Tabletop Chemistry

An image featuring the boardgame Valence Plus

As part of International Games Week, the MGSN worked with libraries in the North West and South West of the UK to deliver a series of activities that brought together tabletop games and chemistry. Tabletop Chemistry was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and together with our colleagues at ErrantScience we  developed creative learning resources that use “off-the-shelf” games to generate a dialogue around chemistry: specifically, in understanding the differences between elements and compounds. During these sessions over 200 members of the general public took part, using our learning materials to participate in games of Valence Plus, Chemistry Fluxx, and Compounded. Feedback from those running the sessions has been great, noting that:

Everybody that I spoke to seemed to have a really great time, most people stayed for a few hours and played a few different games and some some stayed for the whole day which was really great to have the whole space packed out with people playing games on 10 different tables at the same time.

And

As a result of our successful events  I hope to be able to set up a circulating games collection and a family gaming event, focussing on games with educational content.

You can download the learning materials for Valence Plus and Chemistry Fluxx here, and if you use them in your gaming group or classroom then we would love to know what you thought of them.