Connect‘(ch)em!─A Cooperative Word Association Game for Training Chemical Terms

Abstract

This article describes and discusses the development, use and evaluation of a cooperative word association game designed to practice chemical terms at university level. In groups of three or four, each student writes down terms, formulas or symbols to serve as clues for four pairs of randomly assigned chemical terms. In the second round, the other group members must match the chemical terms to the clues. In doing so, they discuss the meaning of the chemical terms. The use of the game in two courses on Organic Chemistry was evaluated using a questionnaire and qualitative evaluation of the students’ clues. Students rated the game as suitable for revising terms. Most students were able to write down clues for their pairs of terms. Depending on the course, some students used short sentences or symbols instead of chemical terms. Therefore, the game can be played in a variety of ways.