Knowledge Capital Workshop Fes, Autumn 2016: TATEWARI Board Game

A workshop titled “TATEWARI Board Game” was held on November 13, with 15 individuals from seven participating families—including elementary school children from grades 3 to 6 and their parents.

The TATEWARI game is based on the idea that the skills of cooperation and dialogue with others are essential for carrying out interdisciplinary research. This game encourages the players to not compete against each other, but establish business together, sharing information as well as resources with one another. Unlike other competitive board games, in TATEWARI, either all the players win or all of them lose.

The game and its rules are somewhat complex and the game itself takes about 90 minutes to complete. Thus, the ability to focus is required. However it seemed that children were able to quickly get a hand of the game. When their team was in danger, the children actively worked sharing together by the information, thoughtfully tried to avoid the crisis and reach their goal. Without incident, eventually only one team was declared winner by reaching the goal.

After having the children play the game, Dr Yoji Kojima (iCeMS Program-Specific Research Center Assistant Professor, Saitou Lab) commented, “We conduct our research along with many people. Just now cooperating with other players was important to complete the game, face-to-face communication with other researchers is important for research. Being able to convey what you think to others is also a crucial skill.”

Polish your cooperation skills by challenging yourself with TATEWARI again!

 
Text and Photo: iCeMS Science Communication Group