Diamond the Board Game - engaging students in the science of Diamond Light Source and the process of being a scientist

Rising costs of public engagement mean that it is harder to deliver activities inclusively across the country. This is set against rising pressure on teachers and a massive STEM skills shortage. We seek to address this through the development and distribution of 'Diamond the Board Game' ('DTBG'), which aims to provide a cheap, reusable and entertaining way to directly engage students in STEM careers and the underpinning scientific experiments (all of which highlight the cutting-edge science carried out at Diamond). DTBG is currently at the final prototype stage, and ready for larger scale and more cost effective production. The aim of this grant is to bulk manufacture 1000 copies of the game, which can then be distributed primarily to the schools aligned to the Wonder Initiative. We therefore aim to prioritise schools with a high proportion of free school meals, and will also charge for postage on a case by case basis as we will consider requests for postage costs from those schools who cannot afford postage.

The introduction of 12 distinct careers and 36 interdisciplinary scientific projects during the game directly links to the mandatory careers guidance provision under the Gatsby Foundation recommendations that have been adopted by the government and specifically complies with benchmarks 1,2 and 4 for good career guidance. We therefore want to support schools to achieve their mandatory provision goals through the use of DTBG, which would be beneficial to many schools who are currently struggling to hit their targets for this. There are also benefits to Diamond as nurturing interests in STEM from an early age could be an opportunity for recruitment in later years.

The board game will be distributed by post from Diamond Light Source, together with three copies of the resource pack per school. The resource pack will also be made available on the game website to facilitate reprints etc as required by teachers.

Communication of the design process and the evaluation of the board game success will be communicated via multiple channels. Given the intentional design of the game to address colour-blindness, to engage people who are mildly visually impaired and the intention that players can project their preferred gender onto the characters rather than being forced to select a particular gender, from an inclusion perspective there are already lots of lessons learnt that we would like to communicate. From the preliminary evaluation we have already carried out (available in the attachments) highlighted that students learn how to engage with failure as a scientist and also discover that collaboration is a fundamental part of modern science that should be embraced. Accordingly we intend to use a variety of formal and informal channels to reach the wide range of scientists, educators and communicators who will be interested in our findings.

1. Publication - we would like to report our design process and our evaluation results to facilitate further discussion in the community
2. Science Communication Conferences - Conferences like the BIG Event and PARI would enable us to share our findings with science communicators nationally and internationally who may be considering the use of board games or who may be interested in using our board game as part of their outreach offerings.
3. Social Media and Science Forums - we will use social media and science forums to make people aware of the game and to generate conversation around the topic of gaming as a method for science communication.
4. Secondary Teachers and Careers Advisers Conferences and Networks - Attending these events will provide both an opportunity to promote the game as a means of identifying distribution networks, but also an opportunity to stimulate discussion around the understanding of science careers and the options available for students.