A research center opens to kids

The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Japan recently held its third annual open house. In their release about the event they say: "Among the highlights of the event was a treasure hunt designed with kids in mind. Visitors to the CDB received maps of the exhibits located throughout the building. By going to each exhibit location, visitors were able to collect a set of original CDB game cards, each with a cartoon and description of an organism, cell, gene or research position involved in the study of developmental biology."

I contacted Douglas Sipp, manager of the center's Office for Science Communications and International Affairs and managed to get a deck of cards from him - he thoughtfully sent me the English version. The cards are numbered 1-10. On each card, there is one of three monkeys. The monkeys are of the "Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil" kind. Players collect the cards and then play a game like the kids' card game War. The only difference is that the monkeys on the cards, in a rock-scissors-paper-like fashion, can double the value of one of the player's cards - adding a bit of novelty, complexity, and interest to the game.

Each card is beautifully illustrated, and each includes some story about an aspect of museum life. But it made me wonder - how did all that interesting information affect the actual play value. Doug replied: "many kids (mine included) play the game without reading. We're hoping that by owning them, them kids will occasionally pick them up and learn the names, read a few of the stories and get at least a familiarity with some developmental biology. The real goal is to get kids feeling like there's something interesting or cool in science, not so much to teach them a specific set of facts, so we haven't done any kind of long term survey of who reads the cards or quizzed players afterwards on their knowledge. I did get a letter from Junichi Masuda (one of the creators of the Pokemon game and a director at Game Freak) saying that he liked the card designs, the level of the information content and the game concept."

I'm sure we could do better, if we so desired. On the other hand, the fact that something like this was done at all is worthy of our collective appreciation. OK, so there are better games out there - games that could involve kids even more deeply in actual learning. But here's a very simple game concept that got the kids excited about visiting every part of a scientific research center, if only to collect another card. And that's something. That, in deed, is something.