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Engineering a Playable System
Engineering Systemisers visited Harris Academy Rainham, a mixed secondary school in the London Borough of Havering, to deliver two half-day workshops on 19th and 23rd June 2025. Each session engaged 30 students aged 12–13, working in six groups of five.
Following the typical Systemisers structure, both sessions began with an interactive icebreaker prompting students to explore what defines a system and what makes it complex. Students then played Systemisers board games, focused on healthcare, energy, transport, and space systems, enabling them to navigate stakeholder trade-offs and experience system-level impacts through team-based decisions.
Each session concluded with a creative game design challenge and a “Dragon’s Den”-style pitch. Students were invited to either ‘hack’ an existing Systemisers game (by modifying mechanics or components) or to create an entirely new game from scratch. Pitches were judged after the session on originality and general quality of the game ideas, and link to systems thinking, and relevance to real-world challenges. Winning team each received a Systemisers gift pack including branded notebook, Systemisers badge, and a £20 Love2Shop voucher.
Key Observations
Engineering Systemisers workshops use a mix of gamification (applying game-like concepts to non-game contexts) and game-based learning (using games as structured learning environments) concepts. Feedback from students and staff reaffirmed the value of this approach in supporting intended learning outcomes. With a response rate of ~48% (29/60):
- 97% of students enjoyed the Systemisers games and said they’d recommend it to classmates.
- 76% said the session changed their view of systems thinking and its everyday relevance.
- 73% expressed interest in more about systems thinking and engineering, through enhanced curriculum programmes.
- One student remarked:
““Our team was really good at sharing ideas, and we had fun whilst learning. It was a fun and nice way to learn about everyday life.”
Systems Competencies in Practice
Students demonstrated spontaneous engagement with core systems thinking skills, including:
- Making informed choices by considering system-wide impacts (34%)
- Recognising trade-offs & competing priorities (19%)
- Preparing for unexpected disruptions (17%)
- Balancing needs of different stakeholders (17%)
- Seeing the big picture (13%)
““Working in a team and being able to turn real life into a fun game where you still learn new skills and pitch crazy ideas and making them make sense!”
Co-Design Challenge
The two workshops took different approaches to the game design task:
- Day 1 followed a more structured, Systems Engineering-style process: define stakeholder needs → generate ideas → refine solution. This resulted in better interactions across teams, more developed game concepts, and deeper systems insight.
- Day 2 encouraged more open exploration: students identified five challenges in their domain and designed a game around one. This resulted in better creativity and more original, though sometimes less refined – mainly due to spending more time on problem-solving and limited development time.
Across both days, students asked for more time for design and teamwork. The variation in structure also offers useful insight into how facilitation style influences learning depth and creativity.
Opportunities and Challenges
Favourite parts of the gameplay included:
- Making decisions and solving problems (30%)
- Working in a team (29%)
- Winning and competing (20%)
Hardest parts were:
- Managing resources (48%)
- Understanding game rules (28%)
- Working with different stakeholders (13%)
For the design challenge, favourite aspects included:
- Teamwork and cooperation (36%)
- Generating new ideas (34%)
Whereas the most difficult parts were:
- Incorporating systems thinking (45%)
- Idea development and pitching (31%)
Conclusions
These workshops demonstrate how game-based systems thinking challenges can meaningfully engage students aged 12-13 with real-world complexity. Even without prior exposure, students quickly grasped core systems concepts and applied them in co-designing new educational tools. This reinforces the potential to foster systems skills at an earlier stage of learning. Comparing different design approaches also highlights how varying facilitation styles can bring out depth or creativity in student thinking.