Pollock to Present on Health and Health Literacy at Serious Play Conference

Health and health literacy are life and death, not a game. Yet Dr. John Pollock, professor of biological sciences and an expert in developing multimedia learning tools for health and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) topics, has been invited to present at the Serious Play Conference in Pittsburgh.

Pollock will share his research about the elements of literacy in visual learning, reading as cross-training for the brain, and storytelling as the way the brain holds together its learning and makes information relevant.

Educators and trainers in health care, government and the military will gather from Tuesday, July 21, through Thursday, July 23, to discuss how and why using game tactics—from game theory to video games themselves—can be relevant to teach environmental concerns, prevent HIV/AIDS, survive tsunamis, build robots and more to adults and children.

With funding principally from the National Institutes of Health (Science Education Partnership Awards), Pollock has shared science and health information with children, parents and teachers since 2000, producing animated planetarium shows and live-action TV shows focused on issues such as diabetes, evolution and insomnia. His portfolio includes videogames, comic books, apps and workbooks for museums and classroom teachers.

After more than a decade in this arena, Pollock is more concerned than ever about individual and national implications of low literacy skills among adults. About half of all American adults have weak reading skills, according to national surveys. The impact shows up in individual quality of life and nationwide health care costs.

“Because many people can’t understand directions for health care, their re-visits add to the burden of health care costs,” Pollock said, adding that the cost of low health literacy is as much as $238 billion in the U.S. “If that money could be captured, it would be enough to insure 47 million people.

“These problems spill over to kids,” Pollock said. “If kids don’t have strong reading skills and we’re also not engaging them in STEM subjects, then where are we going to get the workforce needed for our technological society?”

This critical situation makes engaging readers in eBooks, videogames and other transmedia all the more important for Pollock. His discussion at the Serious Play Conference will focus on developing digital multimedia resources that are conceptually linked. By developing them from the perspective of fun and engaging stories that come from the world of kids, the science of everyday events creates rich learning potential.

“Kids, pre-K through fifth or sixth grade, are much more capable of learning than many adults often give them credit,” Pollock said. “They can learn pretty sophisticated science, which they can share with their parents and that they’ll also remember when they’re adults, too.”