Educational Card Games

1 School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK

2 Loop Cards Publishing Ltd, 57 Heathcote Court, Heathcote Avenue, Ilford, Essex, IG5 0QR, UK

E-mail: david.smith@brunel.ac.uk and emunro@loopgames.co.uk

The Voyager card game

The original ‘Voyager: Satellites’ card game was developed in September 2001 with the intention of providing school children aged between 9 and 13 and members of the general public with information in a fun and entertaining way, about the large number of Earth orbiting astronomical, space science and Earth observation satellites. After initial trials of the game carried out at three Leicestershire schools resulted in very positive feedback from pupils and teachers [1], funding was secured from the then Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC, now STFC) in 2003 for producing several thousand copies of the game for distribution to secondary schools throughout the UK.

The final mass produced game consisted of 36 satellite cards, each describing a specific scientific satellite, providing a picture, the full name of the satellite, the user (an indication of which countries were involved with the design, development and operation of the satellite), and a brief description of what the satellite does. Also included were the six characteristics required for playing the game: Launch (year of launch), Lifetime (in years), Mass (in kilograms), Power (in Watts), Range (maximum distance from Earth, in kilometres) and Orbit (orbital period, in hours).

The game was very simple to play, using the tried and tested card game formula of a player selecting one of the available six characteristics, stating the numerical value to the other players and the player with the highest value (or lowest in the case of Launch), winning the round and taking their opponents cards, placing them and their own top card at the back of their deck. The aim of the game being to win all 36 cards.

General comments received about Voyager over the years have been predominantly positive with teachers appreciating the inclusion of the companion notes, indicating how the game relates to the National Curriculum, and a vast majority of pupils enjoying playing the game. The several science teachers that requested additional copies of the game in subsequent years, and in one case when moving to a new school, clearly felt that the game was providing an engaging and useful classroom activity. In the words of one science teacher, "thanks for making my lesson fun to teach!".

More detailed evaluations of the use of the game in the classroom were sparser in nature (teachers clearly having much more important work to do than providing detailed feedback about a card game!), but when received were encouraging and useful, with examples of how the game had been used as the basis for wider learning activities (creating posters, classroom projects finding out more about specific satellites, sheets of questions about the various satellites for pupils to complete while playing the game) and suggestions from both pupils and teachers on how the game could be improved (more cards, additional game rules) and suggestions for other topics they would like to see addressed in the form of a game (planets, countries).

One large envelope received from a school in Aberdeen contained several handwritten letters from pupils aged between 8 to 10 years old who had played the game, their teacher using the game as a basis for a class discussion and a writing exercise. Comments written by the pupils included information about their favourite aspects of the game, which satellites they liked best, suggestions for improvement and a number of questions asking for more information about what some of the satellites were for:

1. "I enjoyed it because when you finish the game you can find out more about your favourite card on the internet."
2. "My favourite card is Gaia. I hope the launch is on TV, it looks cool. It said it could map a billion stars. I will go on the website to find out more about it."
3. "It is very exciting and fascinating and the very favourite thing is the scientific and intergalactical information."
4. "I hope you make more cards like rockets, planes and countries."
5. "The cards are colourful and have a lot of information."
6. "May I suggest an improvement? I hope you are not offended – clearer pictures. If you are offended do not hesitate to tell me."

As a game developer it is a fantastic feeling to get such feedback from the pupils themselves and to see they have thought about what they have learned while playing the game and want to find out more.

Another interesting development during the Voyager project was the formation of a company, Loop Games, by a former secondary school teacher to promote the use of educational card games and to allow likeminded developers of such games a way of making their creations available to a much wider audience. The company provide a range of games covering topics such as ‘Light and Sound’ and ‘Forces and Energy’, each accompanied by supporting teachers notes to show the relevance of the game to parts of the National Curriculum.

Over the last year the company has expanded its range of games from those suitable for science topic revision purposes at Key Stage 3 to a new series of ‘Top Careers’ games aimed at pupils aged 14 to 19 years old that provide information about the wide variety of careers available within certain subject areas.

The first card game in the Top Careers series was ‘Top Careers in Science’, the game being comprised of 30 career cards, each containing a brief description of what the career may involve, a corresponding cartoon picture of a person engaged in the job and five categories required to play the game: Travel, Communication, Numeracy Skill, Computer Skill and Technical Skill. The categories are each given numerical values, ranging from 1 to 10, to give a very rough guide to the requirements of the job. Clearly the numbers given are somewhat arbitrary (and need to be to some extent to make the game playable), but the aim of the game is to provide pupils with some information about the wealth of different careers options available in science and some information about what such a career may involve in the hope of sparking an interest and enticing them look for further information. A picture of the game is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Loop Games ‘Top Careers in Science’ card game

Each card also includes a web address for further information related to the career depicted, usually linking to a company or organisation described on the back of the respective card. For example, the ‘Physicist’ career card features the Institute of Physics logo on the reverse and a link to www.iop.org for pupils interested in potentially becoming physicists to find out more information about what physicists do. The description on the Physicist card is as follows:

Other science careers featured in the game include: Aerospace Engineer; Biologist; Chemical Engineer; Forensic Scientist; Geoscientist; Nuclear Engineer; Oceanographer; Pharmacist; Science Journalist; Veterinary Surgeon and Zoologist.

Much like the development of Voyager, the Top Careers in Science game underwent a trial period in a secondary school with feedback about various aspects of the game obtained via a questionnaire completed by pupils after playing the game. Of the 38 completed questionnaires collated, every pupil believed the game should be provided by their school for them to play, and a respectable 80% of the pupils believed the information they learned about the different types of science careers available was useful. Table 1 shows a selection of the questions asked and the number of pupils responding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in each case (note that some question responses were left blank so the total number of yes or no answers may be less than 38 in some cases).

Question	Answer ‘Yes’	Answer ‘No’
Would you read the description on the card if you were interested in learning about the career?	35	2
Was the website link helpful?	9	23
Some of the cards were sponsored, did you notice this?	33	4
Would you approach the sponsors for work experience?	16	11
After playing the game did you learn about science careers you hadn’t heard of before?	32	4
Would you recommend this game to other students?	30	3

Table 1. Pupil responses to the Top Careers in Science questionnaire

In the words of one pupil, the game allowed them "to view a wider range of career options other than typical careers", clearly meeting the key aim of the game’s development in trying and raise awareness of the many different roles science has to play in the modern world. The meeting of this goal is also reflected in the large proportion of students that stated they had learnt some information about new science careers that they did not know about before playing the game.

Other interesting findings from the trial were the responses obtained when asked what additional information the cards should contain. Of the students completing the questionnaire, 15 responded to this question with ‘salary information’, while 9 students indicated that information about relevant ‘qualifications required’ would be useful, in particular what GCSEs would be relevant for the future science careers they were interested in. Some pupils in their early teens are clearly already starting to think about their future career and it is good to see that a number of them realise the importance of their education in achieving their future career aspirations.

It is clear that Voyager has played a valuable educational role in a number of ways, not just providing numeracy and linguistic practice for school pupils, but as a platform for discussion about the nature of satellites and the role they have to play in modern society. In a world where satellites are a vital part of everyday life, providing us with real time global television, internet and telephone communications networks, positioning systems, weather and scientific information, any fun activity that makes pupils think about and appreciate the technology that surrounds them can only be a good thing.

The Voyager project has shown that educational card games can be an asset in the classroom, stimulating active imaginations and enquiring minds through play. With the development of new and novel variants on traditional card game rules, the role that card games can play in learning activities has developed over the last few years from simply supporting arithmetic and linguistic teaching in the form of flash cards to playing an active role in science lessons, providing real factual information about science subjects that can be used as the basis for classroom discussions and project work related to the National Curriculum.

With the recent development of games to address career choices and get pupils thinking about the types of jobs available in a wide range of science disciplines, card games are coming into their own as a relatively low cost, low resource way of getting students thinking and actively involved in scientific endeavour.

For further information about available educational card games and publishing your own games please contact Eiman Munro for details or browse the information on the Loop Games website: www.loopgames.co.uk.

[1] Smith D R 2003 Voyager: An Educational Card Game Phys. Educ. 38 47–51