Age: 10+
Players: 2-5
Playing Time: 40 minutes
Category: Board/Strategy
Gameschool Area: Science/Chemistry
Price: $32
Publisher: Genius Games
Are you ready for another strategy science board game that will knock your socks off?
We’ve played A LOT of science games in our time as homeschoolers, and the 2 games we’ve played from Genius Games are in our top 5 all time favorites. My older boys love strategy games and one in particular loves chemistry, so the marriage between the two has been an amazing resource.
Genius Games knows how to make great games that make kids pay attention to and want to learn more about science, and that’s the golden ticket in education. The best education is SELF education, and that’s exactly what these games inspire. Watching that magic happen is priceless!
But back to the actual game…
In Periodic, the board is the actual periodic table, which all by itself is brilliant. Kids are little learning machines and they soak up like little sponges anything that they willingly pay attention to!
As in all great strategy games, there are several things going on in Periodic.
The main way to earn points is by completing goal cards. Each goal card includes a few elements that are related in some way (shown at the top of the above picture) and players must be the first player to “research” a majority of the elements on a card to earn it.
Players move their flask (the main playing piece of the game) around the periodic table and land on the element they wish to research.
Players can move around the board in a variety of ways, all of which are according to periodic trends. If you don’t know what that means, play the game and you will quickly learn! The periodic table is far more informative and fascinating than I ever knew!
When a player collects a goal card, he also collects a special token giving him an additional privilege or advantage, just another fun twist to the game.
Players are also given an Agenda Card at the beginning of the game, which gives extra points at the end for completing some kind of goal throughout the game.
The final way to earn points is to move around the Elemental Track, which are cards placed on the perimeter of the game board. Players move their Microscope playing piece around the elemental track as they travel around the periodic table researching elements. If you don’t know what element groups are… play the game! :)
The board and playing pieces are colorful and the names of all the elements are fascinating and interesting and fun to try to say. My boys are becoming familiar with all the elements, their abbreviations, placements on the table, atomic number, all kinds of useful information to know, all by playing a fun game!
This is a strategic game, so those thinking faces are for real!
The box contains a rule book and also a Science Behind the Game booklet with all kinds of interesting information about the periodic table relevant to the game and to a study of chemistry. It’s a short, sweet, and very readable introduction for kids who suddenly love all things chemistry!
What to do?!?
As always, the best part about playing Periodic is building relationships, spending time as a family, and creating memories of having fun learning together. Games help us all realize and remember how delightful it is to learn something new.
If you haven’t tried out a Genius Game yet, start with Periodic, you’ll love it! Thanks so much to Genius Games for sharing it with us!
