The Madrilian school CEIP Manuel Bartolomé Cossío wins the national Hi Score Science Junior competition
“Which insect kills the most people in the world? How many bones does an adult human have?” These are some of the questions posed by 11-year-old students from CEIP Manuel Bartolomé Cossío school in Madrid, winners of the National Junior Hi Score Science Contest. The winning team was led by their teacher, Lidia Ayllón Romero, an advocate of the importance of STEAM education from an early age, who told us that “the students know the game and we explain to them how the questions should be, so they know how to do it. We correct some of them in class, but in most cases we don’t know what they come up with in the end”.
Hi Score Science is an outreach project that aims to bring science to young people through a science quiz game for mobile devices and computers. The project is developed between two research institutes, the Instituto de Síntesis Química y Catálisis Homogénea, ISQCH and the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón, INMA, (CSIC-UNIZAR), so it wants to go further than a conventional quiz game, and includes explanations of the scientific reality behind each of the answers, thus encouraging users’ curiosity about science. In addition, the project aims to make the users themselves feel part of the project, as they are the generators of scientific content. To this end, competitions have been set up at three levels: junior, youth and senior, rewarding the most active users with technological gifts and scientific trips.
The free, ad-free game, Hi Score Science, is available on the Play Store and Apple Store and on PC, Mac and Linux (www.HiScoreScience.org). All information about the project and how to compete in the different categories is available at www.HiScoreScience.org.
The prize-giving ceremony for the winners took place on 22 June, an online awards ceremony in which the students were able to compete live to show who are the best scientific gamer.
An informative project in constant movement with international recognition
The Hi Score Science project was born in 2016 in response to the need to adapt outreach activities to the world of the youngest, belonging to the digital generation, which is currently focused on video games and new technologies. This project has progressed year after year, going from being a regional to a national project and reaching a more disadvantaged audience such as young patients admitted to hospitals, prisons, rural inhabitants and adults, a group usually far from outreach activities that allow them to participate actively and not as mere observers.
The project has been awarded first prize in the 18th edition of the Science in Action programme in the “Science Teaching Materials in Interactive Support” category (IBM Award), has received the D+i TOP seal, a national award for the best inclusive science outreach projects, and has been nominated twice for the Third Millennium Awards.
Hi Score Science is a highly rated game among users with a score of 4.5 out of 5, a much higher score than other similar games, and currently has more than 40,000 downloads worldwide, mainly in Spain and Asia. The game has been presented in the different autonomous communities, in videogame, scientific and informative fairs, reaching 100,000 people.
A scientific team behind Hi Score Science
The Hi Score Science project has been developed between two research centres, the Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis, ISQCH, and the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA), both joint centres of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza.
The project is supported by the Deputy Vice-Presidency for Scientific Culture of the CSIC and the Casio scientific project.
The project has the collaboration of other UCC and science museums such as the Deputy Vice-Presidency of Scientific Culture of the CSIC (VACC), the museums: Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid, Instituto Geológico y Geominero de España, Museo Elder de la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Museo Eureka, Casa de la Ciencia de Sevilla, CIUTAT DE LES ARTS I LES CIÈNCIES, Casa de la Ciencia de Valencia, Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza and the Planetario de Aragón, the Universidad de Cantabria, the Universidad de Alcalá, as well as the town councils of small towns such as Benasque and the Comarca de Calatayud and the CASIO-Científicas project.
01/07/2022
