The educational game Come San, Come Sostible, developed at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) by researchers from CRETUS and the Esculca research group, is entering a new stage with its Spanish-language edition being marketed by McGraw Hill. The new Spanish edition will broaden the game’s reach and facilitate its use in educational centres across Spain to address responsible consumption, health and sustainability in the classroom.
The initiative was jointly developed by the Environmental Biotechnology Group (BioGroup) of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS) and ESCULCA (Knowledge and Educational Action) at the USC Faculty of Education Sciences. The collaboration brought together scientific and environmental expertise with an educational and pedagogical approach.
To mark the launch of the new edition, a presentation event was held on Friday, 25 September, as part of the Noite Galega das Persoas Investigadoras (Galician Researchers’ Night), at the USC Shop in Fonseca. The event was chaired by USC Rector Rosa Crujeiras and attended by Gumersindo Feijoo, Scientific Director of CRETUS, and Mª Mar Lorenzo, representative of the Esculca research group and project initiators, together with Manuel Queiruga, Marketing Director at McGraw Hill, and Marta Villaverde, Regional Minister for the Sea. The game was also featured at the science workshops held in the Fonseca cloister, where participants could try it out and learn about the educational proposal with researchers Aroa Carballido and Mara Meitin (CRETUS) and lecturers Jose Eugenio Rodríguez and Jesús García (Esculca).
Come San, Come Sostible
Come San, Come Sostible is an educational resource designed for primary education. Its main aim is to raise students’ awareness of the relationship between their food choices, health, environmental protection and sustainable development. Through the game, pupils explore topics such as responsible consumption, food waste and the environmental impact of food, while also learning about how to calculate the water and carbon footprints associated with food.
The initiative originated in a paper published in 2020 in the journal Education for Chemical Engineers by CRETUS researchers Gumersindo Feijoo and María Teresa Moreira, from the Environmental Biotechnology Group. The work focused on promoting environmental awareness among students around responsible food consumption and food waste reduction.
Building on this experience, CRETUS and the Esculca research group at the USC Faculty of Education Sciences collaborated to create and adapt the resource for primary education. CRETUS was responsible for the conceptualisation and design of the game’s scientific elements, while Esculca developed its pedagogical adaptation and accompanying teaching guide.