GALIO Gaming: Playful Learning of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry Part 1: Development of a playful-didactic project in the Faculty of Chemistry of the UNAM

Abstract

Educational games have demonstrated that they represent valuable pedagogical instruments, which can contribute to teaching and learning in a gratifying environment. In particular in chemistry courses, an important effort has been made to facilitate complex interrelated concepts in an easy, enjoyable and sometimes competitive way. At Facultad de Química, UNAM, we have generated a series of chemistry educational games treating a variety of introductory chemistry topics. The application of these games in the classroom showed encouraging results in terms of increasing learning and helping to overcome documented misconceptions. These promising results lead to a higher scale printing of the games, thus being available at the campus and allowing students and educators to use them for ludic and didactic purposes. Herein, we discuss the different contributions and their impact in students’ learning.