Enhancing nutritional learning outcomes within a simulation and pervasive game-based strategy

Games are often seen as a means of enhancing motivation in learning. Despite the rhetoric, however, games that provide quality experiences for learners are hard to find. One reasoning is the focus on the game medium without a clear understanding of the strategy behind it. This paper outlines a game designed to raise primary school-aged children’s awareness of nutritional issues using simulation and pervasive gaming strategies. Nute implements ubiquitous mobile technology and QR Code scanning to allow players to engage in virtual shopping. The effects of their dietary choices are manifest in a simulated character, Nute, who has similar dietary requirements to the target audience. By making conscious decisions about nutrition, seeing the effects and developing strategies to maintain the wellbeing of Nute, it is proposed that simulation and pervasive game strategies are ideal tools for learning approaches to promote active choice and real world learning transfer.