ABOUT K2 GAMES

Sustainable development, climate change risks, and their impact on human health represent major challenges for current and future decades. Education increases the likelihood that people will use natural resources more efficiently, making it essential to raise awareness about sustainability and equip young people with relevant competencies for sustainable development. Experiential learning plays a crucial role in this process.

Games that combine entertainment and education offer significant potential, as research shows they allow learners to experience situations impossible in real life due to safety, cost, and time constraints. They also improve self-monitoring, problem recognition and solving, decision-making abilities, and create contexts for communication, collaboration, and belonging. While simulation games and board games are effective and enjoyable learning tools, board games remain underutilised in non-formal educational contexts, particularly for environmental and sustainability topics.

Project Objectives

This project aimed to make games accessible to youth workers and young people as educational tools in non-formal and informal contexts. The games and accompanying guidance help participants acquire sustainability-related competencies and develop constructive, proactive attitudes about environmental issues affecting human health and community welfare.

The project sought to achieve this by:

• Understanding when and how simulation and board games can be used by youth workers in environmental health and sustainable consumption education
• Providing youth workers with knowledge on developing games as learning tools
• Creating a collection of games focused on pressing European environmental concerns

Implementation and Results

Four partner organisations from Romania (SRC), Italy (Insight_epd), Germany (CRISP), and Lithuania (EEHYC) collaborated on this initiative. The project engaged 25+ staff members and collaborators, plus over 200 youth workers and young people for planning, testing, and evaluation through focus groups, training events, transnational meetings, research activities, and stakeholder consultations.

Key Outputs:

• 2 board games: K2 Pioneer City (cooperative) and K2 Recycling Party (competitive card game)
• 5 simulation games: K2 Air Quality, K2 City Gardens, K2 Waste Management, and K2 Climate Negotiations
• Comprehensive guide on using and developing educational games

The project included dissemination activities and multiplier events to ensure accessibility. These attractive, fun-to-play tools enable youth workers to engage young people from various backgrounds, potentially shifting mindsets from competition to cooperation for a greener, more inclusive society.