Super silly science game educates

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Super silly science game educates

Christina Scott

Nozipho Mthembu, 14, helps Andrew Woolard and his younger sister Sarah try out the Super Silly Science Game. Photo credit: Christina Scott

The Super Silly Science board game, available free for teachers, was created by Ginny Stone of the world-renowned nuclear research facility known as iThemba (which means hope in Xhosa) Laboratories in the Western Cape.

Ginny test-ran a version of the game through multitudes of students at the country's national science festival, Sasol SciFest, which takes over sleepy Grahamstown for a week every March. The final version is so much fun, students may not realise they're refreshing their knowledge and skills at the same time.

You may be asked how the human eye works. Or you may be told to lie on a floor and pretend to be a smelly old shoe. (Any shoe will do, says Ginny, who also created the Phat Physics board game for high school students.)
This is a mildly competitive board game in which learning science is interwoven with learning English and public speaking (each player is meant to read out his or her challenge), spiced with a strong sense of the ridiculous and tinged with a touch of high drama.

A card may ask what a herpetologist does for a living. (Don't worry, parents, there's a cheat sheet with answers when you get stuck). Oopsie cards may move you backwards because "the dog ate your homework" or "you cheeked the teacher" .... while warning "and no moaning!"

Lucky cards politely ask you to moo like a cow, howl like a wolf or pretend you're a tree in high winds and wave your branches!

The brightly-coloured board, cards, dice and cute highly-polished rocks for each of the six players is officially meant for primary school students. But my teenage daughter was happy to play it with her younger siblings and guests. She even helped the youngest players read out the instructions. Some of the Dinaledi maths and science schools have found that it worked best for grades seven and eight. So it seems suitable for a wide variety of ages and abilities.

And now I have to go. My red card says my experimental egg is about to hatch. I have to make a loud cock-a-doodle-doo noise to welcome the chick.

More information:

* 2,500 copies of The Super Silly Science Game are available - free of charge for teachers - from Jabu Nukeri at the South African Association for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) in Pretoria. Email jabu@saasta.ac.za or phone 012 392 9335. iThemba LABS also does school tours and personal visits for residents and visitors to the Western Cape.

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February 2007	Education

Education