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11.01.2022

„Pig & Click“: Interactive scrollytelling about sustainable pig breeding

57 million pigs are slaughtered in Germany every year. Behind this are around 18,000 pig farms, where farmers make decisions taking into account various sustainability dimensions. To raise awareness of the complexity of pork production, Dr. Florian Fiebelkorn and Elena Folsche from the Biodidactics department have developed the digital science communication project “Pig & Click – Build your own pig farm”.

The project is based on the so-called "scrollytelling" method. Users scroll through a website and are guided through the everyday life of a pig farm in the form of a picture story. In the process, they are repeatedly asked to make their own decisions.

“The overriding goal is for users to recognize the complexity of the ‘fattening pig system’ and, on the basis of their decisions on the interactive design of a pig house, to develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the work of farmers," says Fiebelkorn. Folsche emphasizes: "Through the few decision-making situations, users already recognize what farmers are confronted with in their work and that these sustainability dilemmas are by no means easy to solve." At the end of the scrollytelling, users also receive feedback on how their planned housing looks and how it scores in terms of profit for farmers, animal welfare, contribution to climate protection, consumer perception and the amount of work required of farmers.

"The primary target group for our scrollytelling is children and young people. Corresponding additional materials for the use of the project in biology or geography lessons are currently still being developed and will be integrated on the homepage in spring 2022", explains Fiebelkorn. Folsche adds, "In order to make the materials as realistic as possible, we will visit various farmers and make video recordings of them and their farms."

In addition, next year the service will go on tour in Germany together with the project "Lernlabor ökologische Schweinehaltung" of the Agricultural Education Center in Echem. "We are very pleased about this cooperation, because the employees of the education center have supported us a lot in the conception of the scrollytelling", Folsche says.

Fiebelkorn and Folsche 2021 receives an award for the project design of "Pig & Click" in 2021 in the competition “Hochschulwettbewerb des Wissenschaftsjahrs 2020/2021”. The project was now implemented together with the agency for communication design and scenography BOK+ Gärtner from Münster and the illustrator Nadine Schmidt with the collaboration of Prof. Dr. Cordula Hesselbarth of the Münster School of Design (MSD). The project was funded by Wissenschaft im Dialog, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.

You can access the scrollytelling via the following URL: https://www.pig-click.uni-osnabrueck.de. Please note that the website has been optimized for use on the desktop. Therefore, there may be limitations in the use on mobile devices.