Application of Gaming as Strategy for Teaching Organic Nomenclature in a Brazilian Public School

Abstract

Specific topics in chemistry, such as organic nomenclature, are often considered key subjects for understanding organic chemistry in high school. Several research types have already demonstrated that most high school students and even university students have great difficulty in this topic. In general, the problems come from the approach used to present these contents, sometimes superficial or without the use of interactive methodologies. This work aims to help the teaching & learning chemistry process by a game's applying, which consisted of building organic molecules using jelly beans and toothpicks, the previously published "Fastest Fingers." In the present work, we analyzed the positive impact that gaming can bring for the learning process and knowledge assimilation of this article's topic. This method mainly shows its importance when applied in a state that faces many issues in its education system, like Alagoas-Brazil. It was possible to notice that students' interaction and perception of the game, and molecules representation occurred more efficiently, thus favoring the learning and the interaction improvement between teachers and students.