Produced in 2022 by a team of Brazilian grad pupils, educators and researchers — Brenda Letícia Sena, Josilãna Silva Nogueira, Eduardo Luiz Dias Cavalcanti and Ana Gabriella de Oliveira Sardinha from the Graduate Instruction in Sciences method at the College of Brasília — The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Trail tabletop recreation aims to train Brazilian younger persons about menstrual cycles in a unique way.

Professor Ana Gabriella Sardinha is an elementary education and learning instructor, higher discovering professor and educational researcher from the College Center of Brasília who is at this time testing the video game amid undergrad and grad pupils ahead of bringing it to the broader educational process.

Brazil is recognised as a single of the most socially unequal countries in the planet, plagued with a fragile academic procedure, difficulties with misinformation and phony information in the media, and violence triggered by cultural machismo and homophobia. All of this and much more will make it challenging to converse about menstruation at the classroom or at property.

Sardinha is a expert in tabletop online games as academic instruments. With scholars Maria Terezinha Jesus Gaspar and Mônica Molina, she previously investigated the Brazilian Indigenous sport Adugo, and utilised the game to instruct Math in the Brasília educational program, on which I interviewed her about a couple months back.

Now in an interview with Scarleteen, Professor Sardinha, or Ana Gabriella, as she is regarded by her acquaintances, talks about how her very own lifestyle expertise impacts the way she perceives and teaches menstruation, the severe actuality of speaking about intimacy and science in Brazil, and the growth of The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Trail as a tabletop video game in its place of employing a newer technological innovation and the possibilities of it landing outside the house of the Brazilian country.

Scarleteen (ST): Can we commence by discovering out about you, Gabriella? Exactly where are you from? What was rising up for you like, particularly all around menstruation?

Ana Gabriella de Oliveira Sardinha (AG): I’m 34 years previous, and I am a mom and teacher right here in Brazil. As a kid, I generally appreciated taking part in, operating, and climbing trees.

When I was 9, during the college vacations, we have been at my grandparents’ farm. There I was jollily climbing up and down trees in the yard. When I desired to go to the bathroom, I acquired terrified at what I observed: I imagined I had damage myself actively playing. I screamed for aid and that working day I learned what menstruation was.

ST: How do you feel your possess qualifications influences how you technique menstruation?

AG: I have a degree in Natural Sciences and Pedagogy, but remaining a mother allows me to take into account how to technique the subject in fundamental instruction. I don’t want my learners or kids to put up with from a absence of scientific information and facts on the issue. For that reason, I request to increase this topic in the instructor schooling software.

ST: In lots of households in Brazil, television performs a larger function as an educator than the standard instructional program. How do you consider this impacts sexual intercourse education for Brazilian young people?

AG: Television can be a supply of details and direction that complements what needs to occur inside of educational facilities. In 2005, Television Escola (a general public broadcasting tv community) showed two series about sexual orientation. I believe that that 1 of the barriers at the time was channel tuning, which is not often offered instantly, and the other conflict would be the broadcast time, which competes with Brazilian soap operas. Even however young persons have accessibility to tv and are available to view, we have cultural, spiritual, and relatives barriers that take care of sexual instruction as taboo: with prejudice. To triumph over this conflict, I think we will need to fortify the partnership involving the Ministry of Training and the Ministry of Wellbeing, in an attempt to overtly talk about sexuality and broaden the dialogue in the Brazilian faculty curriculum.

ST: What is your feeling of what menstruation education and facts is like for young people in Brazil? Do Brazilian young children and teenagers have obtain to conversations about menstruation within and exterior their households?

AG: Menstrual education however faces troubles in Brazil. 1 impediment is the lack of preliminary and continuing education of our teachers. This is also a reality in Brazilian homes that experience from absence of dialogue on the subject in essential training. In brief, neither academics nor families are [often] prepared to talk about scientifically about menstruation with children and teenagers.

ST: Would you say these talks take place for persons of each gender and sexual intercourse, or only for young persons who will or do menstruate?

AG: However, in Brazilian faculties or homes, this dialogue is [usually] limited to individuals who menstruate. I consider we want to increase access to facts about menstrual education and learning for people today of all genders and sexes. We require to coach menstrual educators to tackle the issue and also commit in the creation of materials aimed at small children who will menstruate.

ST: Can you describe The Conscious Menstrual Path game for our visitors? How did you get the thought for it?

AG: In 2022, I took some subjects in the Postgraduate Method in Science Schooling at the College of Brasília. At the time, I experienced created a training sequence on Menstrual Instruction in the Science topic for Elementary Faculty. For Subjects in Science Instructing – Theoretical and Methodological Factors of the Sport – our team of college students (the full classroom) needed to generate a sport and the exact theme was adopted by the study team composed of Brenda Letícia Sena, Josilãna Silva Nogueira and Eduardo Luiz Dias Cavalcanti. Our proposal was to build a video game dependent on a trail. We selected the time period “CONSCIENCE,” since within that word we have the word “science.” The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Trail sport was built for the 8th calendar year of Elementary Faculty (at this stage Brazilian college students are all around 13 yrs-old), following the Countrywide Popular Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular, BNCC), the curriculum adopted in Brazil. The board represents the phases of a 28-day menstrual cycle, discovered by unique hues in each individual section (ovulatory, follicular, and luteal). 80 adaptable playing cards were being produced: wild cards that transfer the player to specific factors on the board in clockwise movement, query cards that progress with the right remedy, information cards that advance scientific information and protection cards that enable you to advance and choose up one particular additional card. In the game, the decision of who will begin the video game is produced and the gamers select their markers, permitting from 2 to 5 gamers, and, as they shift, a card is eradicated. The winner’s goal is to reach the finish of the trail.

ST: Why did you select a tabletop recreation, alternatively than a video game or an app?

AG: The 1st edition was designed to be used in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when lessons have been held remotely in 2022. In this context, we selected to use the Jamboard (a electronic interactive whiteboard developed by Google to operate with Google Workspace) to produce the board and Phrase Wall (a system for interactive electronic game titles) to develop the playing cards, permitting the recreation to be performed on the web.

Subsequently, we adapted this product to be applied in face-to-encounter educating in 2023, resulting in the board match model. One of the positive aspects of the board activity is its accessibility in Brazilian faculties. It would not have to have electrical power, internet link or precise electronic units, which will make it much more accessible to distinct university realities. If we want to convert it into an application or a movie video game, it would be required to have out more in-depth study about the gamification and gameplay factors.

ST: You’ve presented the video game in grad and undergrad applications, but you haven’t nonetheless for younger learners. What was the response from the older college students? What do you be expecting from young ones?

AG: The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Path is a activity in progress. The sport was to start with accessible on the net all through the pandemic, so professors from the postgraduation systems could give their responses. Right after that, a tabletop edition was designed and examined with undergrad students. Each individual time that the game is examined we intention to make improvements to it. It is a ongoing analysis system to assure that the activity is each educative and entertaining.

Older learners reacted positively to the game. They uncovered and learned exciting details about menstrual cycles and realized that, even even though they have been menstruating individuals, they did not have enough scientific understanding on the subject matter. We hope that more youthful men and women will also get concerned and intrigued in the video game, as we realize that it can be a entertaining and instructional way to have an understanding of how menstrual cycles arise.

It is significant to highlight that, as this is a scientific recreation, we are searching for ways to enhance the gameplay and the enthusiasm of primary instruction learners so that they get involved in the dialogue on the topic. We imagine that The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Trail can be a precious software to endorse menstrual education and learning in an inclusive and complete way.

ST: What are your favorite areas of the game? What do you enjoy to train most about menstruation?

AG: I like to notice the discussions and know that the activity enables gamers to actively take part. As a instructor, I take pleasure in the prospect to expand discussion and argumentation in instructor education about how to method menstrual training in the early yrs of elementary school, significantly for small children who have nonetheless to menstruate.

ST: Apart from understanding about menstruation, what other competencies does the activity offer you those who participate in it?

AG: The Menstrual ConSCIENCE Path is a scientific match, but it also encourages reflection on social issues these kinds of as menstrual dignity and menstrual poverty. A person of the most important techniques is argumentation, and the recreation also encourages socialization amid contributors. The duration of the activity can fluctuate depending on the discussions that arise and can very last up to an hour. The path delivers a fun and playful way to learn, advertising awareness.

ST: What do you expect when it comes to bringing the sport exterior of Brazil?

AG: I hope that our initiative broadens the dialogue on menstrual education and learning. Menstrual poverty is a truth that influences the day by day life of a lot of menstruating individuals, such as the deficiency of entry to sanitary pads or important cleanliness products and solutions, staying just one of the factors for school failure. The aim is to grow the discussion about the menstrual cycle, suitable hygiene, and reproductive wellness in Brazil and all over the world.

ST: Is there just about anything else you want to convey to our audience about?

AG: I hope the recreation can aid tackle menstruation openly and with no taboos, both in educational facilities and at house. We want to promote inclusive menstrual instruction, contemplating people’s different realities and demands. We also need to have to focus on social and cultural issues associated to menstruation, this features addressing menstrual well being concerns these kinds of as cramps and premenstrual signs or symptoms. Sad to say, there are even now several limitations and stigmas bordering menstruation, and it is significant to do the job to prevail over these and to assure menstrual dignity for every person.