Information and Communication Technology and multi-media students have created an “addictive” chemistry game aimed at teaching and refreshing students on the basics of chemistry.
Led by School of ICT lecturer Dr Heather Gray, the 90 second online game, titled Element Bonding, involves “blowing up ions with either fire or water, collecting electrons and completing bonds”.
Dr Gray said while this particular game allowed students to engage with a physical workbook on Introduction to Chemistry, the notion of “gamification” was taking over teaching and learning across the world.
“The student as a teacher approach to learning and teaching provides opportunities for academics to facilitate learning and teaching that extends the flipped classroom to an advanced social and cognitive constructivist learning approach using games as the learning and teaching platform,” she said.
“When it comes to gaming I would love to see more opportunities like this arise as it is a great way to enhance teaching and learning.”
Dr Gray presented her research paper titled ‘Chemistry Gamification: Students teaching students through gaming’ along with Leigh-Ellen Potter and Peter Healy at The Higher Education Technology Agenda (THETA) conference, which wrapped up on May 13.
One of the displays at the THETA conference
THETA , hosted by Griffith University, attracted more than 900 delegates from Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA, converging at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The conference aims to explore important issues facing higher education technology and education leaders, drawing international delegates from across the world.
Dr Heather Gray
Dr Gray was one of more than 20 Griffith academics and researchers who shared their innovative projects throughout the three day conference.
Bachelor of Information Technology student David Hatch, who was one of five students who created Element Bonding, said the project was a great creative challenge for him during his studies.
“We needed a simple game for students that was widely acceptable,” he said.
“We tried to implement as many of the different module tasks from the Introduction to Chemistry book as we could to create a single experience.
“Feedback from students is that it becomes very addictive, once you start and get the hang of it you can’t let it go and before you know it you have learnt something.”
Griffith students Jack Siu, Nikolai Trinajstic, David Hatch, Hareendra Irugalratne and Oscar Erazo created the online chemistry game.
