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Game-Based Systems Thinking Challenge
On March 28, 2025, the Engineering Systemisers team was invited to deliver a half-day workshop at Deptford Green School in South-East London. The session challenged 31 students aged 12-13 to take a bold step beyond gameplay. They were asked to co-design their own systems-based games by acting as Systems Engineers. The students aimed to tackle a predefined complex problem related to Health, Transport, Energy, and Space systems.
The school serves a diverse student population in an area with significant levels of socio-economic deprivation, making this workshop a valuable opportunity to promote inclusive access to engineering thinking. The session followed a structured journey into systems engineering. It began with an icebreaker to introduce students to the concept of systems, what makes them complex, and prompt them to reflect on systems in everyday life.
Students then engaged with existing Systemisers board games that explored challenges in healthcare, climate and energy, and transport. These games served as interactive simulations of real-world systems, allowing students to navigate complexity, explore stakeholder trade-offs, and experience the consequences of team-based decisions.
From there, students were encouraged to think and act like Systems Engineers by engaging in key practices:
- Defining system boundaries
- Identifying stakeholder perspectives
- Managing constraints and trade-offs
- Exploring risk and complexity
The core of the session was a co-design challenge where teams were tasked with “hacking” the original games: modifying mechanics, redesigning components, or creating entirely new game systems. Each team pitched their design in a three-minute presentation, a “Dragon’s Den”-style format that demanded clarity, prioritisation, and collaboration. During the design challenge, students were divided into six teams and assigned real-world systems topics including:
- Healthcare systems
- Land and air transport
- Energy and climate change
- Space science and exploration
The design challenge followed a typical Systems Engineering process:
- Identification of stakeholders and their needs
- Idea generation: Each student developed an initial idea individually, discussed with team, and the team combined ideas into a unified concept.
- Iterative refinement: Teams further developed the ideas and improved mechanics and logic in response to feedback.
- Final pitch: Teams presented their prototype designs to peers and facilitators.
Key Observations
Across the workshop, students used and adopted technical language like input-process-output, component interactions, and system interfaces without explicit teaching. They quickly absorbed systems frameworks through practical experience rather than just hearing about them.
Feedback from students and staff confirmed the value of game-based systems design:
- Students appreciated the low-risk environment of gameplay to explore difficult topics.
- The co-design process fostered decision-making under pressure, time management, and prioritisation.
- The cooperative framing, where teams win or fail together, reinforced balancing individual versus whole team objectives and the importance of shared responsibility.
It was a great opportunity to develop skills and learn about important topics people usually don’t speak much about in our daily lives.”
Teams that had previously played Systemisers games related to their assigned theme often retained the core structure and mechanics but added new layers, such as airline-specific roles in a transport game, or integrating public health metrics into travel systems. In contrast, the space systems teams demonstrated particularly high levels of creativity and systems thinking, with strong collaboration and novel mechanics. For instance, all five team members contributed to the final pitch, adding complexity while reinforcing ownership and communication.
The time-limited nature of the session was the most reported challenge, particularly during the pitch stage. Several students suggested extending the workshop to allow more time for concept refinement and deeper learning. Teachers also noted that the session offered a strong basis for longer-term project-based learning in science and engineering.
Conclusions
This case study demonstrates the potential of participatory, game-based learning to cultivate systems thinking skills at scale, especially in underrepresented or underserved school communities. By stepping into the shoes of Systems Engineers, students were not only exposed to key concepts but also practised the behaviours, decision-making, and design skills that underpin systems engineering. The session concluded with a short debrief, where students reflected on team dynamics and identified the skills they used during the session and the link to core systems thinking principles.