Learn chemistry and play games with Quest for Arete

This year for our homeschool science we are learning chemistry.  I’ve been struggling to find good activities that aren’t just playing.  We’ve made slime, but they aren’t too worried about the science, more the fun they have with the slime.  Our new board game Quest for Arete lets them learn some more about chemistry while playing a game.

(This is a sponsored post by Quest for Arete, all opinions are my own)

What is Quest for Arete?

Quest for Arete is a customizable card game similar to Magic the Gathering or Pokemon.  You are building a deck and fighting another player to be the best alchemist.

Unlike Magic the Gathering or Pokemon, it is not a random draw when you buy expansions.  Instead, you buy a type of expansion like the Alchemist expansion or Armorer expansion.

There are both two player, and solo play versions.  I like the solo play option because your kids can learn about how chemical elements interact as they gain their skill with the game.  The two-player game is great for my boys because there’s no way they will ask their sister to play, so it cuts down on fights in my house.

 

Phyllis had a great question in an email she sent me, a starter set has all the materials for two people to start playing.

While it is designed for ages 12 and up, if your kids are at all familiar with playing card games or the games I mentioned earlier they can play earlier.  Last week their facebook page had a great suggestion for younger kids to play the game.

 

How to play Quest for Arete

They’ve got a great intro video for playing the game.  Right now we are practicing solo games to get them ready for more advanced potion making, because this is different from the games we play all the time (if you play Magic the Gathering or Pokemon, you’ll have no trouble).

On your turn, you are trying to build a potion.  In your hand you will have a variety of different elements.  You combine the elements to make a potion, and the potion gives you points based off of what elements are in the potion.

Once the elements have been used you put them in your discard pile, and you can use the top element of your discard pile for making another potion, but cannot dig through your pile.

As you get more advanced in your game play you can cast specific attack and counter potions, but right now we are practicing with just building potions.

 

Using Quest for Arete for your science lesson

A couple of caveats

1. The names of elements are changed to make them sound like potion ingredients
2. In real life you cannot substitute different elements for each other in a chemistry experiment, this is done for ease of game play

That being said, I like the ability to change out different ingredients for making potions and spells because it does make the game easier as we are playing.

But for our actual science lesson.  It’s great as you’re starting to learn about molecules and how they go together.  It gives a distinct visual image as you put together several different elements to create your spell.

I actually pulled our game out after we learned about naming of chemical compounds, and had them look at some of the spells in Quest for Arete to compare their name for the spells with the actual chemical compound name, to see if they could predict it correctly.

 

Get your own copy of Quest for Arete

You can buy Quest for Arete on their site, the expansions are also available on Amazon (the starter pack will be again later).

But as a special bonus my readers have a coupon code to get the expansions for $5 each through December 20, 2016 when you buy the Quest for Arete starter set.  Use code TM2016 to get each expansions for $5.