Would you love to test your biology knowledge? Or maybe you need to help your child to review, but not sure how you can make it fun and engaging? Then this Biology Science Scramble board game is what you need to reinforce classroom learning and help with revision in an engaging way. When I first came across this game, I had little idea as to how addictive and challenging it would be.
This is a brand new game based on the KS3 biology syllabus. In addition to Biology, they have Chemistry and Physics board games too. This game is for 2 to 4 players. It is easy to play, fun and competitive for all the family.
The game comes with a big play board, 2 dice, 4 playing pieces, 56 Biology cards, 126 Question cards, 21 blank Question cards, 63 Bacteria cards, a pack of Merit currency (5, 10 and 20) and instructions. The play board is made from hard cardboard and is quite big so playing it on a good size table helps. It folds neatly into an A4 size board when not in play. The Biology cards come in 8 different colour sets and each set contains 7 cards. The Question and Bacteria cards are made from a thin card, hence it is best to look after them properly. A similar quality paper goes with the Merit currency.
The aim of the game is to challenge yourself to collect all 7 Biology cards from the same colour group and to reach the Biology Lab. The winner is the one with the most merits. If you prefer, you can play the game for a set time and the winner is the person with the most merits at the end.
This game is easy to set up and the rules are straightforward. Place the Question and Bacteria cards face down on the board where shown. Then place the merits nearby for easy access. Place the playing pieces on the Rainforest where everyone starts their game there. The player with the highest roll will start the game first and then move in a clockwise direction to the next player.
First, everyone has to reach the Biology Lab from the Rainforest to collect 30 merits. Then begin to collect a colour group of Biology cards. Note that only one person should collect one colour group and players must not block another player by collecting their colour cards.
This game is quite similar to Monopoly. It has a detention space, almost like jail, where you have to miss a turn if you are sent there. The Bacteria cards are like the Chance cards. You don’t know what you will get! Will you be collecting merits or losing them? Biology cards are like the property cards, where you aim to collect the set. However, this game differs as you can only collect your first merits at the Biology Lab. You can not visit the biology Lab to collect merit again, unlike the Go space in Monopoly.
Ms C who is visually impaired and colour blind, is in Year 8 and finds some questions quite hard, but we prompted her by giving her clues to help her along and she managed to play the game quite well. Also, the wording on the cards is in good size light fonts with a dark background, which makes it easy for her to read. She did struggle reading the yellow colour font on the instructions.
We find this game very challenging and competitive which is great to help children build their confidence and to improve their Biology knowledge. We enjoyed the questions as they are well structured and reflects the current curriculum-based topics. I would definitely recommend this game. It is available to buy via Oaka Books.
Did you know that Oaka Books’ products are designed for dyslexic and SEN pupils to make curriculum-based topics accessible for them, even if their reading or comprehension skills are weak? Their aim is to help struggling readers access the curriculum and achieve their potential with their revision guides that are designed for visual learners. It quickly became clear that their unique way of presenting information was also great with learning tools for all students or homeschoolers. They have a range of revision guide books and games for KS1 to KS4. Do check it out!
Disclosure: We received the sample for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.