Developing an educative first 1,000 days game

for pregnant women and parents 

 

Pauline Dubrux, Ondine Moreels, Maud Verschaffel

3rd year Nutrition & Dietetics students, Odisee University of Applied Sciences (Ghent, Belgium)

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Hello, we are Pauline, Ondine, and Maud and we are final year students of Nutrition and Dietetics at Odisee University of Applied Sciences in Ghent.

 

During our internship, we developed a game about the role of the first 1000 days. This period has an important influence on the health status and further development of the child. The goal of our game is to educate women in Senegal, and hopefully many other countries, about various topics, such as pregnancy, nutrition, and hygiene. 

 

The game is a quiz consisting of yes-no and multiple-choice questions. It consists of 6 themes in total. Each theme has a different color. Per theme, we developed 15 to 30 educational questions. Afterward, the game was printed on cards, with the question on the front and the answer on the back with possibly a word of explanation. The aim is to put all the cards of the same theme on one stack. The game also includes a die. Each face of the die has a different color, which corresponds to the different colors of the themes. If the die is thrown and it falls on its blue side, for example, then a card must be drawn from the blue theme. 

 

We ourselves found this assignment very fun and informative. We learned a lot ourselves and we also teach other people something in this way. The fact that the game will actually be used and can make a change gives us great satisfaction.  

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