Spel Rice Up
Spel Rice Up

Rice Up: learning about SDGs in a playful way

How do we contribute to equality? How do we deal with climate change? The United Nations created 17 goals, the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, in an attempt to build a fairer, greener, and better world by 2030. But how can we better understand and apply the complex connection between the SDGs? Teachers and students from the Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies programme developed an innovative and educative boardgame for this purpose: Rice Up. This game helps students in a playful manner to gain insight into how the SDGs influence each other.

The development of Rice Up

It proved to be quite difficult to explain the connection between the 17 SDGs in education. Luuk van Kempen and Lau Schulpen, university teachers of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at Radboud University, therefore decided to develop a boardgame in which this connection is a central component. Van Kempen explains: “The goals work together to form a bigger whole, but within our programme there was not yet a course that discussed the entire framework. That is why we, together with three student-assistants (Willem Bennenbroek, Marieke van Hoof en Anne-Ruth van den Herik), designed a boardgame where the bigger picture of the SDGs becomes clear.” After a year of testing, trials, and feedback, the first copies of Rice Up are ready to use.

Reality check 

Rice Up is inspired by a dissertation on rice farmers and the danger of malaria. The game takes its players to a community where poverty always lurks around the corner. Players play with and against each other. That way, the game reflects the tensions between individuals and the community. “The game can function as a reality check for the idealistic student. Much like in real life, a conflict occurs in Rice Up. This is how we hope to teach the students that unpredictability and resistance are unavoidable. Therefore the biggest lesson is to be able to make compromises,'' Van Kempen explains.

Flying start 

Around 100 first-year students of CAOS were given the first opportunity to test the game. During the game, the players have to make difficult decisions in regards to the SDGs, such as food security, good education, and the environment. They choose, for instance, whether they use biological or chemical pesticides, and whether they send their kids to school or make them work on the farm. Van Kempen advises: “It helps to keep up with all SDGs. You can’t pass up on one.”

The teachers hope to spread the game to other programmes at Radboud University and to other universities and colleges in the near future. For now, enthusiasts can contact Van Kempen or Schulpen via email.