Game Review: Sci-ology


                Sci-ology, by The Young Scientists Club, is a favorite game of ours.  It incorporates science terms with the game of Go-Fish.  It’s a great way to get comfortable using science terms and twelve fields of science.

                Game play is simple for the whole family, which is great.  The easy play makes the use of any unfamiliar terms less overwhelming. 

                Each player is dealt 5 cards.  The rest are left as a draw pile.  When we play, we prefer to spread them out on the table or wherever we’re playing. 

                The youngest plays first, asking another player for a card they need in order to make a set of 4 cards.  For example, the player might ask if the other player has a zoologist – panda or an ichthyologist – clown fish. 

                Each science field has 4 cards that need to be gathered in order to win the set.  Don’t be intimidated by the science terms though.  The cards are color coded, a distinct color for each of the fields, and the items are numbered.  This way younger players or those getting familiar with the terms may also ask for “a purple – number 1”, which would be a Geologist- crystal.

                If the person being asked does not have the requested card they say, “Scientist Pick,” instead of, “Go Fish”.  Whenever a player accumulates the complete set of four cards, that player says, “Quartet,” and places the set in front of them.

                The cards themselves are colorful and nicely illustrated.  They include a definition for the field of science on each individual playing card.  They also define the scientific term or item on each card.  The Chemist card defines a chemist as one who “Studies substances and how they react when mixed,” and includes a phonetic spelling for pronunciation purposes. 

The pink number 4 card is the pipette, which is defined as follows, “A pipette is used to get exact measurements of very small amounts of liquid.  A pipette is a very important tool in many fields of science, but especially in chemistry. There are many different types of pipettes.”  Unfortunately, it does not give a pronunciation guide for the items.  This is not really a problem, except when your children want to annoy you by purposely mispronouncing a term like pipette, and holding that card hostage as the point is debated.  Usually with laughter.  Not that this has happened in our home… well, not every time.

                Play ends when all the cards have been grouped.  The player with the most quartets wins.  We typically play several hands of this game by the request of both of my children.  I call that a rave review. 

Are there any science themed games that you play?

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