Eloosis-A
Card Game which Demonstratesthe Scientific Method
One topic that occurs in most high school chemistry courses is the scientific m e t h d of problem solving. Rather than simply lecturing to the classon the topic thisexperiment allows the students to uncover the process themselves. Materials: One deckof ordinary playingeards for each five or six students. h c e d u r e : The game consists of one chief and four or five players. Chiefs are selected in advance by the teacher, enough to allow the entire class to participate simultaneously. The chief shuffles the cards and deals them out until all are gone. It doesnot matter if some players haveone more eard than others. The game begins with the player to the left of the chief placing a card face up on the table. This first card is always accepted by the chief. Each player in turn then selects one card from his hand and places it face up in line with those already on the table. As each player takes his turn the chief must decide if his card is acceptable. If accepted it remains on the table, face up, and play passes t o the next person. If it is not accepted the player returns the eard to his hand and play still passes to the next person. To decide if a card is accepted the chief has a rule (supplied by the teacher) which he follows. As the game continues more cards collect face up a n the table. While it is true a player may choose acceptable cards by a random process, he who is able to figure out the chiefs rule will do far better. Objective of the Game: The obvious object of the game is t o successfully play out the cards in one's hand. The more challenging and certainly more important objective is t o find out the chiefs rule. Class Discussion: After all the eards have been successfully played, or earlier if time is limited, ask the elms to examine their own thought precesses involved in finding the rule. The discussion can be directed by the teacher along the following lines: 1) Card Game-place theacceptablecardson the table Setentifir P r o r e s s ~ o l l e r the t data 2) Card Game-find a pattern in the accepted cards Scientific Process-search for regularities and postulates rule, law, theory, etc. 3) Card Game-play your next card according to the pattern found Scientific h e s s - p e r f o r m an experiment and predict the result 4) Card Game-if card is not aeceoted modifv or discard "our rule Scientific Process-alteror discard a rule inlight or new experimental evidence 51 Cnrd Camr-tell the c l a ~what s the rule 1s Scientitir Process-publish your rer;ults
Rules That Haue Been Effective: Easy rules-(1) alternate suits, (2) odd, add, even, even, odd, odd, etc. (Jack = 11, Queen = 12. King = 13). Harder rules-(3) if the last accepted card was red, all odd cards are acceptable; if the last accepted card was black, all even cards are acceptable, (4) if the last card aceepted was odd then all red cards will he accepted, if the last card accepted was even then all black cards will be aceepted. We wish to thank Mr. Peter Grivich for suggesting rules for this experiment. We also wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Conrad School District.
H. C. Conrad High School Wilmington, Delaware 19804
532 / Journal of Chemical Education
Gene R. Ziegler
