Design and Development of Periodic Table Game for Students in Secondary School

Abstract

Development of chemistry games seems to flourish with the increase of its usage in the classroom. In line with rapid technological advances, digital-game based learning (DGBL) creates more engagement to the topic being learned. It has potential to bridge the gap between education and entertainment by taking advantage of people’s natural interest in games to comply with challenging topic such as periodic table of elements. As a foundation of the chemistry subject, periodic table is the most important chemistry reference that students need to master. However, student always think that the topic is difficult to learn, uninteresting and requires a memorization skill. Therefore, this research aims to propose a Chemi-Chronicle game, a periodic table game that may help memorization tasks become more enjoyable. Subsequent to this, the game is developed to serve as a learning aid for Form 4 students who take chemistry subject. At the same time, it helps students with less skills of memorizing periodic table. This study adopted ADDIE method for game development which involves five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Several interview sessions with chemistry teachers were done in the initial stage to identify appropriate game activities for students. Besides this, games design principles is identified to inform the developer in designing the games that is playful and motivating while achieving desired goals.  It is strongly recommended that the periodic table game could appear as a promising educational aid technology for improving and strengthening knowledge in chemistry subject.