Lipodrome: a board game as an educational tool to improve understanding of lipids

Lipodrome is a game designed as a mechanism for raising awareness of lipids in health and disease for the general public. It was developed within the activities of Working Group 5 on Communication and Dissemination within the European COST Action EpiLipidNET (CA19105). The Network was already very active in dissemination of experimental findings through publication in scientific journals but we needed interesting material to engage with members of the public in dissemination events such as the European Researchers’ Night and other local and national events. In particular, members of EpiLipidNET were keen to interact with children and it was agreed that games were an entertaining way to educate and inform. Consequently a board game called Lipodrome was designed.

Lipodrome is a board game for 2-6 players. It has a continuous track (“a lipodrome”) with a start and finish line, so players can do a single circuit or multiple circuits (to be agreed before the start of the game). Players take turns and if they land on a blue circle, they take a card from the stack and follow the instructions to move forwards, backwards or stay put. The movement relates to whether the card says they have made a beneficial lifestyle or dietary action or choice. There are 52 cards covering a range of topics.

The Lipodrome leaflet summarizes some of the key lifestyle and dietary messages. A main point is that no lipid, lifestyle or dietary choice or action is intrinsically bad, but must be set in context of the other activities so that a healthy balance is achieved. For example, an athlete under vigorous training or a person with a very physically active job will need higher dietary intake and different nutrient balance to someone with a desk job and generally sedentary lifestyle.

NOTE (as Mendeley Data does not recognize company affiliations):
Dr Sara Tortorella currently has a position as chemistry teacher at the Ministero dell'Istruzione e del Merito (https://www.mim.gov.it/web/guest/) but during EpiLipidNET was based at Molecular Horizon srl (https://www.molhorizon.it/)
Dr Olga Vvedenskaya is currently based at Lipotype (https://www.lipotype.com/)

《脂质赛道》（Lipodrome）是一款面向大众科普脂质与健康、疾病关联的桌游。该游戏由欧洲COST行动EpiLipidNET（CA19105）下属传播与推广第5工作组开发。此前，该网络已通过学术期刊发表实验成果，积极开展科学传播工作，但仍需趣味化素材，以便在欧洲研究者之夜（European Researchers’ Night）等全国及地方科普活动中与公众互动。尤为重要的是，EpiLipidNET的成员希望与儿童群体开展互动，经讨论后一致认为桌游是兼具娱乐性与教育意义的科普载体，因此开发了这款名为《脂质赛道》的桌游。

《脂质赛道》是一款支持2至6名玩家的桌游。游戏设有带起点与终点的连续环形赛道（lipodrome），玩家可选择完成单圈或多圈赛道（需在游戏开始前约定）。玩家轮流行动，若落点为蓝色圆圈，则需从牌堆抽取一张卡牌，并按照卡牌指示前进、后退或停留。卡牌内容涉及有益的生活方式或膳食选择，其对应的移动规则与该行为的健康影响相关。整套卡牌共52张，涵盖多类主题。

《脂质赛道》配套的宣传手册总结了若干关键的生活方式与膳食健康要点。其中核心观点为：不存在本质上有害的脂质、生活方式或膳食选择，一切都需结合其他日常活动综合考量，以达成健康平衡。例如，接受高强度训练的运动员或从事体力劳动的人群，相较于久坐不动的伏案工作者，需要更高的膳食摄入量与更合理的营养配比。

注意（因Mendeley Data无法识别机构归属）：
萨拉·托尔托雷拉博士目前任职于意大利教育与体育部（Ministero dell'Istruzione e del Merito，https://www.mim.gov.it/web/guest/），但在参与EpiLipidNET项目期间，其所属机构为Molecular Horizon srl（https://www.molhorizon.it/）。
奥尔加·维登斯卡娅博士目前任职于Lipotype（https://www.lipotype.com/）。