ghattab / amino-acids-card-game

An open-source mnemonic card game for amino acids (aa). It essentially relies on a simplified molecular representation, redundant visual encoding, emphasis, and de-emphasis of molecular parts.

A mnemonic card game for your amino acids

A card game based on the natural ability of the human brain to interpret visual stimuli. The cards translates complex molecular structures into visual formats that are both easier to assess and to understand. The result is a unique teaching tool that is not only subject-oriented, fun and engaging, but also helps students retain relevant information such as properties and formulas through perceptual memory.

This card game concept has been submitted and accepted as a part of the Information+ conference and exhibition. Interdisciplinary practices in information design and visualisation. Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada: June 16–18, 2016.

Example playing cards included in the cards game (a) showcases the Histidine (H) amino acid with its respective formula, the category colour and symbol (left and top left of card) which is in this case the basic category (or positively charged). The lower part of the card presents three numerical values. The molar moss (g/mol), the Isolectric point or pI, the solubility at 20°C (g/L) and the Frequency in Verterbrates (%) are represented as the symbol of a scale, a lightning bolt, a flask (or erlenmeyer), and a pie chart, respectively. (b) is a category card, it explicates the amino acids properties pertaining to this category. (c) depicts the back design for each card. Logo adapted with the four categories colours, courtesy of Ed Harrison (CC). (d) lists briefly the important rules.

Gameplay

For two players, the rules can be formulated in a simple manner: We define a challenge scope as either all the player's cards, one category, or one amino acid. For a chosen challenge scope, one player challenges another on an attribute of a card from the cards the challenged player holds. The person with the highest attribute requests the card of the opposing player. This card is required to be the highest in hand. To win the game, a player must bank at least 9 cards by category (or colour). In the case of 2 players, banking 10 cards is a requirement. For the full rules, please refer to the manual.

Materials

All documents are print ready. Be sure to tick double sided in your printing preferences for the cards_print.pdf file.

Sources

Both the molecule logo (on back of each card) and play symbol designs (on Rules card) are courtesy of Ed Harrison (Creative Commons). All reported values are courtesy of Römpp's Chemistry Lexicon, (c) 2016 Georg Thieme Verlag KG.

Citation

If you are inspired by or use any of the provided materials, please consider citing the following paper: Hattab, G., Brink, B.G., and Nattkemper, T.W., 2016. A mnemonic card game for your amino acids (Version v1.0). Zenodo.

@misc{hattab16aa,
  Author="Hattab, G., Brink, B.G., and Nattkemper, T. W. ",
  Title        = {A mnemonic card game for your amino acids},
  Month        = Jun,
  Year         = 2016,
  Doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.55101},
  Url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.55101}
}

License

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 
To view a copy of this license, please refer to the LICENSE file.