Hi Everyone, Eric again with my report on the most recent Lang class we had to develop a card game about gut microbes.
We were excited for Susan Perkins (AMNH scientist and curator of the upcoming exhibit explored by this game) to join us and elaborate further on the science behind microbes and the gut microbiome, to share with us details about the upcoming exhibition. We then proceeded to introduce 2 variants of our card game (currently titled “Flora”) and challenged the students to create the cards for each of the two decks and then play both variants in order to critique them.
Susan joining a group as they played Flora
There was much fun and laughter to be had as the students started to disrupt each other’s microbiomes, playing cards like “Kiss” and “We Are Family”, thwarting their opponents’ well laid plans. Before the class was dismissed for lunch, they filled-out feedback forms, and I was quite surprised at some of the comments. Especially noteworthy was their favorite card, Bad Breath, which sounded fun to them and protected their hand from tampering. Fecal transplants and food poisoning made the cut as well.
No you are not getting any of my microbes!
We are glad that the students had so much fun with these initial versions and look forward to developing the game with them in future classes!
