Fotonica in Gioco: A Game-Design Contest for Science Communication in Italian High Schools — Results from the Fifth Edition

Abstract

Game design is increasingly recognized as an effective approach within game-based learning for promoting active engagement with scientific concepts while fostering creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Fotonica in Gioco is a national contest for Italian upper-secondary schools that invites students to design and prototype educational board games on scientific themes, using game design as a tool for science communication and interdisciplinary learning. The initiative, already presented in previous conferences, has progressively developed into a structured educational activity involving teachers and students in the creation of original tabletop games aimed at translating scientific topics into playable experiences. This work focuses specifically on the fifth edition of the contest (2024–2025), whose theme was “Challenges”, encouraging students to explore contemporary scientific, technological, environmental, and societal issues through game mechanics and narrative design as part of a theory-informed evaluative case study. In this edition, 18 original board-game prototypes were developed by student teams from different Italian schools, addressing a variety of topics such as sustainability, technological innovation, and future global challenges. We briefly outline the structure and educational framework of the contest and summarize the outcomes of the fifth edition. Attention is devoted to the educational value of the game design process, which requires students to research scientific topics, reinterpret them in accessible forms, and integrate them into coherent rule systems and gameplay dynamics. The study also reports results from voluntary post-activity questionnaires completed by 57 students and 10 teachers, investigating engagement, perceived learning outcomes, and attitudes toward both science topics and the creative design process. The results indicate stronger perceived effects on creativity, project management, and teamwork than on formal curricular learning, while also identifying difficulties in time management and rule formalization. These findings contribute to the ongoing evaluation of the initiative and highlight the potential of board-game design contests as tools for science communication and game-based learning in secondary education.