Element Battleship

Getting Started

There are some really hardworking, creative teachers out there. One of the more creative, buzz worthy lessons to come through the science edusphere has been Periodic Table Battleship. I believe Karyn, at her Teach Besides Me blog first came up with the idea. I am always on the lookout for simple games to include in class and saw this mentioned on the regular Wednesday #scitlap Twitter chat. Planning for the unit, I remembered that I wanted to try it and within a week had everything I needed together and ready.

I tried to replicate what Karyn had done as close as I could.  I planned on 50 laminated color coded periodic tables and 24 multicolored file-folders. I began by visiting Staples to price out laminating sheets, file folders, and color copies.The laminating sheets were much less expensive on Amazon, but the colorful file folders were a decent $7 for 24. I also ended up ordering the large colored paperclips from Amazon as well (get these at your local dollar store for less). The trickiest part might have been getting colored copies of the periodic table. The $.50 a sheet at Staples was much more than I wanted to spend. Printing them at home would have been a pain and somewhat expensive as well. Shouldn't my school have a color printer/copier I could use? My tech office hooked me up with the copies I needed and they turned out fantastic. I pulled the periodic table image from http://sciencenotes.org/printable-periodic-table/.  I decided that the more colorful I could make things, the more intrinsically engaging the game would be. In a few hours one evening I assembled the boards and was ready to go. Just to note, I had previously purchased 24 whiteboard markers on Amazon for use with student whiteboards.

Game Day

Though I am not averse to risk-taking with my lesson plans; I also want to maximize learning and reduce off-task behavior. Going in I was guessing the game would not hold student attention the entire 45 minute period. I instead buffered the start of class with a few videos of the alkali metals and reactivity along with the noble gasses and density. This helped engage and set the stage for learning the parts and contents of the periodic table of elements. The first few periods I passed out the folders, rags (I have these for cleaning the whiteboards), and dry erase markers. This took too much time. I found it worked better to have two folders, a rag, and two dry erase markers ready to go and have partners come of front and get them when ready. This went faster and students were quick to self-select a partner. Only in a few classes was there a student that didn't get a partner immediately. I only have to play with the odd student out once. This was not because she was unpopular and smelled funky, but because she came in late and there was an odd number of students.

Summary

Success! Students seemed to really enjoy playing Element Battleship. I can't say whether they learned anything, but they were engaged (for the most part) the entire 30 minutes of play time. Much better than the worksheets I had done previously to have students become familiar with the periodic table of elements. Since the materials are reusable I am all set to go again next year!