The project aimed to develop and test an innovative teaching approach based on ancient and traditional board games. More specifically, we wanted to design a set of gamified teaching modules that could help teachers make learning more engaging, interdisciplinary, inclusive and affordable. We also wanted to strengthen students’ cooperation, participation and motivation by combining play with structured educational activities linked to history, mathematics and geography. Another objective was to train teachers so that they could autonomously use and adapt the modules in their own classrooms. Finally, the project aimed to make all outputs freely available as open educational resources and to disseminate the method widely through teacher networks, schools, conferences and academic publications, ensuring sustainability and transferability beyond the partnership itself.
PAST was created to respond to a concrete need identified through previous educational activities carried out with primary schools: teachers need ready-to-use, affordable and engaging materials that can be integrated into ordinary lessons without requiring special equipment or extra costs. We addressed the need for teaching tools that combine disciplinary learning with inclusion, cooperation and student motivation. Starting from ancient and traditional board games, the project developed materials that are easy to print, easy to understand and usable even by teachers with little experience in game-based learning. The partnership also addressed the need for materials that could work across different school systems and cultural contexts, while remaining compatible with school curricula and normal lesson duration. In this way, the project responded to both practical classroom needs and broader educational goals related to innovation, accessibility and intercultural learning.