Sustainability education gets creative with board games

By using theatre- and game-based methods, the project has provided university teachers with new tools to engage students in topics that are often perceived as both difficult and abstract. Behind the project “While playing to change the world: theater and gaming techniques in sustainability teaching” is a long-standing ambition to develop sustainability education.

Project leader Aleksandra Halaim works as Lecturer at the Department of Women's and Children's Health.

“I have always been interested in trying to change the way how we teach about complex sustainability issues where problems are wicked and unsolvable by their nature, statistics is changing all the time, opinions differ a lot, all is political and controversial”, she says.

The pedagogical development funding made it possible to use the university environment itself as a “living lab”, with a focus on making global sustainability challenges personal and relevant in the teaching context.

Crucial support for implementation

The main aim was to train the trainers, to equip teaching staff at Campus Gotland with practical skills in using serious games and applied drama in sustainability education. Aleksandra Halaim says that the project would have been difficult to realise without the funding.

“To train teaching staff on facilitating serious games and use theater techniques in teaching, one needs time and organisational efforts, that is something I have got with PUMA grant.”

The funding was used to organise a series of pedagogical workshops, cover costs for facilities, and organize a game library with sustainability-themed board games. Games that now can be borrowed free of charge by teaching staff at Uppsala University.

In addition to the workshops, a web-based game handbook has been developed. The project also involved experts in educational games, both external specialists and colleagues from the Department of Game Design at Uppsala University.

Joy, engagement and sharing experiences

The most rewarding part of the project has been working with the participants. Providing teachers with new pedagogical tools while having fun at the same time has been particularly meaningful, according to Aleksandra Halaim.

“Also, to see the joy in the eyes of workshop participants. We all like to play games, especially university teachers!”

But thoroughly planned activities and personalised outreach is important. Since university teachers are often very busy, a combination of posters, personal invitations and emails via central campus mailing lists proved effective.

“We have got on board for workshops’ participation a quite diverse group of teachers and teaching PhD students from different departments and science domains. During the academic year 2023/2024, a core group of teachers has been formed who kept attending more than one workshop subsequently. In the following year 2024/2025, at least five of them have used the games in their teaching practice and were inviting me to assist with the facilitation.”

Contributing both locally and internationally

The project’s experiences and outcomes have also been shared outside Campus Gotland. Through conference presentations and openly available resources, the project has also contributed to continued pedagogical development beyond its immediate context.

“Yes, in a few conferences, for example the 2023 ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Conference in Bordeaux and the 2024 BUP International Scientific Symposium in Bialystok, Poland. There is also a project web-page and game toolbox page online.”

Aleksandra Halaim will keep promoting both the board games and the interactive game handbook among teachers in a form of game evenings and also as a guest lecturer on some courses at Campus Gotland.

“My goal is to keep adding new educational sustainability-oriented games to the collection and trying it out with students”, she says.

Johan Ahlenius