In the past decades, a broad international consensus has emerged around the need to move science education beyond rote content coverage and into the terrain of epistemic understanding: how scientific knowledge is generated, validated, revised, and situated within human communities. Major curricular reforms have foregrounded the Nature of Science (NoS)—which encompasses the epistemology, practices, social processes, and cultural values of science—as a central pillar for developing scientific literacy [1,2]. Scientific literacy for the twenty-first century demands not only familiarity with scientific facts and theories, but also an appreciation for the habits of mind and forms of reasoning that distinguish science from other ways of knowing [3,4,5].

Despite the rhetorical prominence of NoS in policy documents and teaching standards, research continues to show that both students and teachers often hold fragmented or naïve conceptions of what science is and how it operates. Multiple studies have documented persistent misconceptions about the tentativeness, creativity, and social dimensions of science among learners and educators, even after instruction [6,7,8]. Many view scientific progress as a linear, methodical pursuit of absolute truth, rather than as a dynamic, creative, and communal enterprise shaped by uncertainty, debate, and negotiation. These misconceptions persist even after traditional instruction, raising fundamental questions about the limitations of didactic, content-driven approaches to science education [9,10].

Parallel to this, a vibrant field of research and practice has explored the use of games and playful activities as vehicles for learning science. Recent reviews highlight the growing interest in game-based and playful learning as strategies to boost engagement and foster deeper understanding in science education [11,12]. The present review synthesizes current research and practical guidance on the use of games and playful activities to teach the NoS in ways that are explicit, reflective, and robustly aligned with the consensus principles outlined above. The review used purposive searching and iterative snowballing to identify classroom-ready games and playful activities that explicitly target NoS learning goals. Searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, ERIC, and Google Scholar and backward citation tracking, complemented by targeted browsing of professional association repositories and open curricular archives (gray literature). Core queries combined “nature of science” with terms such as “game,” “playful,” “simulation,” “card game,” “rule-finding,” “black box,” “observation–inference,” alongside specific titles (e.g., “Eleusis”, “Wason rule” “black-box modeling”). Inclusion prioritized explicit alignment with widely accepted NoS dimensions and replicability with typical school resources. Exclusions removed entertainment-only games lacking NoS alignment. The sources synthesized span from 1959 to 2025, covering both seminal foundational work and contemporary research. Selection prioritized activities with documented classroom implementation and explicit epistemic alignment. As a narrative review, this synthesis emphasizes critical interpretation, identification of patterns and gaps, and pragmatic guidance for practice, rather than exhaustive systematic coverage.

Ultimately, our aim is to clarify which playful strategies best serve particular epistemic goals, under what conditions, and with what forms of scaffolding. We argue that when designed and implemented with intention and reflection, games and playful activities have the power to transform science classrooms into genuine communities of inquiry—spaces in which students do not merely learn about science, but experience and internalize its foundational practices, values, and ways of thinking. The article concludes with a synthesis of how these activities map onto the key principles of the NoS, and with recommendations and prospects for sustaining innovation and equity in science education.