Mix, Match, and Play: Combining Chemistry Games for Maximum Engagement

There’s nothing like planning on a game you know can be engaging, but finding your students a little disinterested because you’ve played it before. And even if you’ve only played a game a couple of times, it can still cause a lackluster response. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to get around this is to combine games for a new twist. In this blog post, I’ll mention two combinations of games that have increased engagement for me in my classroom.

Clothespin Task Cards + Stinky Feet

The first couple of times we use the clothespin task card race (find out more here), my students are usually pretty engaged. But by the 3rd time, 4th time, they got a little less engaged. Or I should say some of them are less engaged. Surprisingly, some students are really into the clothespin task card race-and at the high school level!

But I wanted to change things up a bit and try to make things a tad more exciting. So I combined the clothespin task cards with a game of Stinky Feet. If you’ve never played Stinky Feet before, check out this blog post. It’s a hit! Each team (table) got the bag of clothespin task cards and a clothespin.

But instead of bringing it to me for me to check and highlight the bubble response sheet, they brought the card to me by the Stinky Feet set up. I would check if they clipped the clothespin to the appropriate bubble on their card, and if it was correct, they got to take a card from the Stinky Feet board. I was amazed by the level of engagement I observed in my students.

Kaboom Cards + Stinky Feet

Kaboom is a game that is normally used in elementary classrooms for centers. I adapted the idea to my high school chemistry classes, but have found that students aren’t magically engaged with the game of Kaboom at this level. If you want to read more about Kaboom, you can find it here.

So one day, I had the idea to just use the cards from a Kaboom set on strong and weak electrolytes. The cards alone, without the specific Kaboom cards, are task cards. But just using the task cards in that form wouldn’t be that engaging either.

I knew my students loved the game Stinky Feet. Each team (table) got a card from the deck and discussed at their table if they thought the formula represented a strong or weak electrolyte. They would bring the card to me with their answer, and if they were correct, they got to take a card from the Stinky Feet board. Instant engagement! And it took me no extra time other than drawing the foot on a whiteboard and sticking the points to the board. 

If you want to make things really exciting, keep the Kaboom cards in the stack. If they draw the Kaboom card, they have to put back all of their points!

Both of these game adaptations take very little extra time while increasing engagement for your students. What could be better than that? Have you ever combined two games to mix things up? How did it go? Let me know over on Instagram. Thanks for reading!