Design and implementation of an educational role-play activity about a bioeconomy scenario

Bioeconomy is gaining interest among researchers and economic operators all over Europe, but the knowledge of the topic among young people is still partial, particularly for secondary school students, as emerged from a survey in collaboration with Bioregions Facility. A novel 2-hour activity has been designed and proposed to eight secondary school classes in Italy. The principles that guided the designing phase were based on the European Sustainability Competence Framework GreenComp. A first hour of lecture give the basis to perform a role-play in the second phase, which focuses on a simulation of a group work announced to vote for the implementation of a new biogas plant in a touristic zone. The students were asked to personify the different stakeholders and their particular interests until the final voting. The activity aimed to foster competence into critical thinking, systemic thinking, and collective actions needed to achieve an effective change towards sustainability.