Do you dread reviewing for biology finals?
Have you been searching for another way to review content with your students? Have you asked yourself “How to study for biology finals” without cramming with your students a day before the test? Then check out this post below.
How to Study for Biology Finals?
If you are like me you dread review days, specifically before biology finals or the biology EOC. I have found that students do not participate as much when there is a cram session for a biology final review. In the past, I would play Jeopardy and use whiteboards with them. We would do review stations which was basically just the study guide broken up into different stations, and we would do some Kahoot reviews.
But, what I found was that these were all techniques that we had been using throughout the school year so they had grown bored of them. That’s when I decided to switch things up.
Biology Review Game
A few years ago, I saw a teacher using board games in her classroom. She had students create new questions for board games and repurposing them. I decided to put my own take on her idea as a fun way to prepare students for biology finals or the biology EOC. It started off a little rocky because I didn’t really know exactly what requirements to put into the game. Plus, I also did not know how long it would take each of the groups to create a quality board game.
In the beginning, I allowed technology where they could create a PowerPoint game. I quickly eliminated that due to logistics and lack of devices. I even allowed them to create games that required balls. However, when one group decided to have a take on beer pong as their game, I eliminated any games that use balls. So what did that leave me with? Board games. Their review games had to be on a board whether they repurposed a game that they already had, or they created their own board game from scratch.
I found that most students liked to create their own board games from scratch because it gave them a blank canvas to do exactly what they wanted.
Benefits of Using Biology Review Games for High School
There are many benefits to using biology review games as a way to review with students.
First,
it provides students with a way to visualize the material. By seeing the content using pictures and creating models with games, it allows them to start tying the concepts together to make a complete picture. Now since each group works on their own topic this is why each group needs to play all of the other groups’ games. I’ll touch more on how to play the games in a bit.
Second,
it provides an opportunity for cooperative learning. Students working together allows them to verbalize ideas and it helps to enhance their communication and critical thinking skills.
Third,
it allows for teachers to differentiate in order to best support their students. If there are topics that you know specific students are weaker in, then you can group them together and they can work on that unit as their review game.
Fourth,
this allows for dual coding which is using words and pictures to tie the two together and making connections.
And lastly,
this allows for repetition and retrieval. Having students create a review game forces them to retrieve the information from what they previously have learned as well as having them look back into their notes for repetition in order to create review questions for their game.
Best Practices for Playing Games as a Biology Review
I typically like to start creating the biology review games the week before the biology final exam. Even though you could use this to review for the EOC, I don’t because we are on a block schedule. We tend to have a couple of extra weeks after the EOC so I like to use these games to review for their final exam. This would work great if you had time before the EOC as well, especially if you are on a traditional year-long schedule.
I usually give my students 3 days in class to work on creating their review games. I have very specific and detailed instructions that I discuss with them in order to lay down the groundwork for creating their best game.
Day 1
Day one usually includes reviewing the instructions, coming up with a game title based on the unit I assigned to them. On day 1 they figure out what game they want to create and who is bringing the supplies needed. Word of caution-I would recommend approving their game titles because even though you may say their game title needs to be school appropriate, sometimes kids think certain things are school appropriate when they are most certainly not.
I made that mistake years ago of not approving their game titles before the games were played and let’s just say it was not appropriate. Now I have them come tell me their game title and if it’s some type of initials I make them explain explicitly what it is what it means. 99% of the time I never have a problem and I have honestly never had a problem since. But, I just wanted to let you know that some kids just like to see what they can get away with.
Day 2
Day two is usually when most of the grunt work gets completed. Students bring in their materials from home and I allow them to go to the media center if they need to collect other supplies. This is the day they start creating their game questions and their game boards. Usually, I walk around and monitor the students to make sure that their questions are challenging enough. I also check some of them to verify that their answers are correct.
There have been several times that I have had to correct students’ answers because they did not go back to their notes and double-check what the material was asking. This is crucial to the games working correctly in that students have the correct answers to go along with their questions. Students get very frustrated when playing other people’s games and they have incorrect answers. Also if the answers are incorrect what is the point of playing the game to review?
Day 3
Day three is usually where I have students wrapping up their creating games and I also have them play their own game to make sure that everything is going to work as they think it will. This is where a lot of the errors can be corrected before the games are collected, played, and graded. If there are any issues in their game they need to be fixed this day.
I also do not allow students to take their games home to finish because I’ve also had a group do this in the past and they forgot to bring it back the next day. I make it very clear on day one that this is the day that they need to be completed before they walk out of the classroom for the day.
Day 4
Day four is the fun day where we get to play the games. I usually give them about 10 minutes at the beginning of the class to set them up how they want them to look. Then, we switch groups and start playing each other’s games. I give each group a rubric that they take around to each of the games with them. They grade the games based on playability and the Fun Factor. If the games are hard to play or have incorrect questions, they receive a lower score. If it’s just plain boring, they have the opportunity to score that section lower as well.
I give each group about 10 minutes to play the games. That’s typically about the number of questions that I have them create to begin with so they usually have enough time to get through it. Once the time is up, they switch to another game and 10 minutes starts over. Once all of the games have been played, I collect the group rubrics while the students are cleaning up their games. While the students are playing their games I walk around the room and interject myself into their game. I grade the games on my own rubric during this time in order to save time and I am able to see them in action.
How I Grade the Biology Review Games
There are four sections to the biology review games that I used to grade them. The first section is based on me grading their games as I have walked around the room. This accounts for approximately 25 points on a 50 point rubric. 5 points are based on the other groups reviewing the games based on their playability. 10 points are given based on a peer group evaluation. The last 10 are based on participation each day.
Usually, I can get these graded within a day because it’s streamlined to make it as easy as possible. I also created digital versions of the students grading sheets to help calculate and streamline the process. If you are interested in this biology review game project, then check it out. Everything is so easy and will save you so much time! All you need to do is print out the materials disseminate them to your students and get them started.
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8 Responses
thank you so much for the review activities
You are so very welcome!