Games, Games, Games; Playing to Engage with Chemistry Concepts

Discipline-specific upper level chemistry courses are well known for being academically rigorous, but not necessarily considered fun by the students. Playing games in an upper-level course is often viewed as an “extra activity” and not as a valuable in-class exercise designed to demonstrate, reinforce, or review essential course materials. In this paper, we describe the implementation of academically challenging games that bridge the divide between academic rigor and intellectual fun for second-year college students.