One game to teach them all!

As fulfillment of our iGeneration campaign, we want to reach a wide variety of demographic ages. Informing young people about synthetic biology is an integral part of our holistic Human Practices approach.
Therefore, we planned an educational board game named "Game of Cells". As the development process required several time-consuming steps, we established a collaboration with the iGEM Team of Erlangen, Germany. The design of the game will give children the opportunity to learn about biology in a playful manner. Due to divergent educational standards, the texts are always based on examples, which can be interpreted by children 10 years of age and above. To gain the interest of the specified target audience, our approach aimed to give basic knowledge of the cell structure and their function via several game mechanisms like collecting items, challenge, cooperation and a bit of luck. For example action cards give a specific task based on a biological background. The lactose field forces the player to move three steps backwards, if not having a lactose tolerance card.
Game of Cells will be provided as PDF-file for self-printing and therefore, can easily be shared with the interested community.