Exploring Sustainability Through Board Game Design as a Learning Approach in Schools

This pilot study, conducted in 2024 in Copenhagen with roughly 30 students aged 12 to 15, investigates whether redesigning board games can serve as an effective approach to education for sustainable development. Using a design-based research methodology, the authors examined how students adapted familiar games such as Pictionary, Dixit, and Ego to address oceanic climate challenges. The work is positioned within the broader literature on design competences and sustainability learning in K-12 settings, aiming to explore how hands-on game creation can deepen students' engagement with environmental issues.

The principal findings point to a tension between aesthetic and pedagogical priorities. Visual and aesthetic design frequently functioned as a motivational entry point, drawing students into deep, hands-on creative work. However, this same emphasis often overshadowed the intended sustainability content, and students tended to pursue polished end products rather than the open-ended experimentation that iterative prototyping requires. Game mechanics such as dilemmas and narrative storytelling supported perspective-taking, though they sometimes reduced complex environmental problems to simplified or individual moral choices.

On the basis of these observations, the authors propose a set of design principles for educators. These include balancing aesthetic and educational goals, explicitly scaffolding iterative design processes, matching game mechanics to specific learning objectives, and using emotional engagement in ways that do not diminish the systemic nature of sustainability challenges. Taken together, the study offers a practical framework for integrating board game design into school-based sustainability education, while acknowledging the limitations of its small, single-location sample.