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Together with the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI), Ana Vasques (EUC) created a collaborative and educational board game that deals with difficult dilemmas, as a tool in helping students to better express their emotions to their peers and teachers.
About the game
In classrooms, students often grapple with intense emotions, especially in courses like sustainability transitions that highlight patterns of unsustainability. The Fireflies game seeks to provide students with tools to communicate these emotions effectively to their teachers, supervisors, coaches, and guides. Through a physical/tabletop format, the game aims to make it easier for students to articulate their feelings. By fostering connections between students and educators, the game creates a supportive environment for everyone.
Fireflies can be used across various disciplines to tackle challenging topics in classrooms and is free to play for all EUR students and employees.
Objectives
The game is beneficial for students to initiate their transformative journey. The following are the key elements of the game and their objectives:
- Dilemma: Encourages critical thinking on real-life issues.
- Emotions: Promotes deep reflection on emotions, allowing students to express their feelings and opinions.
- Mythology: Facilitates the teaching and sharing of indigenous, ancient knowledge about sustainability.
- Collaboration: Fosters teamwork among students and teachers, helping them to get to know one another and work towards a common goal.
Game mechanics
- Players: 3-4 players per game
- Location: any room with tables and enough chairs for each game table
- Duration: 20 minutes to 1 hour
Before starting the game, teachers or tutors should review the Teacher’s Guide. All required files can be accessed below (see Downloads). Additionally, each game should be prepared on a table accordingly to the ‘Board set-up’ section of the instruction sheet.
Students play the game in small groups of 3 to 4 members. The objective of the game is to gather fireflies and unlock a power animal, which carries ancient wisdom. At the beginning of the game, all participants read the instruction paper together and then pick up their individual step-by-step player sheets. Each group member takes a turn choosing a Dilemma Card, ensuring the number of turns matches the number of players. The turn player selects an Emotion Card while the co-players choose a Question Card to ask the turn player. Throughout the game, players are encouraged to share their reasons for selecting specific cards and their emotions towards it. The game does not have a single winner; instead, the collective achievement is the opportunity to get a Power Animal Card.
The game is free to play for all EUR employees and students. There are board games available at the Education Lab and Erasmus University College. You can visit these locations to borrow the game and play it with your groups. If you encounter any bugs or issues with the game, if you would like to play the game outside of the EUR context or if you want to know more about the specifications and borrowing details, please contact Ana Vasques or Shen Liu.