or cafe.
Could games help educate students on nutrition?
Dr Moore, Sophie Greatbatch, and Julia Lamb visited year 10 students to test and play the Food Decisions game. Sophie and Julia were final year students, undertaking their research project dissertations at the School of Food Science and Nutrition. They worked alongside a Year 10 Food Technology teacher to make that project happen.
Using questionnaires, they assessed both the students’ confidence to make healthier choices, and their actual knowledge.
They found that students’ confidence significantly improved after playing the game, although their actual knowledge remained at similar levels. Students reported finding the game fun.
The results show that this way of educating and evaluating students is feasible in schools.
Kate Pine, Teacher of Food & Nutrition at Boston Spa Academy, (previously Doncaster Armthorpe Academy, where the project took place), said:
“It was a real honour to work alongside the team and support the development of the game. Our students really enjoyed the process from understanding how the programme had been put together to providing feedback on the nutritional game. They liked how it supported their learning and retention in a gaming format.”
Julia Lamb said: “Very grateful to have been able to conduct this research with such an amazing team. We wanted to make learning about nutrition engaging and accessible to all, and hope our work helps young people make more conscious food choices.”
Bertram Pachaly, Fit Talent co-founder, said: “Working with the University of Leeds was a fantastic journey for Fit Talent Games — together we explored what information to include in the game, how to present it, and how to create a learning environment inspired by real-life situations.
“The result was a new version of the game that is fun and confidence-boosting for students, and also helped us discover new ways to integrate human instructors into digital learning.”
More information
- The report 'Feasibility of a Nutrition Label Education Intervention With Computer Gamification to Promote Learning With Year 10 Students' is now published in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
- Fit Talent news: University of Leeds plays FIT food.
- Optimising the FIT Food online game app project was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account, University of Leeds.
