Educational games

Tuesday 4 July 2017

On the Inthinking Biology website there are several biological games which could make for a nice end of term activity. That's not to say that students won't learn anything they have all been designed specifically for the IB Biology course.

  • Animal classification games ( Classification games )
    This activity is made from two cardgames.  In the first, "Happy phyla families" students collect sets of cards all of the same phylum.  It works like the classic card game "Happy Famlies" except at the end they should out, 'Happy Platyhelmintha phylum' once they have a full set.
    The second game involves describing the characteristic features of the animal phyla from the IB course and team-mates shout out the phyla names. It is based on the game "Articulate" and it's really helps if you have a figurine for each team and a game board.
    At the end of the game students will have spent the whole lesson thinking about phyla names and their characteristic features, while having fun.
     
    • Respiration Board game
      This is an amusing way to follow the path of electrons in the process of electron transport and chemiosmosis in aerobic respiration. It is an activity in the Electron transport chain lesson. The layout of the game follows the process, and a cardboard dice sets out each of the steps. By rollingthe dice and reading the steps students practice explaining these processes.

Arcade games for vocabulary

In the Animal pollinated flower structure activity (plants, hl) and the Membrane Structure (cells, diagrams) lesson there are a fun arcade game to play on the whiteboard, or on a computer. These are useful for practising definitions or vocabulary.  It's a simple way to make some of the learning a little bit more fun.

I hope you have a successful end of term, if you are in the northern hemisphere.If you'd like to search for other games with a scientific twist, I have recently stumbled across the science game centre's website. THe games aren't linked to IB Biology, but you may find something interesting.