Resilience - Combining Sci-Art and card games for more effective public engagement

Engaging the public with research and environmental issues can be challenging due to the complexity of the topics and pre-existing misconceptions. Independently, interdisciplinary approaches such as sci-art and games have shown some promise for engaging people with complex and unfamiliar issues. This raises the question: Can the two be paired together for the better?

This project aims to see if sci-art and card games can be used together as a more effective and enjoyable way to engage people with environmental issues, as well as inspiring interest in science more generally. It also seeks to find out if art can influence the retention of information when paired up with the card game format.

To test this, we designed a card game that uses varying levels and styles of art to engage people with issues around flooding and climate change. An open international invite has recruited a large number of participants to take part in the study. In the study, participants are given a random version of the game to play and afterwards, and asked to complete a short questionnaire related to the game’s topics. This is supported with targeted facilitated sessions at university campuses, outreach and public events across the UK.

The results will demonstrate whether combining sci-art and card games in combination improves on just using either on their own. These are expected to vary depending on a number of factors, including what version of the game was played, the demographic playing the game and the location.