Learning on a life-sized board game

Parkopolis

Imagine a human-sized board game designed to maximize fun while learning about math and science. Roll the dice to get a 6 ½ or a 3 ¾ and progress along a board with challenge cards, a new kind of hop scotch and a way to test your athleticism. Currently at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia and sponsored by New Profit, this board game is so much more than a game. It is a way to stimulate just the kinds of interactions that build strong skills for learning. Designer: Nabil Shahidi.

The Learning Goals

Parkopolis supports children’s playful communication with adults and fellow peers around content in science and math. It encourages collaboration and cooperative game play, creative innovation in creating new rules, and the confidence to persist on challenging activities. Parkopolis supports children’s playful communication with adults and fellow peers around content in science and math. It encourages collaboration and cooperative game play, creative innovation in creating new rules, and the confidence to persist on challenging activities.

The Team

An initial pilot was developed in Switzerland through a partnership between Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Andres Bustamante, the Playful Learning Landscapes Initiative, Christine Riesen and We Are Play Lab, and Nabil Shahidi. A full-scale version of Parkopolis was presented as an exhibit in Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum in summer 2018.

The Science

Gaudreau, C., Bustamante, A. S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2021). Questions in a life-sized board game: Comparing caregivers’ and children’s question-asking across STEM museum exhibits. Mind, Brain, and Education. [PDF Link] [Online link]

Bustamante, A. S., Schlesinger, M., Begolli, K. N., Golinkoff, R. M, Shahidi, N., Zonji, S., Riesen, C., Evans, N. & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2020). More than just a game: Transforming social interaction and STEM play with Parkopolis. Developmental Psychology, 56(6), 1041-1056. [PDF Link] [Online link]

Bustamante, A. S. (2018). Preliminary results from Parkopolis: The life-size STEM board game. Poster presented at the The Administration for Children and Families National Research Conference on Early Childhood, Arlington, VA. [PDF Link]