Finding fun with BeanMeals

For World Pulses Day, we spoke to Joanne, who is creating a game to inspire children to eat UK-grown beans as part of the ECI-based project BeanMeals. Find out more about the BeanMeals project here.

You’re working as part of the BeanMeals project, can you tell us more about that?

BeanMeals is a collaborative research project blending scientific disciplines with practical actions. The ultimate aim of the project is to promote UK-grown beans in UK school meals. The project has partnered with Food for Life to work with six schools in Leicester City and Leicestershire County. My job on the project is to design games for children which will encourage them to try UK-grown beans in their school dinners.

The project is multi-layered and looks at the production and supply of UK beans as well the benefits and trade-offs of scaling them; can you explain more about your part of the project?

I’m part of a team working with school children to identify their barriers to eating beans, and to understand which recipes they are excited by and which ones they find gross. We also want to encourage the children to try new varieties of bean. As part of this research, the game will expose the children to the UK beans used in the project, and test whether using games can influence children’s eating habits.

Will there be a tasting element in your game? That could get interesting!!

I’d love to include tasting as part of the experience however I need to ensure the game can be easily used in classrooms. The introduction of a tasting element brings extra complications – such as the need for washing up – so I’m keeping an open mind at this stage. At the very least I want the game to facilitate the handling of dried beans.

Are there other challenges when trying to make the link between game play and real-life food choices?

We can’t always guarantee that there will be beans on school menus on days the game is played, so my hope would be that children would still make the link to their game experience when beans next appear on the menu.

Do you take the same approach when designing games for adults and children?

I think that everyone can benefit from working with games. They allow you to be more creative and open in your thinking.

When I design games for adults, I’m asking players (who are usually stakeholders) to bring their expertise and experience to the game so we can learn from their approaches. As children have less knowledge about the issues the game addresses, they approach the game in a much more open fashion. Adults initially engage with my games for the serious content so I feel I have to ‘sell’ the game element. Kids are ready to play from the word go! However, if they are not having fun, they’ll switch off, which means they’re not learning.

How have you involved children in your games design?

In November 2022 I co-ran a workshop at the EcoSchools Leicester Roadshow with my project colleague Lisa Didier from Food for Life. Our aim was to gather as much information as possible about how the kids see beans – and see if they could help us with the game design!

We passed around bowls containing different beans so the kids could get stuck in and explore. We also asked about which types of beans they eat. On a huge roll of paper, as long as the classroom, we all created a timeline of the bean journey. The pupils stationed themselves along the paper and drew all the stages of the bean, right from the planting stage to the fart at the end and everything in between.

What did you think about the way the children approached games design?

They came up with lots of things I’d never have thought of. One group did a game where you had to try and smash the bean open to see what was inside – they managed to smash three beans and I still don’t know how they did it. They said it was a secret! Some games had many levels and intricate storylines while others firmly focused on the digestive aspect.

What sorts of food experiences did the children have with beans?

Some of the schools in Leicester are fully vegetarian and the range of diversity in terms of eating beans was broad. You’d pass around kidney beans and one child would say it was the first time they’d seen them while another would say their mum cooks them three times a week. When we asked about how they eat beans, some of the children told us about recipes we’d never come across before.

How did you link your activity to the project’s aim to promote healthy meals using locally grown beans?

When we were passing round the different beans, we asked the children to check the packets for where beans had come from, countries such as Mexico and China. Then we showed them the Godiva and Capulet beans that are being grown for BeanMeals in Warwickshire. This introduced discussions around sustainability and food miles.

How is the learning from the Eco-Schools Roadshow informing the next stage of the game design?

The drawings are helping to inform the game’s visuals. When I think about growing beans, I think of a tractor whereas most of the children drew a person wearing a hat and holding a watering can. It’s important that the game speaks to the young players, so this type of learning is crucial.

Using the games designed by the children at the Roadshow, I’ve identified the most common ways implemented to play the games, the mechanics. I’m aiming to marry these with feeding practices, which are the strategies used to encourage children to eat certain foods. An example of a feeding practice is using a reward that isn’t food, so I might test an example in the game where a player would receive a reward for eating beans.

Is there a wider plan for the game beyond BeanMeals?

The BeanMeals game should be finished by spring 2023, after which it will be run in a subset of schools in Leicester. We’ll be studying how different interventions – including the game –influence the uptake of bean meals in these schools. We’ve had a lot of interest from teachers from other schools too and the ambition is that the BeanMeals game will be available in a downloadable pack with instructions so it can be run anywhere.