Articles Just Working with the Cellular Machine A HIGH SCHOOL GAME FOR TEACHING MOLECULAR BIOLOGY*‡ Received for publication, December 12, 2006, and in revised form, November 26, 2007 Fernanda Serpa Cardoso§¶, Renata Dumpel§¶, Luisa B. Gomes da Silva§, Carlos R. Rodrigues||, Dilvani O. Santos§, Lucio Mendes Cabral||, and Helena C. Castro§‡‡ From the §LABioMol, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Molecular, Instituto de Biologia, CEG-Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ¶Curso de Po ´ s-graduac ¸a ˜ o de Ensino em Biocie ˆ ncias e Sau ´ de, PGEBS-FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and ||Laborato ´ rio de Modelagem Molecular e QSAR (ModmolQSAR), Faculdade de Farma ´ cia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Molecular biology is a difficult comprehension subject due to its high complexity, thus requiring new teaching approaches. Herein, we developed an interdisciplinary board game involving the human immune system response against a bacterial infection for teaching molecular biology at high school. Ini- tially, we created a database with several questions and a game story that invites the students for help- ing the human immunological system to produce antibodies (IgG) and fight back a pathogenic bacterium second-time invasion. The game involves answering questions completing the game board in which the antibodies ‘‘are synthesized’’ through the molecular biology process. At the end, a problem-based learn- ing approach is used, and a last question is raised about proteins. Biology teachers and high school stu- dents evaluated the game and considered it an easy and interesting tool for teaching the theme. An increase of about 5–30% in answering molecular biology questions revealed that the game improves learning and induced a more engaged and proactive learning profile in the high school students. Keywords: High school, molecular biology, game, playing, problem based learning. Literature has described the concern about the low level of the overall scientific knowledge of the world pop- ulation [1–4]. Importantly, the interest about genetics and molecular biology has increased with the development of gene technology [5–7]. Although the students are cur- rently interested in molecular biology subjects, studies revealed that they have problems in understanding DNA function, its origin, and its direct relationship with other molecules such as proteins [8]. Therefore, new learning and teaching techniques need to be developed for teaching molecular biology topics [9, 10]. Games have represented an important role in different cultures. In the past, games were an approach for people interacting within and with other groups [11, 12]. Cur- rently, games are used for teaching different topics of dif- ferent disciplines in several areas, from school to gradu- ate courses [13–15]. In a didactical perspective, educa- tional games may stimulate confidence, motivation, mutual respect, organization, group interaction, mental strength, and development, whereas facilitate the approach of different themes [16, 17]. In addition, games may be used as teaching tools in different learning envi- ronments including formal (i.e. school) or informal (i.e. museum and library) educational spaces [18]. Herein, we constructed a board game named ‘‘Just working with the cellular machine’’ for approaching mo- lecular biology topics (duplication, translation, and tran- scription) in a multi and interdisciplinary way, as includes immunology and cell biology issues. This article briefly describes the molecular biology principles underpinning the game, the equipment required to run a game session, and the rules of it. As adequate learning tools are neces- sary at high school for student motivation, we consulted 10 high school teachers for classifying the game ques- tions according to their difficult level for their students. We also compared the teachers’ classification with the high school students’ opinion for establishing a final clas- sification and the game dynamic. As a learning tool should be adequate not only at difficulty level but also for its teaching purpose, we also compared the answers in a molecular biology questionnaire of high school * This work is supported by Fundac ¸a ˜ o de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ—Brazil) and PGEBS- FIOCRUZ. ‡ This article contains supplementary material available via the Internet at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1470- 8175/suppmat. ‡‡To whom correspondence should be addressed. Labora- to ´ rio de Antibio ´ ticos, Bioquı´mica e Modelagem Molecular (LABioMol), Departamento de Biologia Celular e Molecular, Insti- tuto de Biologia, CEG, Universidade Federal Fluminense, CEP 24001-970, Nitero ´ i, RJ, Brazil. Tel.: þ55, þ21-26292294. E-mail: hcastrorangel@vm.uff.br. DOI 10.1002/bmb.20164 This paper is available on line at http://www.bambed.org 120 Q 2008 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 120–124, 2008