Board games have been a great way to pass time for many years. Some say that the first board game was created by the Egyptians, and was a tile game. Whether you're old or young, anybody can enjoy borad games. Our goal for the "Chemical Dominoes" project was to make a board game of our own using chemistry concepts. There were a few guidelines that we had to follow and take into consideration while making our game: We needed 3 reactions, and we needed to incooperate an LED light bulb. In addition, the whole point behind the board game is to teach chemistry to those who aren't very knowledgeable in the field. To achieve this goal, our game would have to be challenging and educational enough to be useful and informative, but not so much as to bore the people playing the game, who, for the most part, would be children. Other than that, we were able to be pretty free with the gameplay and design of game.
Whenever the term "board game" comes to mind, people usually think about pieces moving on a flat surface from point A to point B, while incurring obstacles. One of the main things our group noticed about the other projects was that, aside from the details, they all looked and were structured the same. All of them sort of conformed to what we think of as a regular board game. After noticing this, we wanted to do whatever it took to stand out and be interesting. In the beginning, our group ran on a "no stupid ideas" basis. Some of the wildest ideas were thrown out, some of which might not have even been physically possible, even for professionals. At some point, we began to think in 3 dimensions, and very soon after that, somebody threw out the idea of a box. It was sort of laughed at and disreguarded as "one of those ideas" at first, but as we thought more and more about it, it became more and more feasible. And so, Boxed In was born:
Whenever the term "board game" comes to mind, people usually think about pieces moving on a flat surface from point A to point B, while incurring obstacles. One of the main things our group noticed about the other projects was that, aside from the details, they all looked and were structured the same. All of them sort of conformed to what we think of as a regular board game. After noticing this, we wanted to do whatever it took to stand out and be interesting. In the beginning, our group ran on a "no stupid ideas" basis. Some of the wildest ideas were thrown out, some of which might not have even been physically possible, even for professionals. At some point, we began to think in 3 dimensions, and very soon after that, somebody threw out the idea of a box. It was sort of laughed at and disreguarded as "one of those ideas" at first, but as we thought more and more about it, it became more and more feasible. And so, Boxed In was born:
After we came up with the idea, we decided to make a prototype, about 5x5 inches. This prototype, not unlike the final product, was made entirely out of sheet metal, and we cut it such that we would be able to fold it like and oragami box. After multiple attempts at folding, we decided that this method was not going to give us the clean look we wanted, so we decided it would be better to cut 6 individual sides for a cube. The finished design ended up being about 1 foot cubed. It can be beneficial to be the first to go all the way around the board, but it doesn't guarantee a win. On top of the box, there is a square hole cut for the player to drop his/her piece through, and onto a surface divided into 3 sections: section 1, section 2, and section 3.
Depending on which section you land in the box, you are going to lift up that number balloon in order to mix the chemical in the balloon with the chemical in the flask. Only one of the mixtures will cause a reaction, blowing up the balloon, and in this case, its number won. The players do not know this. If the player lands in sections 2 or 3 in the box, nothing will happen, the section they landed on will be covered up, they will be moved back onto the board, and the game will resume. If they do happen to land in section 1, then the reaction will occur in the flask, causing the balloon to inflate. The inflated balloon will cause the cup filled with copper (II) chloride to tip, spilling the solution down the plastic ramp onto the next stage of the reaction.
After the copper (II) chloride slides down the ramp, it comes into contact with aluminum foil. It corrodes the foil, which causes the solution in the cup to slide down that second ramp, and mix with the solution in the petri dish. The result of the mixture of these two liquids is a yellow liquid. In addition to the solution sliding down the ramp, it pulls a string attached to a resistor on a circuit board through a pulley. Once the resistor is pulled, the LED turns on, signaling the player's victory.
We incooperated 3 different types of reactions in our project, and were able to utilize the LED bulb:
Single Replacement Reaction:
- When an element replaces its like element in an ionic compound or acid
• AB + C -----> AC + B
- Our single replacement reaction occured when the copper (II) chloride corroded the aluminum foil:
• Cu2Cl2 + Al -----> Cu + Al2Cl
Double Displacement Reaction:
- When two aqueous ionic compounds exchange ions and for two new ionic compounds
• AB + CD -----> AD + CB
- Our double displacement reaction occured when potassium iodide and led nitrate mixed to form a yellow liquid:
• KI + Pb(NO3)2 -----> KNO2 + Pb(I)3
Production of a Gas:
- This is when solids or liquids combine and release and expand into the air
- Our production of a gas occurred when the baking soda was poured into the vinegar, causing the balloon to expand:
• Vinegar -----> Carbon dioxide, water, sodium acetate
• HC2H3O2 -----> CO2, H2O, NaCHOO
This project was pretty different from many other science projects I've done in the past. While we did have to incooperate many scientific aspects, basing the whole thing around a board game was pretty unique. This project forced us to think beyond the normal chemistry assignment. As board games and chemistry had very little to do with each other, we had to figure out ways to integrate the two, while still making sense. Not only that, but it had to be entertaining. Our group focused a lot on the design and details of the game early on, and then we realised that we were running out of time and we still had to add some chemistry to it. I feel as though that should have been something we focused on a little bit more during this project, rather than the asthetics. The biggest challenge of the project was probably figuring out a way to add the LED bulb. Sure, we could have just made a simple use, but we wanted to integrate it with the chemical aspects of the project. In order to do this, we had to think a little harder and get a bit more creative, but in the end, it worked out. My biggest piece of advice to anybody trying to do this on their own is, take the time to make a plan for yourself. If you do everything out on a limb, the final product will most likely look rushed and unorganized. Making a plan is especially important if you have a deadline, as it make the building process a lot quicker and more efficient. Making a board game is a lot harder than we thought, as there are multiple aspects of it that nobody thinks about, like the fact that it needs to be easy to set up. A good board game has to be simple enough to be learnable by all ages, yet challenging enough for it to be fun. It's an art.