From July 10th to 13th, seventeen highschool students participated in the University of Aveiro’s summer school, where a series of activities regarding Biology and Video Games awaited them. Some members of the YO-MEDIA and PLAYMUTATION team prepared a Workshop that helped the students explore themes of Media Literacy and health and war crisis through the creation of video game narratives.

The workshop consisted in the following sections: Introduction to concepts about Media Literacy, Creation of groups with 3-5 participants, Attribution of a concept to each group regarding the theme of Media Literacy, Discussion of the concepts, Distribution of cards that represent narrative elements, Writing of the game narrative and Sharing the ideas.    

Through a card-based method, the workshop provided a reflection on themes of Media Literacy and created an engaging approach to the creation of narratives and mechanics of the game. 

The activities were well received and the students seemed engaged and excited to create the narratives, often going beyond what was initially proposed. 

Parallel activities were conducted by academic members related to other relevant areas, such as biology, through workshops regarding bivalve molluscs, where students had a deeper understanding of what they are and their importance in the ecosystem, as well as its biological characteristics, and video game studies, that led multiple activities that allowed the students to play, create and understand what it takes to create and pitch a video game. These concepts were then combined, and the participants were able to create video game concepts focused on bivalve molluscs with the final goal of having the player learn more about the species.