This workshop will introduce ‘The NGame’, a dynamic game-based learning tool designed to encourage student engagement with basic science content situated in a broader ecological context. Players participate in a strategic race to move nitrogen from the atmosphere, through its various forms in the soil ecosystem, and back. The NGame familiarizes students with the terminology of nutrient cycles, the types and sequence of chemical transformations that make up the N cycle, the centrality of microbiology in sustaining these processes, and the feedbacks between environment and organisms. The game relies on “Resources” such as fixed-carbon, and bacterial “Agents” to move tokens representing nitrogen (N) through the various pools of N in the environment (e.g. NH3, NO3-) highlighting the often under-emphasized significance of microorganisms in the physical processes they catalyze. “Events,” environmental occurrences that impact the N cycle such as floods and lightning, underline the effect of physical, human and stochastic influences on the cycle. For example, the functional “environment” of the board can be changed from aerobic to anaerobic, with immediate consequences for game-play (e.g. agent survival and dormancy). Following a brief introduction of the game and how it is played, participants will experience playing the NGame firsthand. Participants will also have opportunity to reflect upon their experience playing the NGame and discuss the function and feasibility of utilizing ecologically based interactive learning tools, such as The NGame, in the classroom. Lunch will not be served, bring your own lunch!