Unit Kemps: A Matching Card Game to Learn Physical Quantities, Units, and Symbols

Educational games have attracted attention as valuable didactic instruments since they combine a proven efficiency in learning improvement with a fun and enjoyable atmosphere. Despite the increasing number of educational game contributions treating a wide variety of topics, to the best of our knowledge, none revise units or physical quantities. Unit Kemps is a 4- to 12-player funny, engaging, easy-to-play, and trilingual (English, French, and Spanish) game. Based on the French card game Kemps, the main goal of the game is to match 4 cards of a kind, in this case a physical or chemical quantity, its symbol, its unit, and the instrument used to measure it. More importantly, the game targets learning physical quantities and to distinguish among the physical property, the unit, and their respective symbols in an amusing and relaxing atmosphere. The game was tested by 47 first-and second-year students from the Facultad de Quimica at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), with encouraging results in different aspects including content, playability , and engagement. Moreover, a pre- and postevaluation revealed an encouraging enhancement in memorization concerning the identification of physical and chemical quantities after playing the game. In summary, playing Unit Kemps might be a useful tool for students and educators to reinforce basic scientific curricula concepts and also to interact among them in a playful environment.

Automated summary

Unit Kemps is an engaging and easy-to-play educational game that aims to help students learn physical quantities and differentiate between their properties, units, and symbols. Testing in Mexico showed encouraging results in terms of content, playability, and engagement.