Quantimon: A Gamified Laboratory Experiment for Undergraduate Quantitative Analysis

Undergraduate students enrolled in the Quantitative Analysis laboratory course are often plagued with titration boredom (fatigue due to the repetition of titration-based experiments throughout the semester), often leading students to prioritize finishing quickly over learning essential skills. This has been previously shown to decrease motivation and engagement, which has been linked to decreased long-term retention of content knowledge and skills. One potential solution is the implementation of gamified experiments. We developed and implemented a novel gamified titration experiment to be used in the undergraduate Quantitative Analysis laboratory. This novel game, Quantimon, is a card game that allows students to work in teams with the goal of earning the highest proficiency in order to build their own character chemist. Students complete the laboratory experiment and answer questions following each task to earn proficiency cards. After each team has built their character chemist, they battle in gamified laboratory-based scenarios, where teams draw trivia cards that either give or take damage depending on correctness. Student motivation and details on experience during the gamified titration laboratory experiment were assessed using a developed survey. Details of the novel game have been described, with data indicating an increase in student motivation when completing the gamified laboratory experiment.