There are many articles that suggest that students learning is enhanced by playing educational games (for example, Tutor doctor's "How gaming can enhance students learning" and Learning theories' "Gamification in education"). The games can be highly engaging and it is claimed that played in moderation they can also help students develop important life skills, as well as enhance their learning. These life skills include problem solving, memory enhancement, increased concentration and leaderships skills as well as social skills and increased cultural awareness. Knowing this I have recently explored some of the 50 gaming sites given in an article by David Kapular in Tech Learning. Many of them are aimed at younger students than those taking the Diploma and cover a wide range of subjects but I did find one from Sheppard Software that contained games specifically for chemistry students. I have to say that I was rather disappointed. There are essentially two games with different levels. The first is on the elements and the second is on the periodic table. The rubric states “These eight online games teach you the chemical elements, periodic table, and more.” However to me all they tested was rote learning and involved no understanding. For example, on one of the levels of the periodic table game you are asked to identify an element from its atomic number by typing in the first three letters of the element’s name.  Hardly rocket science and pretty pointless when IB students have access to a periodic table with this information on it  whenever they are examined. (I even got the answer to caesium wrong as it only accepted the non-IB spelling of cesium!) I can see that a well-designed game which challenges students to use their knowledge to work out problems in unfamiliar situations could well stimulate students but mindless factual recall would I think quickly turn most students off.

Maybe what is needed is a way to turn the many quiz questions on this site or the identification from spectra questions in Topic 11 and Topic 21 into more of a game – would it really enhance your students’ learning experiences? Meanwhile how about an old fashioned crossword to be going on with that I have just devised? It has cryptic clues to make you think. You can do it yourself or give it to your students (as a game!). You can access the solution by clicking on the hidden box at the foot of the page.