The effect of a scientific board game on improving creative problem solving skills

Game-based learning has been shown to motivate and engage students in the domain of learning, knowledge and thinking skills, such as problem-solving and decision-making. This article reports the design and use of an educational board game for learning chemistry that attempts to improve students’ scientific concepts as well as creative problem solving (CPS) skills. The investigation of a board game as a teaching material was conducted in a field test with 48 high school students. After experiencing gameplay, most students’ CPS skills increased, especially in the construct of solution-finding. Their scientific concepts of chemical techniques and products also improved significantly according to the comparisons of pre- and post-test results, indicating that the game context can help students develop a holistic view of the function of chemistry knowledge. Student interviews revealed the nuances of the improvements in the conceptual dimensions as well as the interactivity to construct creative ideas from different points of view. The recommendation to integrate science-related social issues into the game mechanism to enable students to explicitly experience all stages of the CPS process in each game round is the main outcome of this research.