Global warming is changing our world. It's the generation of our children who will feel the effects - and they will be the ones faced with stopping climate change in the long term. But of all people, our children know far too little about the topic. GEOlino, the children's science magazine from Europe's second-largest publishing house Gruner und Jahr, set out to change this. They realised it's no good trying to get kids interested by spouting dry theory. That's why they looked for an attention-grabbing way of making climate change something you can see and feel.

Children like nothing better than playing. That's why Gruner und Jahr developed a game for the first time in their history. Meltdown is the first board game that melts, demonstrating the effects of global warming with a light touch. The aim of the game: rescue polar bears from real, slowly melting ice floes onto solid ground. The players make the ice floes themselves by pouring water into a moulded tray and putting it in the freezer. Then they arrange the floes on a sheet of blue sponge that soaks up the melt water and simultaneously acts as the playing board.

Even beyond Germany's schools, the response to Meltdown was huge. Within just a few days, Gruner und Jahr received thousands of enquiries from all over the world. In the GEOlino online shop, the first edition, produced in a double-digit volume, quickly sold out. Even global games manufacturer Ravensburger paid attention and now plans to launch Meltdown in more than 50 countries. Soon, children all over the world will be learning through play something about the effects of global warming.

It's unusual for a classic print publisher to develop a board game. But an unconventional solution was needed to get as many children as possible interested in the dry-as-dust topic of global warming. Because when it comes down to it, Gruner und Jahr believes the message is more important than the messenger. GEOlino took the game to primary schools all over Germany and presented it in a series of talks. Hundreds of school children rescued masses of polar bears, and incidentally learned something about the threat of global warming as well.

Teaching without preaching, but with a lot of fun instead.