Pop-up Pest: An Educational Game for Active Participation of Children and Youth in Urban Planning

Abstract

1 ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the design of a cooperative game for engaging children and youth in creating sustainable living environments. In cooperative games players achieve their goals acting together, collaborating with other players and helping each other. In addition to acquiring new knowledge, and expressing their own ideas and aspirations regarding their living environment, players acquire social competences essential for the coexistence and work in the community. In order to test the possibilities for designing a collaborative game for children we designed and implemented the Pop-up Pest game. It aims to support children in learning about their environment, understanding possible changes in urban spaces, and acquiring skills for active participation. The Pop-up Pest game was designed within a 25 m² large playing area which depicts Pest side downtown of the Hugarian capital Budapest. The players are divided into three groups striving to improve urban traffic, to establish more green spaces in the city, and to initiate a variety of cultural activities. The first version of the Pop-up Pest game was presented in September 2012. A total of 167 players from all age groups played the game. In addition, the game has been tested with 14 and 17 year old pupils as well as with a group of university students. This article presents the motivation for the game, the game story, design, concept and the first results of testing. We conclude the paper with a critical discussion and further research directions. 2 INTRODUCTION The living environment greatly affects the child's development process, which should include the architectural design and space. This environment has an impact on the socialization processes, the formation of identity, as well as on the development of the child´s cognitive skills and competences. The research in the fields of psychology and social studies related to children's experiences of their living environment and the significance of built environment for their development and socialization (Muchow 1938/1978; Zinnecker 1979) reveals that their demands and needs and their involvement in urban planning processes need to be taken in account. Current planning practices are characterized by an increasing demand for the qualitative integration of underpriviledged social groups. The limitations and shortcomings of established participative methods have emerged in the last decades, especially regarding the selective nature of the inhabitants participating (Fürst and Scholles 2008). For example, specific groups often participate because of their educational background, their ability to articulate or their availability at a particular time. Other social groups, such as children and adolescents, or the poor and under-represented, have little or no influence on local decision-making procedures. In the last few years we can observe the growing importance of children's participation in urban planning practices. New planning tools have been developed which strive to include children in planning. An example is the so called "Spielleitplannung" developed in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, which integrates child-friendly activities and children's participation in city planning. Several pilot projects took place in Germany in the last ten years and these experiences are described in several volumes and project documentations (e.g. Kultusministerium und Wirtschaftsministerium 2005; Reicher et al. 2006, Studio Urbane Landschaften 2009; Gaus-Hegner et al. 2009). Most of these projects concentrate on summarizing the participatory framework requirements and the results of the participatory processes from a planner's perspective. Applied participatory methods are rarely placed in a theoretical educational context and have not been studied from the perspective of the educational sciences. A substantial work still needs to be done related to age-appropiate methods for children and young people, how these practices can help to support learning, and whether educational processes are needed to accompany the participation process or not. Developmental psychology focuses on the design of appropriate forms of participation in terms of skills and competencies of different age groups. Researchers have concentrated on the development of spatial perception of children (Piaget and Inhelder 1971), on the way children reproduce their everyday spatial experiences (Hart 1979), and on the development of their ability to participate in political, planning and

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 reviewed paper
REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
1
Pop-up Pest: An Educational Game for Active Participation of Children and Youth in Urban Planning
Eszter Tóth M.A., Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA
(Eszter Tóth M.A., HafenCity University Hamburg, Averhoffstraße 38 D-22085 Hamburg, eszter.toth@hcu-hamburg.de)
(Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA, HafenCity University Hamburg, Winterhuder Weg 29 22085 Hamburg, alenka.poplin@hcu-
hamburg.de)
1 ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the design of a cooperative game for engaging children and youth in creating
sustainable living environments. In cooperative games players achieve their goals acting together,
collaborating with other players and helping each other. In addition to acquiring new knowledge, and
expressing their own ideas and aspirations regarding their living environment, players acquire social
competences essential for the coexistence and work in the community. In order to test the possibilities for
designing a collaborative game for children we designed and implemented the Pop-up Pest game. It aims to
support children in learning about their environment, understanding possible changes in urban spaces, and
acquiring skills for active participation. The Pop-up Pest game was designed within a 25 m² large playing
area which depicts Pest side downtown of the Hugarian capital Budapest. The players are divided into three
groups striving to improve urban traffic, to establish more green spaces in the city, and to initiate a variety of
cultural activities. The first version of the Pop-up Pest game was presented in September 2012. A total of
167 players from all age groups played the game. In addition, the game has been tested with 14 and 17 year
old pupils as well as with a group of university students. This article presents the motivation for the game,
the game story, design, concept and the first results of testing. We conclude the paper with a critical
discussion and further research directions.
2 INTRODUCTION
The living environment greatly affects the child's development process, which should include the
architectural design and space. This environment has an impact on the socialization processes, the formation
of identity, as well as on the development of the child´s cognitive skills and competences. The research in the
fields of psychology and social studies related to children’s experiences of their living environment and the
significance of built environment for their development and socialization (Muchow 1938/1978; Zinnecker
1979) reveals that their demands and needs and their involvement in urban planning processes need to be
taken in account.
Current planning practices are characterized by an increasing demand for the qualitative integration of
underpriviledged social groups. The limitations and shortcomings of established participative methods have
emerged in the last decades, especially regarding the selective nature of the inhabitants participating (Fürst
and Scholles 2008). For example, specific groups often participate because of their educational background,
their ability to articulate or their availability at a particular time. Other social groups, such as children and
adolescents, or the poor and under-represented, have little or no influence on local decision-making
procedures. In the last few years we can observe the growing importance of children’s participation in urban
planning practices. New planning tools have been developed which strive to include children in planning. An
example is the so called "Spielleitplannung" developed in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, which integrates
child-friendly activities and children’s participation in city planning. Several pilot projects took place in
Germany in the last ten years and these experiences are described in several volumes and project
documentations (e.g. Kultusministerium und Wirtschaftsministerium 2005; Reicher et al. 2006, Studio
Urbane Landschaften 2009; Gaus-Hegner et al. 2009). Most of these projects concentrate on summarizing
the participatory framework requirements and the results of the participatory processes from a planner’s
perspective. Applied participatory methods are rarely placed in a theoretical educational context and have not
been studied from the perspective of the educational sciences. A substantial work still needs to be done
related to age-appropiate methods for children and young people, how these practices can help to support
learning, and whether educational processes are needed to accompany the participation process or not.
Developmental psychology focuses on the design of appropriate forms of participation in terms of skills and
competencies of different age groups. Researchers have concentrated on the development of spatial
perception of children (Piaget and Inhelder 1971), on the way children reproduce their everyday spatial
experiences (Hart 1979), and on the development of their ability to participate in political, planning and

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design issues (Oerter 1992). Richard Schröder's experiments (1995) with preschool and elementary school
children showed that age-appropriate forms of participation have to be defined and developed in order to
enable the children to participate. He based his research on the conclusions of developmental psychology,
specifically addressing how preschool and primary school children are able to make decisions regarding their
living environment, recognizing that their expressions and views differ greatly from those of adults. He
investigated whether children are able to work with models to express their opinions and suggestions
regarding their living environment. According to the results of his study, modeling is a suitable method for
primary school children, as they have the ability to express ideas by means of spatial design, rather than
verbalizing or visualizing them graphically. Their abilities and competencies to verbally or graphically
express their ideas develop later. Schröder’s research results also showed that in the case of older, 12-14 year
old children, modeling seem to lose its appeal, especially for boys. His research clearly demonstrates that
participation processes with children should be designed differently than those for adults, and they have to be
differenciated even between different age-groups of children. The methods used in participatory processes
should be adapted to the needs, interests and abilities of the children (and even of the particular age-group),
in order to ensure the efficiency and sustainability of the participatory process.
In this paper we focus on the design and implementation of a collaborative game which aims to support
learning about the environment and participation in planning for children. The Pop-up Pest collaborative
game addresses 12-18 year olds. Its main goal is to stimulate them to formulate their needs and wants
regarding public places in the city of Budapest, specifically in the Pest areas. The Pop-up Pest game enables
the children/players to express their opinions concerning city development, and the game supports the
development of a sense of responsibility for open spaces, and facilitates their ideas about further
development of these places. The players can acquire skills for active participation in an engaged and playful
way. We tested the Pop-up Pest game with 167 children and young people in Budapest during the European
Mobility Week in 2012. In addition, the game has been tested with 14 and 17 year old pupils and a group of
university students. The aim of the preliminary testing was to identify whether the game, as a method and as
a concept of a collaborative game, is appropriate and successful in conveying the learning content. In the
testing of Pop-up Pest we concentrated on the evaluation of the gameplay and the game experience. We
present a short summary of the testing results and conclude the paper with a critical discussion and our
further research directions.
3 GAMES FOR PARTICIPATION IN PLANNING
3.1 Design games for community planning
Sanoff in his work Design Games published in 1979 (Sanoff 1979; Sanoff 1990) introduced the idea of
games for community participation in urban planning. These games are ideally suited for community
workshops and aim to enable the involved parties to express their opinions and - often competing - interests.
Since then researchers increasingly used maps as a representation of the focused or contested territory. Such
games are intended to reconcile urban planning issues while playing out various scenarios (Sanoff 2000).
Author Clark Abt (1970), in his book “Serious Games” described a serious game for urban planning. It was
titled Simpolis, developed in 1967 and focused on major urban planning problems in New York City. The
Simpolis game concentrated on some major urban problems such as education, housing, civil rights, poverty,
crime, and pollution. The main goal was to educate the citizens about these issues and to suggest and
communicate possible responses and consequences of different decisions. The game involved a controlled
role-play in which the players received their profiles and specific constraints within which they had to
operate. In contrast to that, free role-play enables the players to act and decide about their strategies and
moves freely without any limitations.
Since the 1970s the game concept has been often used in urban planning. A recent example is The Big Urban
Game (2003) which was created by the Design Institute of the University of Minnesota with the goal of
encouraging the residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul to think about the design of urban spaces. The
Stadtspieler game Stadtspieler (2009), a recent German example, invites the players to discuss urban
planning issues. The players can build the city according to their wishes and ideas and prepare a fictive urban
plan. They use modeling clay and design their own city elements. In this way they also take on different roles
in the city such as investor, citizen and neighbor, or an urban planner, and learn these perspectives related to
the design of city environment.

Eszter Tóth M.A., Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA
REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
3
3.2 Motivation for designing a participation game
Games have a potential to facilitate deep and sustained learning (Gee 2003) and cooperative problem-solving
skills offering “several different levels of learning simultaneously to students of different abilities” (Abt
1970:23). Malone and Lepper (Malone 1981; Malone and Lepper 1987) developed a taxonomy of
motivations in the context of educational/learning games for children, with four motivational categories:
challenge, fantasy, curiosity, and control. Additionally, games enable learning through experimentation with
alternative possible solutions and strategies played in a changing and sometimes also competitive
environment. Within a safe, controlled realm, a player gets feedback from each experimental iteration,
accumulating knowledge from the game system (Abt 1970; Cheng 1999). Games provide playful and
engaging environments; they can motivate the players with the help of playful elements integrated in the
concept of the game (Krek 2008; Poplin 2011; Poplin 2012). Games may stimulate “internal listening”,
which “acknowledges the importance of listening as a strategy for children to make sense of their world.
Listening is, therefore, not just an avenue for other people receiving information but a reflective process for
children to consider meanings, make discoveries and new connections and express understandings” (Clark
2005:17). Games may allow and even encourage taking on different roles; they enable the children to take on
new roles, to lead and design the process, and to be in charge. They allow a shift in a relationship between
the adults and children to the point of “accepting the place of the unexpected” (Clark 2005:25). “The
advantages of accepting a shifting in power are a release from the need for adults to ‘know all the answers´”
(Clark 2005:25). Games also offer multisensory communication tools and means and are not limited to
written and/or oral skills of the children; they offer new ways of learning and communicating.
3.3 Learning theory and pedagogical concepts
Cooperative learning greatly emphasizes the activity of learners and facilitates communicative processes
between learners with different backgrounds. This pedagogical approach is based on structured divisions of
positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation and parallel interactions (Kagan
2001). Positive interdependence refers to the positive relationship between the development of groups or
individuals. In learning situations characterized by strong interdependence amongst learners, everyone is
responsible for one’s own work and for the performance of the whole group at the same time. Common aims
promote individual responsibility and improve learning performance (Kagan 2001). Due to the equal sharing
of responsibilities everyone has the responsibility for one part of the whole task. This not only strengthens
the sense of responsibility but also promotes equal participation.
Accentuated learning aims to have an impact on the players’ mindset. The learning process should be
designed to procure new ideas and approaches regarding the overall theme that learners focus on; it aims to
connect to their existing cognitive structures. The new knowledge needs to be embedded in the learners’ real
living environment and everyday situations. New information does not simply flow into the recipient, but the
recipient has to construct it himself, or rather integrate the new material to his cognitive system. Ideally, a
teacher or tutor has to be open and approach learning with constructive and encouraging attitudes, which
allows the individual knowledge acquisition and an active role of the students in the learning process
(Nahalka 1997).
Our work is influenced by the so called jigsaw method, developed by Elliot Aronson and his colleagues
(Aronson, Patnoe 1997). Their aim was to reduce competition between pupils in the classroom. In their
experiments, Aronson and his colleagues analyzed a fifth-grade class, which was studying the biography of
Joseph Pulitzer. The researchers divided the Pulitzer biography into six equal parts, so that each of the
important turning-points of his life was on a separate worksheet. Each child received a part of Pulitzer’s life;
just like in a jigsaw game, every child had a detail of the biography, but in order to be able to get acquainted
with the whole learning matter, or the complete life, everybody needed the knowledge the others had. Results
showed that when using the jigsaw method, children learned to pay attention to each other in the learning
situation in which everyone’s contribution is needed. Due to the mutual dependence, children became more
acquainted with each other and accepted each other's point of view – independent from their social or ethnic
background (Aronson 2004).

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4 POP-UP PEST: A COOPERATIVE GAME FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
4.1 Background
The game Pop-up Pest was developed as part of a PhD project at HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany.
The game is meant to be a preliminary study for the research project "Playful Children's Participation in
Urban Planning." The game development took place in Budapest, Hungary, in the summer of 2012 and the
first tests were conducted in the autumn of 2012. The development and the implementation of the Pop-up
Pest game was accompanied and supported by the kultúrAktív Association, the first organization in Hungary
dedicated to education about built environments. The project got financial support from the Hungarian
Ministry of National Resources and the National Institute for Family and Social Affairs, as well as the
Kunsthalle Budapest. The Pop-up Pest game was presented in September 2012 during the centenary
celebrations of the Ernst Museum (the exhibition venue of the Kunsthalle Budapest), and also during the
European Mobility Week. The tests with school groups and one university group took place at Balint Jewish
Community Center in Budapest, Hungary.
4.2 Aims
The main goal was to design and implement a collaborative game for children and youth from downtown
Budapest. The Pop-up Pest game aims to facilitate learning about their living environment and to support
them to develop ideas for changes and improvements. Playing the game, children and young people explored
the characteristics of the chosen districts from different perspectives and became aware of the current
planning conditions and deficiencies. The game also aims to improve their orientation and to support the
acquisition of competences regarding the use of urban space and the improvement of the quality of
community life. The Pop-up Pest game primarily focuses on three areas in which local children and youth
could proactively take part in shaping their living environment: the environment, transportation, and culture.
The long-term goal of the game is to promote an active children engagement in urban development. In
addition, a further aim of the game is to enable the players to learn about contemporary urban concepts by
presenting existing examples from their living environment such as guerilla gardening, community gardens,
street art, public art, advocacy, etc. A great importance is given to social skills reinforced by players during
the game such as positive attitudes and behaviors towards others, tolerance and “advanced communication”.
Advance communication means to be able to communicate within the group, to understand complex
communicative processes and to have the ability to be consistent with others and to be able to understand and
interpret different viewpoints.
4.3 Location
The game is located in the Pest side downtown of the Hungarian capital Budapest. It concentrates on large
parts of the 6th and 7th districts, as well as on the edge of the 8th district of the downtown area in Budapest
(Fig. 2). Figure 1 shows the area depicted on the play-ground of the game. All three districts were developed
in the 19th century around the former city wall, and surround the Grand Boulevard. This area is one of the
main tourist destinations of Budapest and includes some famous attractions. The Andrássy Avenue is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site surrounded by spectacular eclectic mansions and numerous monuments,
museums, theaters and cultural institutions as well as restaurants and coffee houses. It is also the most
densely populated area in Budapest, and includes an extended apartment quarter characterized by deficient
open spaces, green areas, and places for play and interaction. The so-called Jewish Quarter, with a lively
religious community, is located in the 6th and 7th districts. The 8th district, called the "Roma District”, is the
densest and the poorest area in Budapest, inhabited in large part by the Roma or gypsy minority. Thus the
selected parts of the city for our study are both a marvelous touristic attraction with an outstanding cultural
heritage, and a deprived area with social issues and urban deficiencies. Blue, red and green markers on
Figure 2 designate the so-called “priority sites”, indicated on the playing field on Figure 1 by the same
colors. Yellow markers highlight the Ernst Museum and the Balint Jewish Community Center, locations
where testing of the game took place.

Eszter Tóth M.A., Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA
REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
5
Fig. 1: The playing field of Pop-up Pest designed by Dóri Sirály (left)
Fig. 2: The selected area on the map of Budapest (right)
4.4 Target Group
The game addresses 12-17 year old children and young people living in the selected districts of Budapest.
This age group is able to explore the urban environment on their own and they are important users of public
places, wherein a large part of their social interactions with other children take place. As result of an
unpublished survey done in 2011 we discovered that children and young people living in the selected area of
the capital of Hungary have very sparse knowledge of their own living environment. The study was done
within an internship at LudwigInsert, an experimental art space of Ludwig Museum Budapest in the 8th
district. During various educational programs, we made a survey on the spatial knowledge of pupils at local
schools. In most cases, the children and young people interviewed only knew about the micro-environment
of their school and home, the shopping centers and transport hubs. Signs of isolation and their preferences
staying at home were observed. For these reasons, we chose the mentioned target group. We aim to enable
them to gain an access to their own living environment and to learn more about it. An important
consideration regarding the target group was the variety of religious, national, ethnic, cultural, social and
economic backgrounds. The integration of social skills, especially (in)tolerance, and a variety of
communication patterns, had to be taken into account in the Pop-up Pest game development.
4.5 Format
The game consists of a 25 m² large playing area. As the game board lies on the floor, players can move on it
as living game pieces or counters (Fig. 3). In this way the children/players can get active – not only mentally,
but physically as well. The continuous motion and the variety of sensory perceptions make the gaming
experience more intense and at the same time it can support the learning process. The action, in this case
each of the possible urban interventions, is symbolized by a 50 cm x 30 cm building block, each with
different patterns (Fig. 4). The four different kinds of building blocks are related to traffic: bicycle stands,
ramps, bicycle paths, and parking places. Following them, in the second row on Figure 4, are the building
blocks related to the topic culture. They represent a monument, street furniture, public art work and a festival
promenade. Below them are the building blocks related to the natural environment and green spaces in the
city, which includes the park, recycle bins, alleys and the community garden. The children/players can place
the building blocks on the playing field. This activity represents a direct action in the environment,
sometimes referred to as an intervention in the urban space.

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Fig. 3: Playing Pop-up Pest
Fig. 4: Building blocks, designed by Dóri Sirály
4.6 Game Design
The players of the Pop-up Pest game are divided into three groups and strive to collaboratively improve city
services, to establish more green spaces and to create a variety of cultural activities in order to improve life
in the center of the city. The three groups - environmental, transport, and culture - have a common goal: they
aim to improve their living environment through urban interventions. Besides having this common goal, each
of the groups has its own mission to fulfill. Sometimes the individual and group goals can possibly conflict
with the other groups’ interests. An example of a possible conflict is the available public spaces. The players
that are quicker and can cooperate better have the chance to realize their interventions faster. They can, for
example, place a bench, a bicycle stand or a recycle bin around the corner faster than the members that are
not willing to cooperate.
Figure 5 shows the different individual missions, different possible interventions within the three groups.
The environment group strives to gain more importance for the environmental concerns and create additional
green spaces in the districts. The transport group stands for a better, more ecological transportation,
accessible also for handicapped citizens. The culture group strives to broaden the cultural activities and the
preservation of cultural values.
Environment group
Transport group
Culture group
alley
bicycle path
festival promenade
recycle bin
bicycle stand
street furniture
community garden
parking
monument
park
ramp
public art
Fig. 5: Individual missions within the groups
Each of the groups has four players with individual missions thematically linked to the higher group goal.
Each of the players has control over three building blocks contributing to his or her individual mission. The
players have to first select one building block and then place it on the playing field. The players fulfill their
missions when they manage to place all three building blocks on selected spots on the playground. In order
to do so, the children/players have to complete different tasks and go through a variety of steps.
1. Site-visit

Eszter Tóth M.A., Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA
REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
7
At the beginning of the game the players have to visit a “priority site” related to their group´s goal. This can
be a park, a museum, a railway station or any other famous and important place marked on the playing field.
Priority sites are marked with the color of the concerned group; parks and green areas with the green of the
environment group, transportation hubs, and railway stations with the blue of the traffic group, and cultural
organizations with red of the culture group. Priority sites are graphed and marked with an inscription on the
fields in order to strengthen nodes and landmarks in the selected areas. Arriving at the priority site, the
children/players get an information card. These cards are individual, which means that each player has his or
her own set of cards (Fig. 7). The cards contain a very short description of the urban intervention connected
to concrete places or phenomena in the chosen districts.
The interventions are related to the individual mission of the player and they can be either constructive or
deconstructive. A possible constructive intervention for the player belonging to the environmental group (in
the mission “community garden”) is to create an herb garden in the yard of the apartment building. An
example for a deconstructive action is to neglect the maintenance of the parcel the player rents in the
community garden. Another example for a constructive intervention from the mission “public art” is to make
guerilla knitting in an unattractive public place, and for a deconstructive act is to draw a graffiti wall. In the
case of the mission “bicycle stand” (Fig. 6), one possible constructive intervention is to collect signs for
creating bicycle stands in front of the cinemas, and something deconstructive is to lock the bicycle in places
where people with wheelchairs or prams cannot cross the street. In case there is a constructive intervention
on the card, the player gets a building block. In contrast, if there is a deconstructive intervention, the player
has to visit another priority site and take a new card.
Fig. 6: Information card “bicycle stand”
Fig. 7: Individualized information cards
2. Intervention
In the next step, the obtained building block has to be placed on a free building area marked with striped
patterns on the playing field. Different colors symbolize different kinds of building areas appropriate for
diverse interventions. There are less building areas available to the players then the building blocks, therefore
the players, need to be quick in placing them on the suitable field.
3. Visting the other groups
After each intervention, the players need to visit a priority site or a fulfilled intervention of another team. For
example, a player of the transport team needs to rest in a green space, an existing park or a green site created
by the environment group or may enjoy a cultural event organized by an existing cultural institution or the
culture group. Thus, each intervention can have a positive impact on the progress of the other players. The
more environmental, vehicular or cultural elements are placed on the playing field, the easier it is to perform
the obligatory visits, and the faster players can accomplish their individual missions.
4. Cooperation
Players from a certain group can help the children/players from a competing group or the players within the
same group. The Pop-up Pest game encourages the players to collaborate in accomplishing their individual

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and group goals. For example, once the player acquires a building block, she can ask a group mate to place it
to a designated site, if she is closer to the area or has already completed her mission. On the other hand,
when the player already completed the individual mission, she can reserve a free building area for her group
mates. In the Pop-up Pest game, the players are motivated to cooperate with each other. Following Aronson's
jigsaw method (Aronson and Patnoe 1997), we divided them into three different groups, and created a
reciprocal dependence among them. The players can achieve their goals only by collaborating with their
team-mates. The game ends as soon as one group achieves its objectives. In order to win the game, every
player of the group has to fulfill his or her own individual mission. Therefore, if someone progresses slowly,
it is in the interests of her team-mates to support her. Just as in the case of a jigsaw puzzle, in the Pop-up Pest
game, all players have to contribute in order to be able to renew the extensive, overall picture of the district.
4.7 Learning content and approach
Following the deductive approach of the constructivist learning theory, the Pop-up Pest game has as
overriding objective - the idea of active participation in urban development. This idea has to be evident and
understandable for all players of the game. The next level of learning consists of general patterns of action
that players can perform in terms of the overall concept of participation. This content appears at the level of
the players’ activities and focuses on three thematic fields: environment, transport, and culture. Embedded
patterns of action are examples for urban interventions, which players are able to realize beyond the context
of the game as well (e.g. plant trees, place bicycle stands, advocate for the conservation of listed buildings).
The third level of learning consists of real options for action and factual knowledge, both linked to the
players’ living environment. Embedded in the information cards which regulate the players’ activities, these
contents are integral parts of the game. The Pop-up Pest game draws attention to the existing interventions
and changes in public places. Playing the game enables the players to acquire new knowledge, adding it to
their existing knowledge, and to comprehend the options of practical applications and its effects.
The pedagogical concept of the Pop-up Pest game is based on a deductive approach, contextualization of the
learning content and active learning (Nahalka 1997). It was influenced by the jigsaw method, developed by
Elliot Aronson (Aronson, Patnoe 1997). Based on the results of the jigsaw method we proceeded on the
assumption that this teaching method contributes to strengthening the players' senses of responsibility for
their own environment as well as the development of empathy towards other residents and user groups, all of
which encourages players to actively participate in urban development processes. Consequently, the Pop-up
Pest game applies this method in the context of urban coexistence of children from different backgrounds,
and districts.
5 EVALUATION OF THE POP-UP PEST GAME
An extensive evaluation of educational games or game-based learning requires a variety of criteria and
methods: in general research focuses on the learning outcomes. Breuer (2011) in his study on digital game-
based learning emphasizes the necessity to integrate the evaluation of both; the learning objectives or
learning content and the gameplay. We aimed to integrate both aspects while testing the Pop-up Pest game in
a variety of testing experiments.
In the first part of the test phase we presented the Pop-up Pest game at two open-air festivals in Budapest.
The game was first presented in September 2012 during the centenary celebrations of the Ernst Museum, as
well as during the European Mobility Week. Both festivals took place in public spaces of the 7th district in
Budapest. This situation enabled the residents of the district to participate freely, independently from their
age or social and educational backgrounds. Residents were able to join, quit, interrupt or repeat the Pop-up
Pest game spontaneously. In the test phase, we investigated whether the concept of the presented Pop-up Pest
game was appropriate for children engagement in planning, and whether children of the age-group 12-18
could accept Pop-up Pest as an interesting game. During the preliminary study we worked with
questionnaires and interviews, in order to obtain the subjective opinions of the children/players.
From both festivals, a total of 167 players from all age groups played the game and 47 people answered the
questionnaire. The quantitative survey included questions regarding the format of the game, gameplay and
learning content. Most of the questions referred to the playful elements, subdivided into game dynamics and
thrill, collaboration and personal achievement, motivation and reward, and visual representation as a sensory

Eszter Tóth M.A., Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alenka Poplin MBA
REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
9
delight in the way as defined in Ritterfeld, Wagner (2006). The questionnaire included 28 different
statements and the players had to decide to what extent they agree with the statements and marked their
opinions on a 1 to 5 scale in which 1 meant "do not agree at all" and 5 meant "totally agree". In this way we
were able to measure the attitude of the players related to certain issues.
In the preliminary evaluation of the survey, we sorted the responses by age groups. The preliminary results
show that the target group accepted the game very well. Participants enjoyed playing in groups, they
appreciated the graphic design and they were motivated to interact in the represented urban space. As Figure
7 shows, the players were very satisfied with the format of the game. Children 7-12 years, and young adults
of 19-26 fully agree with the statement "I like the format of the game". The target group of the game, age 12-
18 years, on average evaluated the format with a 4.3, which is still between good and very good. Regarding
the format and design of the game, there were critical comments in relation to the design of the building
blocks: "not practical", "they have been knocked over by the wind". They were also critical about the
selected colors of the groups, which "should differ more from each other".
Figure 8 shows the attitude regarding the dynamics and activity of the Pop-up Pest game. The scale
demonstrates that children between 7-12 were content with the dynamics. The need for activity increases
with the age. The questions on collaboration within the group were valued most positively. On Figure 9 it
can be seen that all children and young people up to age 25 agreed with the statement "I enjoyed playing in a
group". The average value for the evaluation of this question in all questionnaires was the highest for this
question.
Fig. 7: “I like the format of the game”
Fig. 8: “There was not enough activity in the game”
Fig. 9: “I enjoyed playing in a group”
In the second part of the test phase, we tested the Pop-up Pest game with 14 and 17 year old pupils and a
group of university students. We are going to continue with the second phase of testing during spring 2013
by placing the emphasis on the learning content and learning objectives. The survey will concentrate on the
effectiveness and efficiency from the learning perspective.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This article summarizes the concepts and the implementation of the Pop-up Pest game for children and
youth. Our main goal was to create a cooperative educational game for children which aims to facilitate
learning about the environment, and to understand planned changes in this environment and their
consequences on the quality of life in the city. The Pop-up Pest game was implemented for three districts of
Budapest, but the main concept of the game could be used for other cities as well. Collaboration is an
important part of this game; the children/players are encouraged to collaborate with members of competitive
teams in order to accomplish their tasks. Only one team can win the game. In spite of that, winning is only
one of the goals of the Pop-up Pest game. Learning how to collaborate and help the players of competing
teams is also one of the central goals of this game. Children and youth can gain new awareness about the
meaning of collaboration and can compete and collaborate at the same time in order to become co-creators of
their living environment.

Pop-up Pest: An Educational Game for Active Participation of Children and Youth in Urban Planning
10
REAL CORP 2013:
PLANNING TIMES
Acquario Romano (House of Architecture), Rome, Italy
Besides the aspect of collaboration and co-creation, games also can empower children and youth; their
voices and opinions can be expressed while playing the game. Inclusion of children in planning has been
neglected for too long. Thus it is important to develop methods which can foster children’s participation in
planning. Games are just one possible framework, a concept that can possibly encourage children`s
participation in planning. We are testing different game concepts and designs in order to understand better
the possibilities of this method on one hand and the role they could play by the inclusion of children in urban
planning participation. Currently we are working on the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the
developed Pop-up Pest game. Additional evaluations will be done in a set of experiments with children of
different age groups. We are interested in differences among these age groups of children and young people.
Can the same or similar game concepts be developed for several age groups? How differentiated
collaborative, participation games should be in order to be able to motivate and include children from
different age groups? We will set up testing experiments in the way that will enable us to accomplish
research related to these relevant questions.
Games for children have yet another interesting aspect which needs additional research; they are often led by
adults, but aim to involve children. Clark (2005) addresses the issue of power in communication with
children in both situations: in “adults imparting ‘knowledge’ to children or children communicating their
ideas to adults”. The issue is how to deal with the differences in their status, especially when adults work
with children. Clark (2005:25) suggests that “Viewing young children as weak, powerless and vulnerable
may lead to high expectations of the adults’ role in terms of protection and nurture but low expectations of
children in terms of how they can express their perspectives, priorities and interests. Viewing young children
as competent and valuable communicators requires researchers and practitioners to readdress their
relationship with young children and therefore their respective roles. Games can help to change the roles by
providing alternative, novel environments where the classical roles of an adult and a child “dissolve”; they
can become just players and learners in a game that engages them all in topics that can help to create better,
sustainable environments in which they, the adults and children, can co-exist and co-create together.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to Stephen Poplin for the language improvements of this article. Thank you to the kultúrAktív
team (Zsófi Szolga, Réka Katona, Zsuzsanna Lavicska, Laura Sipos, Anna Guba, Vanda Anna Illés,
Krisztina Kovács, Dóra Szaniszló, Tamara Faár) for supporting the implementation of the project.
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REAL CORP 2013 Proceedings/Tagungsband
20-23 May 2013 – http://www.corp.at
ISBN 978-3-9503110-4-4 (CD), 978-3-9503110-5-1 (print)
Editors: Manfred SCHRENK, Vasily V. POPOVICH, Peter ZEILE, Pietro ELISEI
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