The first big project of my junior year involved creating a board game that displayed a series of chemical reactions. We then built the board and brought our visions to life in a playable game that would be available for all to view in a night of public presentation. Above all, we were supposed to understand key chemistry concepts and showcase the working reactions of our board game to a panel of judges as well as answer any questions they had.
TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Cation - An ion with a positive charge. This is essential to understand what's happening inside a double displacement reaction.
Anion - An ion with a negative charge. This is essential to understand what's happening inside a double displacement reaction.
Single Displacement Reaction - A type of chemical reaction where an element reacts with a compound and takes the place of another element in that compound. This was a key reaction in our board game.
Double Displacement Reaction - A type of chemical reaction where two compounds react and the cations and the anions of the two reactants switch places, forming two new compound or products. This was a key reaction in our board game.
Below are definitions, visual representations, spoken explanations, and chemical equations for both single and double displacement reactions.
Acid-base Reaction - A type of chemical reaction in which an acid and a base react quantitatively with each other. Our single displacement reaction was an acid based reaction, so this term was important to understand.
Activity Series - A table that shows the hierarchy of reactivity among elements, in which elements higher on the list react only with compounds containing an element lower on the list. This helps us to understand why certain elements and compounds react, but others don't.
Here is a chart of the activity series, with the most reactive metals at the top
REFLECTION
I found this project challenging at times, but I am quite pleased with the final product. I think the overall look of the board turned out really well and made it both more fun to play and more impressive in presentation. The chemical reactions we incorporated turned out really well in presentation, and aside from the shortage of materials, we were able to demonstrate all the reactions on game night. Something that didn't go as planned was our swamp, as it wasn't completely water tight and leaked a little bit during our presentation. Also, I didn't know about all of our reactions to the fullest extent, and this showed during our presentation. I learned that I take initiative and get work done when it comes time to finish up a project or work on some element of one. I found this out when we had an opportunity to come in and work on a Saturday. I chose to take advantage of the opportunity because we were coming closer to the deadline and weren't on track to finish in time. I also learned how to convey my ideas more accurately. This happened over the course of the project as I recognized where my teammates weren't understanding what I was saying. I learned how to agree on something after wanting something else, like when I wanted to work on a draft of the rules but my teammates thought it would be a better use of our time to build more elements into our chemical reaction. I found faults in the functionality of the board with the leaky swamp, which I could have easily spotted and fixed if we had run our reactions before presenting. I could have done better here by just taking the time to review our board and judge it critically. I also could have formed a more full idea and then executed it, which would have helped us finish the project faster. We failed to do this at the beginning, which lead to a lot of planning during our build periods.
I found this project challenging at times, but I am quite pleased with the final product. I think the overall look of the board turned out really well and made it both more fun to play and more impressive in presentation. The chemical reactions we incorporated turned out really well in presentation, and aside from the shortage of materials, we were able to demonstrate all the reactions on game night. Something that didn't go as planned was our swamp, as it wasn't completely water tight and leaked a little bit during our presentation. Also, I didn't know about all of our reactions to the fullest extent, and this showed during our presentation. I learned that I take initiative and get work done when it comes time to finish up a project or work on some element of one. I found this out when we had an opportunity to come in and work on a Saturday. I chose to take advantage of the opportunity because we were coming closer to the deadline and weren't on track to finish in time. I also learned how to convey my ideas more accurately. This happened over the course of the project as I recognized where my teammates weren't understanding what I was saying. I learned how to agree on something after wanting something else, like when I wanted to work on a draft of the rules but my teammates thought it would be a better use of our time to build more elements into our chemical reaction. I found faults in the functionality of the board with the leaky swamp, which I could have easily spotted and fixed if we had run our reactions before presenting. I could have done better here by just taking the time to review our board and judge it critically. I also could have formed a more full idea and then executed it, which would have helped us finish the project faster. We failed to do this at the beginning, which lead to a lot of planning during our build periods.