For this project, we were assigned to create a board game which included chemical reactions into the actual game itself. We were suppose to use multiple types of reactions such as, physical change, chemical change, production of a gas, and double and single displacement reaction, and lighting an LED. We had six weeks to finish our STEM project. My group decided to use our inspiration as Candyland, the game board. Our theme we decided to do was the movie, Up! We laminated each character and put them on clips to move them around the board. We painted in blue and pasted clips from the movie all over it. We even had a trail similar to the one in Candyland. As we instructed our game during, "Family Game Night" we played the "married life" song, which was a familiar tune from the movie. Each none balloon space would indicate a certain reaction that we'd perform with the players as they watched. The reaction spaces included Lighting of LED, so we made it be a movie projector. Our production of gas was a blue ICEE, with a reaction of "elephant toothpaste". Another one was Production of Gas with a balloon blown up by baking soda and vinegar. The Double-Replacement Reaction was the butter made by (KI) and (Pb(NO3)2). Single-Replacement Reaction was malt balls made by aluminum and Copper Chloride. Our physical and chemical change was the heating of oil for popcorn and the change from a kernel to actual popcorn. Every time someone would pick up the indicated card, they'd go to the specific area. Whoever finished in the end would win!
Playing Instructions & Set-Up Materials:
game board
set of laminated playing cards
4 Up characters (Mr. Fredricksen, Russell, Kevin, and Dug)
2 double displacement reactions
lighting of an LED
production of gas reaction
Set-Up:
Shuffle the cards and stack them together in a pile. Make sure all the cards are facing down so no player can see what they will pick up off the top of the deck. Play them in the designated area on the board.
Play your character on the start square. Each player should choose one of the four characters.
Let the youngest player go first. Have all the players announce their birthdays to determine who is the youngest. That player gets to go first and the order of turns is clockwise.
Playing the Game:
Grab the card on the top of the deck and move to the closet corresponding color or picture on the back side. Each card will either have one color balloon or a picture.
*One color balloon: Move your character to the first color square on the game board that matches the color of the balloon. *Picture: Move your character to the matching picture of card. Pictures represent different reactions. If landed on one, conduct the reaction with the help of the presenters.
Reactions can only be done once during the game. If a reaction is not conducted, it will be demonstrated at the end of the game.
Continue playing until you reach the end. The first player who reaches the finish square wins the game!
Safety Precautions ICEE reaction- Use gloves for hydrogen peroxide because it is highly coercive.
Popcorn reaction- Goggles for heating the oil. Use tongs, hot plates, and gloves to protect yourself from the heat. Keep loose clothing away from the heat.
Single-Replacement Reaction (malt balls) Starting materials: aluminum and Copper Chloride Balanced equation: 2Al(s) + 3CuCl2(aq) → 2AlCl3(aq) + 3Cu(s) In a single-replacement compound, one element replaces a similar element in a compound. Aluminum is more active than copper. We know this because it is found higher in the Activity Series. When solid aluminium is placed in an aqueous copper chloride solution, the aluminum replaces the copper. Solid copper and aqueous aluminium chloride are formed. In our board game this reaction represents chocolate malt balls.
Double-Replacement Reaction (butter): Starting materials: potassium iodide (KI) and lead nitrate (Pb(NO3)2) Balanced equation: 2KI(aq) + Pb(NO3)2(aq) → 2KNO3(aq) + PbI2(s) A double-replacement reaction is when ions of two compounds exchange places in an aqueous solution to form two new compounds. One of the compounds formed is usually a precipitate and the other compound is often soluble that remains dissolved in the new solution. The yellow precipitate lead iodide forms when an aqueous solution of potassium iodide and lead nitrate are combined. The state of the new new compound are determined by following the Solubility Guidelines. Ions can either have little to no exceptions when compounded with other ions making them solid or aqueous. Potassium and nitrate remain as aqueous solutions in this reaction. This reaction represents the butter for your popcorn.
Production of Gas (balloon): Starting materials: sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and acetic acid (vinegar) Balanced Equation:NaHCO3(s) + HC2H3O2(aq) → NaC2H3O2(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g) In some double-replacement reactions, one of the products is an insoluble gas that bubbles out of the mixture. We used vinegar instead of pure acetic acid because it is safer to use. About 3% of acetic acid is in vinegar which gives it its distinct smell. The rest of the vinegar is composed of water. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) reacts with acetic acid (vinegar) to form sodium acetate, liquid water, and carbon dioxide. The bubbles/fizzing are produced by sodium acetate and water. Carbon dioxide is released which inflates the balloon. The balloon represents the ginormous bundle in the movie of Up that is pulling the house.
Production of Gas (blue ICEE) Lighting of LED (movie projector)
Reflection:
This was one of our first real STEM projects which was very enjoyable. I had a pretty fun group too, which included Citlalli and Brian. Both of them are very smart so our creativity was fun to think of! We struggled in the beginning figuring out what we wanted our design to be for our game board. We wanted to do something to Mouse Trap, but the Rube Goldberg theme seemed too difficult and time consuming for the time given. We started by figuring out the chemicals we wanted to use and to make it all fir into a boardgames. For a few days we were stuck on what to base our theme on. As we examined the other groups I came up with the idea of Candy-land! I loved that game so much as a kid, and I knew it'd be perfect. After i explained the game to my partners they were down for the idea too. Our choice of theme also took awhile, but we chose to do the theme of the movie, Up. It was a very fun idea, and the whole point of the game was to go see the movie. We set our indicated reaction spaces in order: slushie, malt balls, balloon, popcorn, and movie projector. Each was specially marked to show your journey to the movie! The night of our presentation went by smoothly. Many people enjoyed our design and i really had a great time especially with how creative we got to be.