Chemical Dominoes Board Game
Project Description:
For this project we were assigned to think of a game board idea and then create a game to play while at the same time figuring out a way to incorporate different chemical reactions into the game to set off a series of chemical dominoes. We started off by thinking of an theme for our board game and we ended up choosing prehistoric and dinosaurs to be our theme. We then had to choose which reactions we were going to use for our game and we decided on two synthesis reactions, lighting an LED, and the production of a gas. Each chemical reaction is set off from a "domino effect" that originated from our board game. If you look down below you can see the step by step instructions with pictures on how our game works.
For this project we were assigned to think of a game board idea and then create a game to play while at the same time figuring out a way to incorporate different chemical reactions into the game to set off a series of chemical dominoes. We started off by thinking of an theme for our board game and we ended up choosing prehistoric and dinosaurs to be our theme. We then had to choose which reactions we were going to use for our game and we decided on two synthesis reactions, lighting an LED, and the production of a gas. Each chemical reaction is set off from a "domino effect" that originated from our board game. If you look down below you can see the step by step instructions with pictures on how our game works.
Content:
With the knowledge we had been learning from chemistry class we were able to think of 4 different reactions and we were able to calculate the amounts of each reactant we needed to put together in order to make the best reaction. We did have to know a couple of simple components such as a synthesis reaction which is two or more simple substances combined to form a more complex product, the reactants would be elements or compounds and the product is always a compound. We also needed to understand displacement reactions, such as a double displacement reaction which is a type of chemical reaction where two compounds react, and the positive ions (cation) and the negative ions (anion) of the two reactants switch places, forming two new compounds or products. We then used this knowledge and applied it to to make all the chemical reactions in our board game to work.
With the knowledge we had been learning from chemistry class we were able to think of 4 different reactions and we were able to calculate the amounts of each reactant we needed to put together in order to make the best reaction. We did have to know a couple of simple components such as a synthesis reaction which is two or more simple substances combined to form a more complex product, the reactants would be elements or compounds and the product is always a compound. We also needed to understand displacement reactions, such as a double displacement reaction which is a type of chemical reaction where two compounds react, and the positive ions (cation) and the negative ions (anion) of the two reactants switch places, forming two new compounds or products. We then used this knowledge and applied it to to make all the chemical reactions in our board game to work.
Reflection:
At first we had a little bit of trouble thinking up a theme, we got our creative juices flowing and starting thinking of popular board games such as Candy Land or Sorry, and then we thought, "what would be a cool chemical reaction to have on our board game?" So of course, we thought of something exploding. Then we thought what things in nature explode, well a volcano of course. What do you think of when you hear volcano, well dinosaurs. So we then decided that our theme would be prehistoric. A difficult part of our project was setting up the different steps and how they would work together to set off our reactions. It involved lots of trial and error, for example it took us a while to figure out exactly where the dominos needed to be placed so that they knocked each other over and eventually knocked over a tube into a cup perfectly every time. We also had some troubles with the concentrations of some of our solutions and towards the end of the game night we started running out of the reactants for our volcano and when we went to go get more the one that we got didn't have a very high concentration so our volcano didn't erupt like it had been in the beginning. The best part of this project was watching peoples' reactions when watching our whole project work correctly and how amazed they seemed, and how especially excited some of the kids that were there seemed and they really enjoyed it making all of our learning and hard work worth it.
At first we had a little bit of trouble thinking up a theme, we got our creative juices flowing and starting thinking of popular board games such as Candy Land or Sorry, and then we thought, "what would be a cool chemical reaction to have on our board game?" So of course, we thought of something exploding. Then we thought what things in nature explode, well a volcano of course. What do you think of when you hear volcano, well dinosaurs. So we then decided that our theme would be prehistoric. A difficult part of our project was setting up the different steps and how they would work together to set off our reactions. It involved lots of trial and error, for example it took us a while to figure out exactly where the dominos needed to be placed so that they knocked each other over and eventually knocked over a tube into a cup perfectly every time. We also had some troubles with the concentrations of some of our solutions and towards the end of the game night we started running out of the reactants for our volcano and when we went to go get more the one that we got didn't have a very high concentration so our volcano didn't erupt like it had been in the beginning. The best part of this project was watching peoples' reactions when watching our whole project work correctly and how amazed they seemed, and how especially excited some of the kids that were there seemed and they really enjoyed it making all of our learning and hard work worth it.