School of Informatics

Design workshops for children

Wanted: games designers aged 6-14 years, Saturday and/or Sunday 4-5 June 2016.

Young girl in a pink top focusing on designing a game

Under the guidance of Professor Helen Pain, five Informatics MSc students will spend the summer designing and

testing educational games, focusing on a mix of topics. Children aged 6-14 years are invited to participate.

The first workshops will look at designing games for healthy eating and for teaching sportsmanship.

Each workshop will involve a mixture of design activities, individually, in pairs or in small groups. Participants and their parents will be asked to give their permission for the School to record the workshops for the purposes of the project. 

‘Healthy eating’ games workshop, Saturday 4 June 2016

2-3.30pm, Room 2.33, Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

What is healthy eating? What happens if you eat food that is bad for you? What will it do to your body? Can you help design a game that would teach other children about healthy eating, that would also be fun to play? Workshop led by MSc student Nora Ptakauskaite.

‘Learning about sportsmanship,’ Sunday 5 June 2016

2-4.30pm Room 2.33, Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

'Sportsmanship' means taking turns, following the rules and being a good player (whether you win or lose). Can we make a game that teachers other children these skills? What characters would be in the game? What would the rules of this game be? Workshop led by MSc student Krystian Chojnowski.

Other workshops

Further events will be held between now and August, some at weekends and some during the week, with the next provisional date being Sunday 19 June.

Contact

If your child is interested in participating, please contact Helen Pain (helen@inf.ed.ac.uk) with their name and age, saying when they would be available.

 

Useful links

Professor Pain's School web page