Chemistry Everyday for Everyone
Using Games To Teach Chemistry. 2. CHeMoVEr Board Game
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Jeanne V. Russell* The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX 79762
Since many of our students enter introductory chemistry with apprehension and fear (1), at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin we use games and puzzles to try to make learning chemistry more interesting and fun. Thus several games have been developed and used during laboratory sessions. One subject most of our students find difficult is predicting products from the reactants. To predict products the students must know their nomenclature and identify the common types of equations. Therefore, after covering these subjects in the lecture we use the game in a laboratory to build nomenclature, equation-balancing, and product-predicting skills. The game is called CHeMoVEr1 (pronounced “chem mover”). Game Description CHeMoVEr is a board game that is a cross between Sorry and Parcheesi. It can be played by two to four players. To move their piece around the board, students must answer a chemical question correctly. The board is designed with a starting square for each player and a central finish area (Fig. 1). It is decorated with element symbols and the name is spelled with capital letters to represent the element symbols. The player draws a card from the top of the deck (there are 52 cards in a deck) and answers the question or identifies a formula (see Fig. 2). The correct answer is on the back of the card with the number of squares the player can move with a correct answer. The players move counterclockwise around the board until they come to the square with the same color as their game piece. Then they move into the center via these squares. How the Game Is Used A laboratory session is used to sharpen the students’ ability to name compounds, write formulas, learn their polyatomic ions, balance equations, identify equations, and predict products. The students are divided into three groups. One group works on the computer reviewing the nomenclature of acids, polyatomic ions, and salts and learning to name hydrates (new material). Another group works on a nomenclature handout. The third group plays two games of CHeMoVEr, one of which is balancing equations and identifying the types of equations and the other is predicting products. With the first set of cards they must fill in a coefficient to get a balanced equation and identify the type(s) of equation. They may move one square for each correct part of the answer. With the set of cards for the second game, they are given the reactants and they must state what products are expected. They may move one square for each correct product.
Figure 1. The CHeMoVEr board.
To keep the game running fast enough to hold everyone’s interest, the questions in both sets of cards have been phrased to allow quick answers. Therefore, the students are not asked to balance the entire equation in the first set or to write the formulas of the products or balance the equations after predicting the products. One advantage to the game playing is that students learn from each other rather than simply hearing the information repeated by an instructor. The game also gives students what might be a more persuasive reason than a quiz or test score to learn the material. Occasionally, students became so interested in the game that it was difficult to get them to move to their next session on the computers. Other decks of cards have been made and are available for students to use any time during the semester. They include the symbols for common elements, polyatomic ions, and inorganic compounds. These three decks of cards can be used so the student gives either the names of the formulas or the formulas for the names. The decks may also be arranged so that some cards require the name and others require the formula.
W Examples of game cards are available on JCE Online at http://JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/issues/1999/Apr/ abs487.html.
*Email:
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 76 No. 4 April 1999 • Journal of Chemical Education
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Chemistry Everyday for Everyone
Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge Caroline Burgess and Teresa Rogers, who helped test this game during their laboratory sessions. Note 1. Not to be confused with products produced and marketed by HACH Company.
Literature Cited 1. Granath, P.; Russell, J. V. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 485.
Figure 2. CHeMoVEr cards.
Creation of the Game Pieces The board was drawn on a word processor. Using a color printer, it was printed on two pieces of legal-size paper, which were placed over a piece of stiff board and laminated. The cards were drawn using a word processor with six cards on a page in the portrait orientation. They were printed on card stock with the question on one side and the answer on the other side. Both sides were decorated with modified chemistry clip art. Red, blue, green, and yellow game pieces are needed. Painted corks (size 8 or smaller), large colored plastic beads, pawns purchased from teachers’ stores, or different colored game pieces from other games can be used.
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Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 76 No. 4 April 1999 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
