Board Games on the Path to Environmental Education for Sustainability

Antunes, Moreira, and Schreck Reis of the University of Coimbra present a framework for designing board games that integrate STEAM education, education for sustainability (EfS), and gamification. Their core argument is that conventional STEM curricula remain siloed and oriented toward human capital, while the social and economic pillars of sustainability are routinely neglected in favour of environmental education. Drawing on recent literature, they contend that holistic, interdisciplinary approaches and interactive learning materials are needed to cultivate scientifically literate citizens capable of sustainable decision-making.

The authors' framework rests on evidence that gamified interventions rarely produce behavioural change unless they incorporate reward mechanisms and structured debriefing, and that board games are particularly effective at illustrating complex systems and encouraging social interaction. Its design structure centres on three elements: defining the problem, building co-creation communities, and prototyping solutions, with debriefing and clear learning goals running throughout. The framework was applied to three games developed by UC Exploratório in Portugal: "Apanhados pelo Clima," "Escolhas Energéticas," and "Foco na Embalagem." These were deployed in a non-formal project during the 2023/2024 school year, reaching 3,119 students and 259 teachers across 162 sessions.

The study's findings are candid about its limits. Not all games fully implemented the solution-presentation and testing stage, and the framework's effectiveness is only partially validated through basic surveys of participants rather than measured outcomes. The authors identify long-term behavioural change, participatory refinement of the framework, and the substantial time and human-resource demands of multidisciplinary game development as priorities for future work. The accompanying bibliography, spanning 2010 to 2024, situates the work within a broader body of research using board and serious games to teach sustainability, climate change, water management, and STEM concepts across primary, secondary, and university settings.