Games in Organic Chemistry:
Edufrag and Wheel of Orgo
Biennial Conferences on Chemical Education
Jean-Claude Bradley
E-Learning Coordinator
College of Arts and Sciences
Drexel University
August 2, 2006
E-Learning is multi-dimensional
Content
CMS
Interaction
Blogs
Games
Assessment
The Game Platform: The EduFrag Project
First Person Shooter Modding
(Unreal Tournament)
Assessment
Quizzes in a 3D world
Content
Interaction
The Study
Room
Student-Student
Collaboration or
Competition
Instructor Guided
Tours
EduFrag Design
•Modularity
•Simplicity
•Quiz-Based – Not Simulation
•Portability of textures
•Flexible gameplay modes: non-competitive maze, race,
deathmatch, capture the flag, king of the hill, etc.
•Even in competitive play gore level can be adjusted for
each player
First implementation
Platform: game (Unreal Tournament)
Copy WebCT quizzes
One map – walking through walls
One map problem: lighting and peeking
Some initial student feedback
edufrag.blogspot.com (Avik)
The teleporter solution: one room template
(Mike Aquino)
3D editor view of one room template
MakeGames: The Class that Didn’t Run
Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Open
Courseware and RSS
The Free Educational Version of
Unreal Tournament
EduFrag without weapons:
a maze that can be used as in a virtual race
false
true
study
room
testing
rooms
false
true
final
room
The Study Room
A Quiz Room
The last room of the maze
Prizes not points for winner
One chance in 4 for winning:
•Video ipod
•Chemistry book
•Molecular
model set
•Consolation
prize
The new 20 room weapons map of EduFrag
The EduFrag Wiki and Blog: Open Source Collaboration
EduFrag Flickr group: tag true or false
EduFrag door requirements:
•256 x 256 pixel 256 color bitmaps (easy
with Paint)
•Must be named in the format
true001.bmp and false001.bmp
•Must be true or false in any context
•Minimize text - Simple Graphics best
Overwrite folders to change mazes
EduFrag for learning grammar (Beth Ritter-Guth)
EduFrag for learning chem info
retrieval (Tim Siftar/Jay Bhatt)
EduFrag for learning the class FAQ
EduFrag for learning the physics and
math (Quinn Thomas)
EduFrag as poster session (Allison Lucci)
EduFrag as a recruitment tool
Wheel of Orgo
Can be played on chalkboard, Smartboard or
TabletPC
Rules:
•Teacher draws starting material and final product at
opposite ends of a page
•Students take turns drawing any reaction from starting
material (or branch) OR to final product (or branch)
•1 point for correct reaction
•3 points for completing synthesis
•Students may pass their turn
•Generally use a time limit (45 minutes)
Modifications
•Open book/web or closed book/web
•Give a point for correcting another student’s
error
•Allow more than one step
•Give prize
•Give a point just for an attempt even if incorrect
•If too many students passing their turn do a
simpler synthesis
Example
Chem243.blogspot.com Lecture 015: Wheel of orgo 1
First Play
Mid Play
Completion
Cat Synthesis Problem
Chem243.blogspot.com Lecture 028: Wheel of orgo 5
Opportunity to Contextualize Organic
Chem243.blogspot.com Lecture 028: Wheel of orgo 5
Take Home Message
THERE ARE SIMPLE WAYS
TO HAVE FUN WITH
CHEMISTRY!
Edufrag.wikispaces.com
Edufrag.blogspot.com
Chem243.blogspot.com (Wheel of Orgo)
Drexel-coas-elearning.blogspot.com