Chemistry for Everyone
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Use of a Concentration Game for Environmental Chemistry Class Review Danica A. Nowosielski Biology, Chemistry, Physics Department, Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, NY 12180;
[email protected] Games used in lecture classes often help to make the class more interesting and entertaining. They can be used as a complete class or as a portion of the class or lab to help reinforce the material being presented or for review sessions. Articles have been written in this Journal that describe the use of game formats such as Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire among others (1–8). The addition of a Concentration game to Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire offered much delight for students in a nonmajors environmental chemistry course. This article will focus on the Concentration game. In the game, pieces are uncovered in pairs in search of matches. Players must “concentrate” to remember where on the board they may have seen the counterpart to an uncovered piece. The object is to locate matched pairs to earn points towards extra credit for the course grade. A successful match requires that the students first uncover a question on one piece and an answer on the other. If the students correctly identify the Q–A pair as belonging together, a match is made and points are awarded. This requires students to evaluate the material in addition to remembering where on the board they may have seen a corresponding half of a pair. Thus, the game functions effectively as a review. Board Setup and Class Play The playing board was a 6 × 6 grid, containing 36 spots, drawn on the chalkboard. Each spot was numbered sequentially and the number referred to either a wild card (2 spots), a question (17 spots), or an answer (17 spots). For example, one question asked “Q: What are the major natural sources of NOx” while the corresponding answer stated “A: Soil, plants, and lightning”. Other sample Q–A pairs are found in Table 1. (PowerPoint files with Q–A pairs for three different boards are available in the Supplemental Material.W) The
questions and answers covered class material from three chapters in the text (9). When a match was made, the corresponding numbers were erased from the board so that they could not be chosen again. The questions, answers, and wild cards were printed onto overhead transparencies. PowerPoint was used to generate these pages and they were printed in portrait orientation with a question and an answer on the same sheet (Figure 1). The transparencies were cut in half to separate the questions and answers. One sheet was printed with two Wilds (Figure 2), representing the wild cards, and also cut in half. The half sheets were numbered at random, put into order, and divided by row for easy access once they had been chosen. The class was divided into teams of three to four people. A team was chosen at random to make the first selections. Students were reminded to choose one number at a time and wait to see what was displayed before making their second selection. This became more important as the game continued since the placement of unmatched pieces was “known” and potential matches became less random. When a team chose an appropriate number from the chalkboard grid, the transparency corresponding to that number was displayed on the overhead projector. The team then made a second choice, and the second transparency was displayed simultaneously on the overhead projector. The half-size transparencies were used so that when a team chose two selections from the chalkboard, they would both be visible on the overhead projector screen. Once two selections had been displayed, one of three possibilities would occur. First, the pieces could be both an answer or both a question. This meant that they were NOT a match. If this was the case, the transparencies were removed from the projector, no numbers were removed from the grid on the board, and play passed to the next team. The second possibility for the two selections displayed was that one was a question and the other an answer. In this
Table 1. Example Q–A Pairs for the Environmental Chemistr y Concentration Review Game Question
Corresponding Answer
Where is most of the water present on Earth found?
In the oceans (97.4%)
If gasoline contains no nitrogen, how can NOx gases be produced in car exhaust?
Since air is 78% N2, the energy from a spark in an internal combustion engine can be enough to cause N2 and O2 to react to form NO.
What are the largest natural sources of SO2?
Oceans and Volcanoes
What two lung disorders can be aggravated by acid rain?
Asthma and Bronchitis
What is the most common means of protection to prevent vehicles, buildings, etc. from rusting?
Paint
Why are forests “doubly” affected by acid rain?
Because acid precipitation not only lands directly on the trees, but also affects the soil that the trees rely on for nutrients
Why are limestone statues affected by longterm exposure to acid rain?
Because limestone dissolves in acidic solution
One-fifth of lakes have no fish in what area?
Southern Norway and Sweden
What area has virtually no lake acidification problems?
The Midwest
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Vol. 84 No. 2 February 2007
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Chemistry for Everyone
Figure 1. An example of a question–answer transparency slide that is cut in half to generate two separate squares.
Figure 2. The transparency printed with two wilds.
case, the team was asked to decide whether or not the answer was the correct response for the question based on what they had learned in class. If the students said yes and the Q– A pair did not go together, the students were informed of their error. The transparencies were then removed from the projector and play passed to the next team. If the students said yes and the Q–A did go together, the team received a point. The transparencies were set aside, their numbers erased from the board, and the team given a bonus turn. If the students said the question and answer did not go together and they actually did, the students were not informed of the error. This offered the opportunity of a match to the next team if they realized that a match had just been uncovered and not correctly identified. The third case was that one of the pieces was a wild card. This meant a match was automatically made, the team awarded one point, the pieces set aside, and the corresponding numbers erased from the board. The successful team was then given one additional turn and allowed to choose two more numbers from the grid. When wild cards are used in this fashion, there is potential to have a stray pieces left at the end of the game that do not go together. No credit is given for uncovering these and the game may end with the mismatched pieces remaining on the board.
The game was played twice during the semester. There were four to five teams per class and the game (with a board of 36 squares) took about 50 minutes to complete. Once a legitimate match is found, the instructor may provide commentary to remind students of related information that needs to be reviewed. The time of the game may be adjusted by changing the number of Q–A pairs used. This would change the number of squares on the board. The first time the game was played, any team making a match could continue with unlimited turns as long as a match was made. This was modeled after rules of the Milton Bradley Concentration board game. Such a method has a drawback since towards the later part of the game, one team surged ahead as more of the pieces had been seen. The second time the game was played, the rule was changed so that if a team 240
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made a match, only one bonus turn was awarded. This alleviated a runaway by a single team late in the game. Teams were allowed to keep track of where pieces were on the board. This seemed to make it easy for them to identify a correct match by being able to recall where the corresponding mate was placed on the board. The instructor must be sure that an answer cannot match up with more than one question on the board. Having more than one board setup and switching any conflicting pairs to separate boards can alleviate this. However, questions that are answered by yes or no are okay to have duplicate answers. Also, questions of the same type with similar answers (compare Figure 3 with Figure 1) make the game more difficult. Conclusions Overall, the Concentration game works nicely and students enjoy the activity. They generally remain attentive even when it is not their team’s turn so as to have a better idea of where a potential match may exist. The Concentration game format can be used with any class material that lends itself to matching. For example, the same format was also used in an introductory chemistry class to aid the students in reviewing the polyatomic ions, their formulas, and charges. WSupplemental
Changes, Adjustments, and Pitfalls
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Figure 3. A second transparency containing a question and answer similar to another set.
Material
PowerPoint files with Q–A pairs for three different boards are available in this issue of JCE Online. Literature Cited 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Campbell, S.; Muzyka, J. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 458–459. Deavor, J. P. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 467. Keck, M. V. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 483. Crute, T. D. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 481–482. Russell, J. V. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 487–488. Russell, J. V. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 481–484. Deavor, J. P. J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 430. Schrek, J. O. J. Chem. Educ. 1992, 69, 233–234. Stanitski, C. L.; Eubanks, L. P.; Middlecamp, C. H.; Pienta, N. J. Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society; McGraw–Hill Companies: New York, 2003.
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