Engaging the Adolescent Mind: An In-depth Exploration of Educational Games for Teens
Explore the world of educational board games for teens, combining fun and learning. Find top games, their benefits, and suitability for young minds.
Written by
Máté Lencse
Educator, game designer,
founder of PlayWise
Why listen to him?
Máté has been regularly playing modern board games and classic abstract board games since 2013. He plays because he loves to. He plays because as an educator, it is his most important motivational and developmental tool. He plays because as a father, it is one of the highest quality times spent with his daughter. He plays because it adds to his marriage. He plays to get to know games and as a game designer, to be able to create new ones. Thus, it's not surprising that he often plays through 15-20 games weekly. Learn more about him and his background on his author page or follow him on social media:
Fortunately, nowadays, we no longer need to prove that learning does not only take place in school classrooms. Learning is always with us and there are many fun, natural ways to engage in it. Adolescence is a time of many changes and developments, but finding the right supportive tools is not impossible. Board games can be truly effective in this age group for engagement, development, and education.
Setting the Stage for a Perfect Game Session
All About Engagement: Our most important task as educators and parents alike is to create quality gaming sessions, which are essential for engaging all participants. It only takes one teenager who doesn't want to play to transform the group dynamics, so we must find board games that motivate everyone. My experience has shown that if we succeed in this, we can create an interactive learning environment through games, where even often hard-to-engage teenagers are more likely to stay involved.
Navigating Teen Interests: Assessing interests, which can range from science and technology to arts, music, and truly anything else, can be a good approach. The world of modern board games is very diverse, and I believe there is a suitable game for every interest. Perhaps the key is to cater to varied interests with short games, frequently switching them up, and then moving to more in-depth engagement as self-regulation strengthens within the group.
Timing is Everything: I believe that we need to properly frame our board game time. We should dedicate time and energy to it. Even if we aren't playing long games, we can still play frequently. Let's not rush, take it seriously; this benefits both educational and entertainment purposes.
Fuel the Brain: Opinions may vary on whether it's appropriate to eat and drink at the table while playing board games, but it's certain that part of a board game session should involve ensuring healthy rejuvenation. Let's establish our rules, but in a way that we provide every framework necessary for quality engagement.
Reflection for Reinforcement: We shouldn't primarily focus on realizing all the ways we've developed or everything we've learned. Rather, we should use discussions about games as a means to organize increasingly better and more appealing board game sessions for the youth, making them more effective and engaging.
Delving Deeper into Games
Bananagrams is a fast-paced, Scrabble-like word game where players race against each other to build a grid of words using their letter tiles, without the need for a board or a turn-based system.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 7 and up, 15 min, 1-8 players
Tools
The game includes 144 letter tiles, all stored in a unique banana-shaped pouch for easy transport and storage.
Skills
Bananagrams enhances vocabulary, immediate word formation skills, anagram creation, linguistic creativity.
Instructions
The game begins with a number of tiles drawn face-down and proceeds as players draw and rearrange their tiles to form words in crossword fashion, adapting as new tiles are drawn until the pool of tiles runs out.
Catan
Catan is a thrilling board game where players aim to build and develop holdings by trading and acquiring resources.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 10 and up, 60-120 min, 3-4 players
Tools
19 terrain hexes, 6 sea frame pieces, 9 harbor tiles, 95 resource cards, 25 development cards, 4 building cost cards, 2 special cards, 16 cities, 20 settlements, 60 roads, 2 dice, a robber piece, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances strategic thinking, resource management, negotiation skills, and decision-making, as players must trade, build, and expand while adapting to an ever-changing board.
Instructions
Players take turns rolling dice to produce resources, which they use to build roads, settlements, and cities. Through trading and strategic placement, they compete to be the first to reach 10 victory points and win the game.
Codenames
The classic Codenames in a picture version, which makes it playable with younger children as well.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 14 and up, 15 min, 2-8 players
Tools
A standard Codenames box includes 200 double-sided word cards, 40 key cards, 16 agent cards (red and blue), 1 assassin card, 7 innocent bystander cards, a sand timer, and a rulebook
Skills
The game develops critical thinking, word association, teamwork, deduction, and communication skills.
Instructions
Players split into two teams, each led by a spymaster who gives one-word clues to guide their teammates in identifying their team's secret words on a grid—while avoiding the opponent's words and the deadly assassin word.
Dixit is a card game that invites players to rely on their intuition and imagination to guess which card one player, the storyteller, is describing.
Age
Recommended for ages 8 and up, 30 min, 3-8 players
Tools
Dixit includes a deck of 84 unique, beautifully illustrated cards, a game board, six wooden rabbit tokens as player markers, and 36 voting tokens in six different colors.
Skills
Dixit develops creativity, abstract thinking, and social interaction skills as players interpret and guess the story behind the images.
Instructions
In Dixit, one player is the storyteller for the turn and makes up a sentence or phrase that might describe one of their cards. Then, each player selects a card from their own hand that they feel best matches the storyteller's description, and after shuffling and revealing the cards, all players except the storyteller vote on which card they believe belongs to the storyteller.
Pandemic
The game is perfect for high school students as it offers intellectual stimulation, fosters teamwork, and educates players about global health and geography facts.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 8 and up, 45 min, 2-4 players
Tools
1 game board, 7 role cards with matching pawns, 59 player cards, 48 infection cards, 96 disease cubes (in 4 colors), 6 research stations, 4 cure markers, 1 outbreak marker, 1 infection rate marker, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances cooperative strategy, critical thinking, teamwork, decision-making, and crisis management, as players must work together to stop the global spread of diseases.
Instructions
Players take on different roles as scientists, researchers, and medical experts, working together to treat infections, prevent outbreaks, and find cures before time runs out. Using action points each turn, they travel, treat diseases, share knowledge, and collect cards to discover cures. The team wins if they find all four cures before too many outbreaks occur or time runs out.
Scrabble is a classic word game where players earn points by creating words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15x15 grid.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 10 and up., 90 min, 2-4 players
Tools
The Scrabble game set includes a 15x15 grid game board, 100 letter tiles, 4 tile racks, a tile bag, and optionally a scorepad and timer.
Skills
Scrabble enhances vocabulary, spelling, strategic thinking, and mathematical skills through word formation and scoring.
Instructions
In Scrabble, players take turns drawing letter tiles to create words on the game board, with each word laid out either horizontally or vertically. Each letter has a point value, and players aim to make high-scoring words based on the board's bonus squares to accumulate the highest total points.
Taboo
A lesson in communication, Taboo forces players to convey ideas without obvious cues, a valuable skill in effective communication.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 12 and up., 20 min, 4-10 players
Tools
260 double-sided word cards, 1 cardholder, 1 buzzer, 1 sand timer, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances vocabulary, quick thinking, communication skills, and verbal expression, as players must describe words without using restricted terms.
Instructions
Players take turns giving clues to help their team guess a target word while avoiding a list of forbidden words. If they say a restricted word, the opposing team buzzes them. The team that guesses the most words within the time limit wins the game.
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is a true classic and an excellent introductory game, as its rules are not too complex, yet there is plenty to think about.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 8 and up, 30-60 min, 2-5 players
Tools
1 game board, 240 train car pieces, 110 train cards, 30 destination ticket cards, 5 scoring markers, and a rulebook.
Skills
The game enhances strategic planning, decision-making, route optimization, and spatial reasoning, as players must carefully choose and connect railway routes while blocking opponents.
Instructions
Players collect train cards to claim railway routes on the board, aiming to connect cities based on their destination tickets. Longer routes and completed tickets score more points, but incomplete routes result in penalties. The player with the most points at the end wins the game.
Unstable Unicorns
Unstable Unicorns is a fantastic game that brings an exciting mix of strategy, interaction and a touch of whimsical fantasy into a high school classroom learning environment.
Age, Playing Time, Players
Recommended for ages 8 and up., 30-60 min, 2-8 players
Tools
135 cards (including Unicorn, Magic, Upgrade, Downgrade, and Instant cards), 1 rulebook, and a storage box.
Skills
The game enhances strategic thinking, decision-making, adaptability, and hand management, as players must build their unicorn army while sabotaging opponents.
Instructions
Players take turns drawing and playing cards to build a stable of 7 unicorns while using special abilities and attack cards to disrupt opponents. Different types of unicorns and action cards add chaos and strategy, making every game unpredictable. The first player to fill their stable wins the game.
How do you engage a 14-year-old?
Engaging a 14-year-old requires a blend of interaction and understanding:
Determine their Interests: Find out what subjects or hobbies they're passionate about, such as music, tech, or sports.
Offer Game Choices: Introduce games like Ticket to Ride or Dixit that match their interests.
Interactive Learning: Use platforms like Khan Academy or educational apps to combine learning with fun.
Active Participation: Encourage group activities or projects to foster social interaction.
