MOBY – Exploring Mobility Through Play

Concept description

MOBY – Exploring Mobility Through Play is an interactive educational programme for nursery and primary schools, in which children explore mobility through their own everyday experiences. Through playful methods, collaborative comparison and active participation, they develop an initial understanding of different modes of transport and their impacts. The focus is not on finding the ‘right’ answer, but on thinking together, asking questions and making discoveries.
The focus is on an inquiry-based approach: children arrive at insights through their own actions, comparisons and discussions. Complex questions are not presented in a simplified form, but are explored together.
The MOBY educational programme was developed as a standalone concept for the playful exploration of mobility in childhood and can be flexibly adapted to different educational contexts.

Impact and added value

MOBY makes a targeted contribution to encouraging early engagement with a key issue for the future: mobility at the intersection of everyday life, the environment and health. The programme enables children to explore this complex subject area in a way that is both age-appropriate and substantively sound.
The focus is on fostering fundamental skills in scientific thinking. The children learn not to rush to answer questions, but to consider them from different angles. By comparing, discussing and reflecting together, they begin to understand that there are no simple or clear-cut answers to many questions, but that different perspectives must be taken into account. In this way, key skills such as observation, classification and step-by-step reasoning are strengthened. At the same time, the programme is closely linked to the children’s everyday lives. Their own experiences, journeys and wishes form the starting point for exploring the subject matter. This makes it clear that mobility is not an abstract topic, but a natural part of their daily lives.
The children learn that their observations matter and that they are capable of forming and justifying their own opinions. This boosts their sense of self-efficacy and active participation.
Another key aspect is raising awareness of sustainable mobility. The aim is to increase awareness of environmentally friendly modes of transport such as scooters, bicycles, public transport and walking. It demonstrates how using active modes of transport can contribute to climate protection and health.
Furthermore, MOBY specifically promotes language and social skills. Children are encouraged to express their thoughts, listen to others and discuss different perspectives together. Making decisions together and seeking reasons for them strengthens both communication skills and social interaction within the group.
Overall, the programme is characterised by its high level of adaptability. The content can be easily integrated into everyday teaching practice and offers numerous points of connection for further topics. In this way, MOBY combines early learning, real-life relevance and forward-thinking into a holistic learning programme.

Download: Module MOBY – How we get around

Citation: Stark, Juliane (2026): MOBY – Exploring Mobility in a Playful Way. An interactive educational program for kindergarten and primary school. Module – MOBY- How we are around. Institute of Transportation, BOKU University, Vienna.