The OBs

An interactive learning game about nature, nurture and obesity.

This web-based game will enable students to explore the complex interactions between genotype, socio-economic setting, upbringing, and chance in the context of obesity. The second part of the activity will help them transfer the experience of playing into real-world learning. 'The Obs' has been developed for the Wellcome Trust by the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University.

The game involves students taking on the role of 'virtual parent', bringing up human-like characters called OBs. The challenge is to stop OBs becoming obese, and so discover the cause of their super-size problem. By learning to play the game successfully, students will gain an understanding of the complex network of interactions involved in weight control. Each OB has an initial personality and a family 'income level', which partly determine how it behaves and the choices open to players as parents. OB characteristics evolve during the game, shaped by parental influence and a series of chance environmental events.

Players have to negotiate with their OBs at various points over what they eat (energy input) and their leisure activities (energy output). This is a similar process to bargaining in a market – making offers and counter-offers until both sides agree. Of course, if students cannot keep these in balance, the OB may gain too much weight, and ultimately become obese.

Activity part I: Play the game [Need Flash? Download now" target="_blank">Download now]
Activity part II: Solving the OB obesity crisis [Excel 216KB]
Teachers' notes [Word 44KB].

'The Obs' has been developed for the Wellcome Trust by the Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University.

Download the activity

The activity, including parts I, II and the teachers' notes, is available to download so that it can be played offline.You will need Flashplayer v7. Download the player from Macromedia. The software is free to download.

PC users - To download the activity for offline use you will need to:

Click on the appropriate link below.
When the dialogue box appears, click on save and choose a destination for the file
When the download is complete, double click on the file for WinZIP to extract the contents. (Haven't got WinZIP? Download now.)
A list of files will be shown in your WinZip application.
Double click on the ob.exe file to begin the game.

Mac users - To download the activity for offline use you will need to:

Hold down the command key and click on the appropriate link below.
The file will be downloaded to your desktop.
Double click on the file for StuffIt Expander to extract the contents. (Haven't got StuffIt Expander? Download now.)
Double click on the Flash icon named 'ob'. (The file should appear as a small disk with an 'f' in the middle.)

PC activity [.zip file, 3.5MB]
Mac activity [.sitx file 3.5MB]