Applying a Quiz-Show Style Game To Facilitate Effective Chemistry

Activity Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

Applying a Quiz-Show Style Game To Facilitate Effective Chemistry Lexical Communication Sam Boon Kiat Koh† and Fun Man Fung*,‡,§ †

Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore § Institute For Application Of Learning Sciences And Education Technology (ALSET), University Hall, Lee Kong Chian Wing UHL #05-01D, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077, Singapore J. Chem. Educ. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by KAOHSIUNG MEDICAL UNIV on 09/14/18. For personal use only.

‡

S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: A mobile application game has been adapted to teach students about laboratory instruments, glassware, apparatus, and techniques. The game was designed with reference to a popular icebreaker game, “Charades!”, to ensure that it was easily accessible to students. Students will hold a mobile phone just above their forehead, which will then flash the name of a particular type of apparatus or an analytical technique. They deduce the answer based on the description given by their team members. The gamified approach is a relaxing alternative to traditional didactic recitations. This strategy is effective because it requires students to communicate openly through deliberate practice with their teammates. We call this game ChemCharades.

KEYWORDS: High School/Introductory Chemistry, First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, General Public, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Analytical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Laboratory Instruction, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Communication/Writing, Computer-Based Learning, Humor/Puzzles/Games

■

assist learners in understanding chemistry concepts.8−11 Farmer and Schuman used a simple card game to teach their organic chemistry courses,12 while Kavak and Yamak1 created a picture game to facilitate laboratory equipment identification. These games are evolving, for example, by the replacement of sticky notes as described by O’Halloran13 to the use of a mobile app to create web-based competitive quizzes, as reported by Grinias.14 Students felt that the use of a game to teach about chemistry laboratory equipment and techniques was “fun and engaging”.1 In addition, students who are familiar with the original form of the game found it easy to play the modified version.14 For our activity, we created a game using an app to identify laboratory equipment and describe chemical separation techniques used in organic synthesis. The app we used is called “Charades!”.15 It is a free app and is popular among Singaporean students. Our activity cultivates a spirit of collaborative peer learning by encouraging students to describe their understanding of laboratory concepts via a fun game that they are familiar with. This game could be adapted for use by students in any first- or second-year chemistry course.

INTRODUCTION When students are first taught about laboratory apparatus, they learn their functions through rote memorization. As a result, when asked to describe the functions of particular glassware, students often stumble and cannot explain them well.1 We therefore developed a method of teaching that fostered collaborative learning both inside and outside the classroom. This approach is an adaptation of the popular icebreaker game “Charades!” where a member of the team, the player, holds a mobile phone above their forehead and is not allowed to look at the screen. The mobile application (app) then flashes a word or phrase that the player has to determine with the help of their teammates who must describe the word to the player. This trivia app was popularized on Ellen DeGeneres’s daytime TV show and has been downloaded 25.5 million times.2 Other variants of the same game include “Heads Up Charade” and “Charades!”. As this adaptation of the game is applied to chemistry, we refer to it as ChemCharades. Major changes to the original “Charades!” game include the following: (1) ChemCharades focuses on the quality of description provided by the teammates, instead of the most number of correct answers garnered by the player, and (2) each member of the team takes turns being the player. In recent years, gamification has become an area of interest in the domain of higher education.3−7 Many fellow chemistry educators have innovated excellent games in their courses to © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Received: November 11, 2017 Revised: July 17, 2018

A

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00857 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

Activity

Figure 1. (A) Typical seating arrangement for a player and two teammates playing ChemCharades. (B) The player holds the phone to his/her forehead so that the teammates can clearly see the screen.

■

CONDUCT OF THE GAME Once the teams are ready, they are seated in a manner such that the player faces all their teammates (Figure 1A). Students will key in the unique identification number provided by the instructor in the app. When the round commences, they must immediately place the phone on their forehead with the screen facing the teammates. This indicates the start of the game. The app flashes question cards at random. Once a question has been correctly answered by the player, they pass the phone to the teammate seated to their right who then holds the phone up on their forehead.

cards has its own unique identification number generated by the app. Students form their teams of threes or fours. Each team should have a mobile phone that can download the free mobile app “Charades!”. The instructor should prepare a spare phone in case a team does not have a mobile phone that is compatible with the app. A classroom with moveable chairs should be booked to allow for interaction during this quizshow style game. Role of Instructor

In this activity, the instructor is present and stands beside the team to enforce the rules that are in place. During the game, the instructor listens to the descriptions given by the teammates and records areas for improvement. Simply guessing the word using hints that are not scientific is not encouraged. The teams are debriefed at the end of the game, during which the instructor provides the recorded feedback. The feedback includes ways to describe the techniques more accurately and clarifies any misconceptions regarding chemistry apparatus and techniques. If the player randomly guesses a series of laboratory equipment and techniques without allowing their teammates to finish providing the descriptions, the instructor also notes it down for the debrief later.

■

THE ACTIVITY Gameplay begins when one student (player) opens the “Charades!” app in which we have prepared a deck of question “cards”. Each game consists of two rounds: the first uses a deck that contains a list of apparatus, and the second uses a deck that contains a list of laboratory techniques. Each round lasts for 120 s. At any point in time, the player will have the phone on their forehead, while the remaining students (teammates) will provide descriptions of the word for the player to deduce the apparatus or technique shown on the screen (Figure 1A). It is vital to remind the player to hold the phone upright and not to view the screen while it is being held. It is also important to remind the teammates to communicate scientifically by using proper chemistry lexical terms rather than contextual clues, for example, “the instrument we used in experiment 4”. When a player correctly identifies what is on the card, he/she tilts the phone down, and the phone is passed to the next member. If the teammates are unable to provide a hint after 20 s, the player must pass to the next card by tilting the phone upward (Figure 1B) and deduce the next phrase on the phone (see the Supporting Information). The same procedure continues until everyone in the team has played the role of the player once in a round. At the end of the 120 s, “Charades!” will show a list of words that the team answered correctly and those that were passed. This compiled list is useful to the team’s debrief as during the game, the player holds the phone above the head and is not allowed to look at the screen, and the teammates might not remember the questions at the end of the rounds.

Rules of the Game ChemCharades

The students are briefed about the following rules before the game begins. For the teammates: • They cannot describe the answer by providing the number of syllables and number of letters. • Their hands must be held behind their backs to avoid gesturing. • They can communicate only in English as the lingua franca, no dialects are permitted. For the player: • The player cannot ask their teammates any questions. • The player must wait for the teammates to finish providing descriptions before responding. The students are made aware that the list of questions is nonexhaustive. The pedagogical goal is for teammates to describe the glassware parts and chemistry technique on the screen to the player to the best of their understanding. The descriptions provided by the teammates also reaffirm the concepts that they have been taught previously. If the clues are inaccurate, or misunderstood, the player will not be able to deduce the right answer. During the pregame briefing, instructors should show students some examples of appropriate

■

PREPARATION Prior to the class, the instructor must create two decks of question cards in the “Charades!” app by typing the glassware parts or laboratory techniques on each card. The instructor also must set the round time to 120 s. Each deck of question B

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00857 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

Activity

Table 1. Examples of Appropriate and Inappropriate Descriptions of Glassware and Laboratory Techniques Communicated by Teammates Glassware and Laboratory Techniques Liquid−liquid extraction Column chromatography Still-head

Appropriate Description from Teammates

Inappropriate Description from Teammates

“...Technique to partition compounds into organic phase and an aqueous phase...” “...This technique is used to separate components of a mixture depending on their affinities with a stationary phase and a mobile phase···” “...A piece of glassware used mainly in the distillation process, normally connected to the thermometer adapter and Liebig condenser...”

“...Shake the separatory funnel/we use a separatory funnel for this purpose...” “...Separation technique with silica gel/it is a time consuming technique...” “...A T-shape piece of glassware/we put this on top of a round bottom flask/we need to use a Keck clip to secure the parts...”

Notes

and inappropriate descriptions of glassware and laboratory techniques when providing clues to the player (Table 1).

■

The authors declare no competing financial interest. The ChemCharade activity trailer is available on YouTube website at https://tinyurl.com/ybp3w96l.

DISCUSSION This activity takes a class of 27 students about 30 min to complete. The rate-determining step is the availability of the instructor. In the subsequent game sessions, students from other teams act as the listener who will provide feedback for the teams. This approach promotes collaborative learning where students provide judgment and have the opportunity to learn from one another. This collaborative approach is important as it allows the game to be played even when the instructor is unavailable. Students who are interested can play this game with their chemistry friends and peer-coach one another. On a larger level, this game can be applied for larger class sizes and other courses. The decks of cards can be modified into various domains of chemistry knowledge, for instance, organic chemistry functional groups, types of reaction mechanisms, and classes of instrumental analyses, to name a few. The game is effective because it allows for the absence of the instructor once students are well-versed in the game via guided coaching for several sessions, each lasting 10 min. In our sessions, three teaching assistants also coached the students on the game.

■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank NUS Faculty of Science and Department of Chemistry for their support in this UROPS project. We thank the students of CM3291 for their participations. We appreciate the Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG) AY2017/2018 support from Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL). We are grateful for the contributions from Alvita Ardisara, Hafiz Anuar, Aaron Jeyaraj, Max Tan Jin Hui, and Simon Watts.

■

■

CONCLUSIONS The use of a quiz-show style game using a popular mobile app to facilitate the effective communication of chemistry terms was reported. This game, ChemCharades, is useful because of the ease of using a phone and can be played anywhere. Students can play this game in the absence of an instructor for review with their friends. ChemCharades promotes collaborative learning both in and out of the classroom. This activity will be helpful for the review of experimental chemistry concepts in laboratory courses.

■

ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00857. Activity instructions and sample questions (PDF, DOCX)

■

REFERENCES

(1) Kavak, N.; Yamak, H. Picture Chem: Playing a Game to Identify Laboratory Equipment Items and Describe Their Use. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (7), 1253−1255. (2) Robehmed, N. Heads Up, Up and Away: How Ellen DeGeneres’ Game Became A Hit https://www.forbes.com/sites/ natalierobehmed/2016/07/14/heads-up-up-and-away-how-ellendegeneres-game-became-a-hit/#593099c529cb (accessed July 2018). (3) Wiggins, B. E. An Overview and Study on the Use of Games, Simulations, and Gamification in Higher Education. Int. J. Game-Based Learn. 2016, 6 (1), 18−29. (4) Sandusky, S. Gamification in Education. ASBBS Am. Soc. Bus. Behav. Sci. 2014, 21 (1), 32−39. (5) Galbis, A.; Martí, J.; Currás, R. Higher Education Students’ Use of Gamification for. J. e-Learning Knowl. Soc. 2017, 13 (1), 129−146. (6) Turan, Z.; Avinc, Z.; Kara, K.; Goktas, Y. Gamification and Education: Achievements, Cognitive Loads, and Views of Students. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. 2016, 11 (7), 64−69. (7) Hanus, M. D.; Fox, J. Assessing the Effects of Gamification in the Classroom: A Longitudinal Study on Intrinsic Motivation, Social Comparison, Satisfaction, Effort, and Academic Performance. Comput. Educ. 2015, 80, 152−161. (8) Campbell, S.; Muzyka, J. Chemistry Game Shows. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79 (4), 458. (9) Carney, J. M. Retrosynthetic Rummy: A Synthetic Organic Chemistry Card Game. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92 (2), 328−331. (10) Pippins, T.; Anderson, C. M.; Poindexter, E. F.; Sultemeier, S. W.; Schultz, L. D. Element Cycles: An Environmental Chemistry Board Game. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88 (8), 1112−1115. (11) Daubenfeld, T.; Zenker, D. A Game-Based Approach to an Entire Physical Chemistry Course. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92 (2), 269− 277. (12) Farmer, S. C.; Schuman, M. K. A Simple Card Game to Teach Synthesis in Organic Chemistry Courses. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (4), 695−698. (13) O’halloran, K. P. Teaching Classes of Organic Compounds with a Sticky Note on Forehead Game. J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94 (12), 1929−1932.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID

Fun Man Fung: 0000-0003-4106-3174 C

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00857 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX

Journal of Chemical Education

Activity

(14) Grinias, J. P. Making a Game out of It: Using Web-Based Competitive Quizzes for Quantitative Analysis Content Review. J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94 (9), 1363−1366. (15) FatChicken Studios. Charades! http://www.fatchickenstudios. com/ (September July 2018).

D

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00857 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX