3 Games that need props

Some games require the use of props – teaching aids that can be made cheaply with a little effort. Depending on the nature of the props, the planning and preparation of games like these is more time-consuming. Once you have made the props, you can re-use them with your classes next year, or you can use the props in a different way with the same class in later lessons.

The next case study illustrates the use of a sorting game which uses a series of element cards (see Resource 3).

Case Study 2: Teacher Pradeep uses element cards for teaching the classification structure of the Periodic Table

I had already used a quick quiz and played another game with my younger classes, and they had all taken part in both very enthusiastically. But I wanted to do a harder game with my older Class X who were studying the chapter on the periodic classification of elements in the textbook.

I wanted to recreate the process that Mendeleev had gone through when he sorted the elements into groups. When I saw some old men playing cards in the park on the way home from school I knew that I could do something similar if I made some cards with information about the elements, which my students could then sort into groups by hand.

I asked all my classes to collect and bring as much clean scrap cardboard as they could from home. After about three weeks I thought I had enough thin cardboard to create enough element cards for Class X. Because there were 60 students in the class and each group needed cards for the first 20 elements, I decided to create six large groups of ten students each for the sorting game lesson. Each group needed the cards for the first 20 elements, altogether making 200 cards!

It would have taken me much too long to create all the element cards myself, so in the lesson before, we all made the cards together. This included cutting the scrap card to the right size and, where necessary, covering the cards with white paper so that the element information could be written on it. It was a fun lesson, if a little noisy compared to normal. As they were all doing such a good job of making the element cards I decided to ignore the noise and giggling. I wouldn’t do this normally! I asked for the following information on each element to be put on to the card and allocated different elements to different students:

  • symbol
  • atomic number
  • electron arrangement
  • mass number
  • appearance
  • state at room temperature.

Sanjay told me quietly at the end of the lesson that he had learnt more about the elements he was doing than he had in previous lessons because he had been learning them in a fun way. At the end of this lesson I collected in the cards and checked to make sure that they were all OK, and then arranged them for the next lesson.

In the actual lesson I gave the groups 20 minutes to devise a way of classifying the elements based on the information on the cards. I have a reputation for being quite strict and in the past I have not allowed any talking in my class. I expected my students to work on their own. However, I have 60 students in the class and I am beginning to realise that although I can’t help each one individually, they can learn a lot from each other, if I give them the opportunity. Playing games gives me great opportunities. While they are playing I get the chance to listen to their conversations, and I now know who is finding the work hard and who understands it.

After 20 minutes I said to them, ‘Go and see how the other groups have classified their element cards.’ At the end of the lesson I quickly gathered my students round the front. I explained how Mendeleev worked out the Periodic Table. I noticed lots of nodding heads. They now clearly understood the difficulties of classification better having done it for themselves.

I told them the properties of silicon and tin and then asked them to predict the properties of the element that would fit in between them. I was surprised how close they were able to get to the right answer. I then told them about the properties of germanium. I ended the lesson by explaining that a good chemist can use their knowledge of the Periodic Table to predict the properties of almost any element and that, as they had done this, they were becoming good chemists.

This lesson involves much preparation but it enables students to have a small glimpse of how scientists work and how scientific knowledge is constructed. This activity reinforces your students’ learning about the Periodic Table so that they are more secure in their learning of this topic. An activity like this also offers you the opportunity to evaluate students’ learning and to identify which students are less confident with their learning of this topic. Like this activity, many games involve groupwork, and you can try different ways of organising the groups. See the key resource 'Using groupwork [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ' for more information.