Intermolecular Forces Dominoes! A Game for Aiding Students in Their Review of Intermolecular Forces

Abstract

Ludic-didactic material has systematically been proven to be a useful tool that enhances teaching and learning processes, at practically any educational level by reducing the stress level of students and creating a feeling of team spirit and trust. In chemistry courses, significant efforts have been made to improve the learning of intermolecular forces. This is a crucial topic, as it involves a large amount of often dispersed knowledge that requires integration. "Intermolecular Forces Dominoes" is a game that employs the basic rules of traditional dominoes, adapted to the topic of intermolecular forces. It is a useful, attractive, fun, challenging game for three or four players that is played intuitively and bilingually (English and Spanish). Presumably, the main goal of the game is to dispose of all the tiles in your hand, but more importantly, to learn to identify the most relevant types of intermolecular forces, and to learn their possible representations from examples, representations, and schemes in a friendly competitive environment. The game was tested by a small pilot group of 16 students and then by 51 students from the Facultad de Quı ́mica at Universidad Nacional Autońoma de Mexico (UNAM), as a closing activity. The results are generally very favorable in terms of gameplay, content, usefulness, and student involvement. Finally, the students answered a test, before and after the game, which revealed an improvement in knowledge related to the topic. Therefore, students can benefit greatly from playing "Intermolecular Forces Dominoes" by reinforcing and reviewing the basic concepts of intermolecular forces.

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