INNOVATION_IN_EDUCATIONAL_PHYSICAL_AND_L

ISARC
INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND ART RESEARCH CENTER
INNOVATION IN EDUCATIONAL PHYSICAL AND LIFE SCIENCE GAMES
Alan Reed LIBERT

ORCID: 0000-0003-1446-4183
School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales,
Australia
ABSTRACT
The physical sciences (e.g. chemistry and physics) and life sciences (e.g. botany) may be perceived
as difficult and intimidating by students, and this can lead to problems in learning them. In response
to this, educators (and parents) must find ways to counter these impressions, and make these subjects
enjoyable. One way of doing this is by using educational card or board games. However, the quality
of such games is important; if students see them as boring, too simple, or too complicated, the
attempted use of them will not lead to good learning outcomes. This paper will look at a variety of
recent educational science games to see whether they have incorporated any innovations (as has
occurred with some other sorts of games), what those innovations are, and whether they might
indeed make the games, and learning about science, more enjoyable. The games examined will
include both print and play games available on the internet (e.g. The Density Game and the
Atmosphere & Weather Triva Board Game) and traditionally manufactured games (e.g. the Blinded
by Science Triva Game and Science Quiz). (Online and computer games will not be discussed.) 129
Recommendations will be made for the design of science games in the future.
Keywords: educational games, science education, game design
1. INTRODUCTION
h as chemistry and the life
sciences such as botany) difficult and unenjoyable, and, as a result, may perform poorly in them.
One way of making the learning of them more fun and less intimidating is to use games when
teaching them. However, such games should be carefully designed so as to be both enjoyable and
instructive, and some science games have not been ideal from this point of view. In this paper I will
discuss science games, some of which have interesting innovations which could assist learning in
this domain, and some of which do not, and I will make some recommendations for future games.
Games, like other products, have seen many innovations in recent decades, and I will explain what
I mean by looking at games on another subject, military conflict, i.e. wargames, where there have
been some important innovations. The 1970s could be said to be the golden age of wargames, with
some important innovations coming up.
www.isarconference.org 1th INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CONGRESS 13-14/03/2021

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It should be noted that most or all of these were made in order to increase the realism of the games,
i.e. to make them more like actual wars or battles, which arguably increased their educational value,
although these games were not really educational games.
Let us start with chess, which is a wargame of a sort, but it is quite unrealistic in various ways. This
is not to say that it is not a great game, and it can teach players various things, like the importance
of being careful and of planning. One innovation is to remove the restriction that you can only move
one piece per turn (which is found in many other games, such as checkers) this is more realistic,
since in battles generally many men or several units on the same side move, and this is a radical
change in game mechanics. Another innovation was to have the spaces on the board be hexagons
rather than squares; this could also be said to add realism, as it adds possibilities for movement (if
pieces are limited to moving a certain number of spaces per turn) with squares there are only four
adjacent squares and hence four possible directions you could allow pieces to move diagonally
yielding four more possible directions, but these moves would be longer (counting from center of
space to center of space), and this would lead to unequal possibilities for movement. With a board
of hexagons, a piece can move in any of six directions, and they would all involve equidistant
movement.
These innovations add realism but do not make playing more difficult (although planning would be
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more difficult with all pieces able to move). The last innovation to wargames which I will bring up
adds realism, but at a considerable cost in playability (and playability is important in both
educational and non-educational games, since you want people to like playing your game).
In chess and in most of the wargames containing the innovations which I have mentioned so far,
one player moves (or has his turn), and then the other player does. This is not realistic: in battles
often soldiers from both sides are moving at the same time. The first well-known game to involve
simultanous movement was, to my knowledge, Diplomacy, which is extremely popular among
wargamers. Players (and there could be up to seven of them) have to write out their moves in
advance, but there are not that many pieces, or that many spaces on the board. In the 1970s, the
company Simulations Publications, one of the major wargame companies of the time, introduced
simultaneous movement in several of its wargames, again involving players writing down moves in
advance, and, in my view (and I think that of many others), this made the games tedious, since there
were lots of possibilities for movements.
This then, is not the sort of innovation which I would recommend so not all innovations are
necessarily improvements.

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Let us now see whether there have been innovations of this order in games about the hard sciences.
I should note that I will not be looking at computer- or internet-based games, although one can find
some such games dealing with science. Many students already have more than enough screen time,
and such games may lack the face-to-face interaction which adds enjoyment to games which involve
physical components. However, I will consider games which can be downloaded from the internet
and printed (print and play games), as some of these games are about science.
2. ANALYSIS OF GAMES
2.1. Games without Major Innovations
There are at least a few science trivia games. Of course trivia games became very popular after the
release of Trivial Pursuit, a game which I think it is of little interest because many of the questions
are about things which are in fact trival, such as entertainment, although there may be some about
more serious topics. There are some science trivia games, e.g. the Blinded by Science Triva Game:
Figure 1: Blinded by Science Triva Game (https://www.boardgames.ca/blinded-by-science-trivia-
game.html)
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This is a fairly straighforward triva game, with 3 or 4 questions on cards; what one might call a
asked the
themes are on the backs of the cards and you will have a certain number of cards in your hand to
choose among. One might learn much about science from this game (there is an impressive range
of knowledge involved), but it might not be a very exciting gaming experience, and this is what
game designers, particularly educational game designers, should be striving for. Somewhat similar
is Science Quiz, shown below, which also involves questions on cards.

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Figure 2: Science Quiz (http://www.creativeeducationalaids.com/age/5-and-up-school-years/science-

quiz.html)
There are also science games based on the popular Top Trumps series of games, e.g. Chemistry Top
Trumps, a free print and play game (https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/chemistry-top-trumps-
6191539, which is also the source of the picture below).
Figure 3: Chemistry Top Trumps
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Again, such games have much information, but repeated play of them may not be very interesting.
Some games have both question cards, like the trivia games already mentioned, and a board to move
on, e.g. the Atmosphere & Weather Trivia Board Game, a print and play game for sale at
teacherspayteachers.com.
Figure 4: Atmosphere & Weather Trivia Board Game
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(https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Atmosphere-Weather-Trivia-Board-Game-Making-
Learning-Fun-1721423?st=2cfc4078ae58675830e9a6a3d367f177)
The last non-innovative game which I will mention is The Density Game, also called the Density
Concepts Review Game, available for free at
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Density-Concepts-Review-Board-Game-1101086,
part of whose board is shown in Figure 5 (which also comes from this webpage).

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Figure 5: The Density Game
Unfortunately, this game is particularly uninteresting, at least to me players roll a die, move the
number of spaces indicated and read out loud what is written in the space on which they land. There
is no reward for knowing anything and victory is determined entirely by luck. Students might still
learn about density, but it is unlikely that they will want to play the game more than once or twice. 134
Other non-innovative science games use dominoes or involve finding matching cards (memory
games). One can learn from them, but the learning experience may not be compellingly interesting.
2.2 Games with Major Innovations
Now let us look at two science games which have incorporated significant innovations. A very
popular series of games in recent years has been the Fluxx games. They are quite innovative, as the
rules themselves do not stay the same during the game, which would a quite alien concept to the
vast majority of other games. This in itself could make the game interesting. One game of this series
is Chemistry Fluxx, shown in Figure 6.

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Figure 6: Chemistry Fluxx (https://www.looneylabs.com/games/chemistry-fluxx)
Success in this game can involve knowing or learning facts of chemistry, e.g. that water consists of
hydrogen and oxygen. Given the unusual nature of Chemistry Fluxx, it might well be more exciting
for students than those mentioned in the previous section.
The final game which I will discuss, Cogno: Alien Adventure Game, pictured below, is innovative
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not so much in the game mechanics themselves as in some of the science involved, which affects
the game play.
Figure 7: Cogno: Alien Adventure Game (https://www.bonanza.com/items/like/235108453/Cogno-Alien-

Adventure-Board-Game-2006-Doublestar-Games-Complete-Played-Once)

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It is a trivia game and involves movement on a board, but also involves a parallel universe (with a
separate board), a black hole, and time travel (of a minor sort). The inclusion of such factors might
make it stand out and be interesting for students, as well as making them aware of them.
3. CONCLUSION
A large proportion of science games follow models of already existing games, and not very
sophisticated ones: trivia games, games where movement is controlled largely by rolling dice, etc.
Many such models do not make for very exciting games, whatever the subject is. In my view the
best new science games might be designed by creating new models, although that is admittedly a
lot of work, or by looking at major innovations which have occurred in games on other subjects,
such as wargames (which might be a suitable general model for e.g. germs attacking a human body;
I would not at all be surprised if such a game has been created). It would therefore be a good idea
for science game designers to look at innovative games on subjects other than science to see whether
they can adopt any features or models from them.
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