Project
For this project, we were tasked with the creation of a board game, that could be easily be explained, and played through in a short amount of time. So, we designed our game with three main shortcuts, the first one being easily activated that cut down the distance by two thirds. We also had the players roll two dice and added that if they got doubles, they could roll a second time but no more after that. We kept the rules fairly simple but still wanted to have some lure to our game, so we made a mix of an explanation on how to play, and a story.
Summary
Our board game is called Spicy-VolcanoLand+Magic ForestLand! In this game you will travel through two mystical lands, Magical ForestLand, and SPICY VOLCANOLAND! The goal of this game is to win by activating the volcano and figuring out what color it’s arcane lava is! By releasing the lava, the dragon emperor Jonathan Douglass McGuire, Esquire(™), will release his evil grip on the lands and you will have saved its denizens from ages of control and suffering. It’s a metaphor for the duality found in reactions, how it can take two entities to create something new and amazing. SPICY VOLCANOLAND(™) is the culmination of this theme. Additionally, since the Spicy VolcanoLand featured in SPICY VOLCANOLAND(™) is obviously more reactive than the Magic ForestLand, it represents how a single replacement reaction takes a more reactive material to combine with a less reactive material so the less reactive will let go of its hold on an ordinary compound.
Safety
Please be careful with Spicy VolcanoLand. Chemical contact to the skin is safe.
DO NOT:
-Consume any chemicals
-Smell any chemicals
-Put chemicals in eye
-Treat the chemicals badly
-Treat the board of the board game badly
-Cheat
-Treat your friends and family badly
-Attack the board due to frustration or any other game-induced cause
DO NOT:
-Consume any chemicals
-Smell any chemicals
-Put chemicals in eye
-Treat the chemicals badly
-Treat the board of the board game badly
-Cheat
-Treat your friends and family badly
-Attack the board due to frustration or any other game-induced cause
How to Play
Your party of 4 may select the noblest member to go first, with a vote. If tied, the first player that bows and says “You may go first” to the other tied player, wins the title of noblest Once this person is chosen, they may select a character spring to represent them in game. Clockwise from your noblest, players must choose character springs. Your noblest must roll the die to see how far their character goes. Then players continue around rolling the dice, clockwise. If any character lands on the last space, they activate 2 of the chemical reactions which will culminate in the destruction of the dragon emperor Jonathan Douglass McGuire, Esquire(™). If any player lands on the 3 designated squares marked with arrow, then they may cross the bridge as long as the green light is on. However, if the green light isn’t on, then following players may not cross the bridge and will have to go the long way. If a character spring lands on a space where the path divides, ONLY THEN may they decide which path to choose. The first player who reaches the spicy volcano (represented by the last space) in spicy VolcanoLand in the board game SPICY VOLCANOLAND(™) vanquishes the dragon emperor Jonathan Douglass McGuire, Esquire(™) with amazing chemical reactions, and becomes the new Dragon Emperor. The other players must congratulate the Dragon Emperor for winning. Only then, the game is over.
Single Displacement Reaction
Our single displacement reaction uses the chemicals, Aluminum and Zinc Nitrate to form Aluminum Nitrate and Zinc. This can be expressed as AI+ZnNO3-->AINO3+Zn. Evidence of this reaction occurring can be seen when the zinc nitrate is pored onto the aluminum. Brown sections start to form across the medal which erodes it until it breaks into pieces.
Double Displacement Reaction
In our double displacement reaction, we used Potassium Iodate and Lead Nitrate to create Potassium and Lead Iodate. This can also be represented as KI+Pb(NO3)2-->K(NO3)2+PbI. The evidence for this reaction is the change of color that takes place when the two chemicals are combined. They form a sold yellow that appears to just be water with very strong food coloring in it.
Gas Production Reaction
For our production of a gas we decided to use backing soda and vinegar which would create Carbon Dioxide, Water, Sodium Ions, and Acetate Ions. This can also be expressed through this formula: NaHCO3+CH3COOH-->CO2+H2O+Na+CH3COO. The evidence for this reaction working is shown when our balloon rises up due to the new found pressure inside of it. Another thing that we noticed is that the reaction would have a distinctive smell, not a nice kind of smell though.
Pictures
As you can see here, this is our board game separated into two sections. Spicy VolcanoLand, and Magical ForestLand. One reactions takes place at the first shortcut in Magical ForestLand and then the other two our at the end part with the volcano in Spicy VolcanoLand.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> In this image, you can see our first shortcut in our board game. This shortcut not only involves a chemical reaction, but it also involves an LED. For the reaction, a thin strip of aluminum was broken in half by zinc nitrate which caused a green LED to turn off. When this happened players unfortunate enough to be behind the shortcut when the light is turned off, can no longer use the shortcut. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Our next two chemical reactions took place during the same move in our board game, which was a player landing on the last space winning the game. When this happened, the spicy volcano would erupt in a gas reaction as vinegar and baking soda were mixed, causing a balloon to fill up and push a lever. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> After the lever is pushed by the rising balloon, it will cause the potassium iodate to fall down into the lead nitrate forming a solid yellow liquid. It falls down into our secondary volcano, and after both of these reactions occur, you become the new ruler of both Spicy Volcano Land and Magical Forest Land. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> |
Reflection
Over the course of this project we faced many challenges that we had to quickly overcome. One of the main ones early on was the lack of people present to work on our project. Due to the smoke, and other sickness only two members out of our team of five were able to make it to the first few days. On top of that another day was cancelled due to the toxicity of the smoke in the air which cost us even more work time. When I was there with Robert during the first few days I learned a lot about how much faster things can be done when you only have to a review an idea with one other person rather then four others. I also regained some of my previous electronic knowledge that I had acquired in my freshmen year of STEM going back and learning about how electricity flowed. With the application of chemicals, my group and I were able to create a circuit that would turn an LED on after the we pored Potassium Iadote onto some aluminum foil which eroded it causing it break in half allowing the light to activate.
Some things that I could have improved on during the course of this project might have been the use of a hand held saw. When creating our volcano, we had to cut pieces of wood to create the right shape. To do this, since we didn't have access to a power saw, we had to manually cut our wood into separate pieces. At the start, it was a very long process since I was apparently using a dull blade. I learned after that to always check the blade so that you wont waste 10 minutes trying to say through a two inch piece of wood. Another thing that I learned about involved chemicals, certain ones can conduct a electrical current. My group and I figured this out after having split our aluminum with potassium iodate and wondering why our LED wasn't turning off since our board was set up correctly. We later realized that the potassium iodate had the ability to conduct an electrical current since when we separated the aluminum and kept it on either end of the potassium, that the LED would still be on, but if we took one side of the aluminum out, it would turn off. This goes to show that we should have done more background research on what chemicals we were using since we were unaware of all the properties that potassium iodate had.
In total, this project was extremely engaging and was very well formatted and clear, as to what or task was. This made it easy for us to always be working and never have to ask for instructions or clarification on anything major.
Some things that I could have improved on during the course of this project might have been the use of a hand held saw. When creating our volcano, we had to cut pieces of wood to create the right shape. To do this, since we didn't have access to a power saw, we had to manually cut our wood into separate pieces. At the start, it was a very long process since I was apparently using a dull blade. I learned after that to always check the blade so that you wont waste 10 minutes trying to say through a two inch piece of wood. Another thing that I learned about involved chemicals, certain ones can conduct a electrical current. My group and I figured this out after having split our aluminum with potassium iodate and wondering why our LED wasn't turning off since our board was set up correctly. We later realized that the potassium iodate had the ability to conduct an electrical current since when we separated the aluminum and kept it on either end of the potassium, that the LED would still be on, but if we took one side of the aluminum out, it would turn off. This goes to show that we should have done more background research on what chemicals we were using since we were unaware of all the properties that potassium iodate had.
In total, this project was extremely engaging and was very well formatted and clear, as to what or task was. This made it easy for us to always be working and never have to ask for instructions or clarification on anything major.