The 5th edition of Hi Score Science begins: a project that unites science and videogames

Hi Score Science is a videogame developed by two research institutes, ICMA and ISQCH, which seeks to bring science closer to the population in a fun way by pitting players from all over the world against each other.

The project, with international, national and regional recognition, has national and international tournaments, in person and virtual, at senior and junior level, which reward the winners with technological gifts and scientific trips.

This year, as a novelty, it includes an absolute national league, a primary school mode and an arcade mode for different museums throughout Spain.

Hi Score Science is a free videogame in Spanish and English, for mobile devices, PC and Mac that was created with the aim of increasing the scientific culture of the population in a fun way, bringing new scientific advances and trying to satisfy the scientific curiosity that we have lived with since we were children and that leads us to ask ourselves why things happen.

Hi Score Science is not only a game of questions and answers with several options about science but, as it is a project developed between two research institutes, ISQCH and INMA, it also includes explanations of the scientific reality behind each of the answers, encouraging users’ curiosity about science. The project also seeks to make the users themselves feel part of the project, as they are the generators of the scientific content. To this end, competitions are set up at provincial, regional and national level, senior and junior, which reward the most active users with technological gifts, visits to scientific facilities and scientific trips.

There are also face-to-face and virtual tournaments in which users compete live using their own mobiles to discover who are the most scientifically savvy.

A new feature this year is an absolute national online league, which will start on 26 September, in which any user of any age and education can participate and which will have a monthly online tournament.

All the rules of the project are available at www.HiScoreScience.org.

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, deaf children, rural inhabitants and adults, a group usually far from outreach activities that allow them to participate actively and not as mere observers. In addition, in this edition, it is intended to be taken, in recreational machine mode, to different museums throughout Spain.

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 recognition that rewards 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 10,000 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.

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 Materials Science of Aragon, ICMA, both joint centres of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza.

The project has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and its Network of Scientific Culture Units UCC+i, the CSIC Deputy Vice-Presidency for Scientific Culture, the Youth Service of Zaragoza City Council, the Department of Education, Culture and Sport of the Government of Aragon, the Ciencia Viva programme, the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and the Scientific Culture and Innovation Units of La Casa de la Ciencia in Seville, the CSIC Delegation in Galicia, the University of Oviedo, the University of Cordoba, the University of Castilla y León, the University of the Basque Country, the CSIC Delegation in Madrid and the Spanish National Research Council, the Natural Science Museum of the Valencia City Council, the Natural Science Museum of the University of Zaragoza, experiment – the Interactive Science Museum of the Living Science Programme, and the Teacher Training Network of the Community of Madrid.