Abstract:

In both college and high school courses with chemistry related content, different types of exercises are often used. As a higher course is reached, students are supposed to overcome more complex situations, and a high degree of understanding of the previous contents is desired to do so. However, this is rarely the case, and experience has shown that students seldom are able to solve those problems any more, disrupting the new module’s normal path. Overall, this implies that time is not being invested in the progress of the class, but rather it is used to remind students something they were already supposed to know.

Thanks to the teaching innovation project UV-SFPIE_PID-1356255, funded by the University of Valencia, a video game, "LaboratorioRPGDocente", has been developed. In it, theoretical exercises of numerical calculations are proposed. These proposed exercises cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from pre-university level to more complex activities, focusing on the contents which were explained in the previous modules. The exercises are thought to be solved manually by the student, uploading their answers to the video game, which will indicate whether the result is correct or not. In the latter case, some additional clues are shown to help them go through the different steps correctly. Overall, this project aims to become a new and additional teaching tool, which promotes the engagement of the undergraduates in the review process of the basics of the module, saving precious in-class time to advance in the new contents.

Keywords:

Game based learning, high school, chemistry, analytical chemistry, numerical execise.