Card games as effective tools to enhance bioscience laboratory health and safety education

Rafiq, Rumana; Mathews, H.; Abedalreza, D.; Yahya, F.; Jones, M.A.

Abstract

Introduction

Passive learning approaches in higher education (HE) are associated with lower student engagement and subsequent attainment (Minhas et al., 2012). Consequently, institutions are increasingly focused on active learning methodologies, including gamification, to enhance these metrics in HE. The concept of gamified learning increases interactivity between students and active cognition via playful means. Given their ease of implementation, card-based games constitute a highly accessible form of gamified learning within HE, readily adaptable to both physical and digital environments (Bochennek et al., 2007). However, there is limited evidence of their use within laboratory education, specifically in increasing the interactivity of health and safety inductions. Complying with health and safety legislation necessitates that students acquire a robust understanding of safety protocols. Effective inductions play a critical role in enabling students to actively recall and apply this knowledge in real-world situations. Current approaches are often passive in nature, with minimal interactive elements for students to apply their knowledge in a safe environment before entering the laboratory. Based on this, we sought to design card games that could be used as interactive tools to disseminate health and safety education, before evaluating their pedagogical impact in biomedicine and chemical sciences first-year undergraduate students.

Methods

Three card games covering concepts such as personal protective equipment, hazard symbols and laboratory equipment identification were designed and delivered as a part of compulsory laboratory health and safety inductions during the first week of term. Student's baseline health and safety knowledge was evaluated using a 10-point scale before the start of the session and after completion of all three games to evaluate the impact on health and safety knowledge. Wider pedagogical impact on factors such as student experience, transferable skill development and gamified learning value were evaluated using previously described pedagogical surveys (Hussain et al. 2023) comprising either open-answer questions or based on a 5-point Likert scale. This study was approved by the University of Salford's ethical review board (Ethics ID: 1035).

Results

A total of 146 students from five biomedicine and chemical sciences programmes agreed to participate in the study. Most students reported positive responses regarding their enjoyment of the games (89.7%), learned a lot completing them (82.9%) and that they were a valuable addition to their health and safety induction (91.1%). They also reported the card games positively impacted their health and safety knowledge (88.4 %) and PPE (91.1%). All three games gained positive student responses for their enjoyability (78.1-84.9%), design (80.1-92.5%), and visual appeal (77.4-86.3%). Using pre- and post-evaluation, a significant increase in students self-perceived knowledge of health and safety (7.8±1.5 to 8.8±1.1, P <0.001), PPE (8.2±1.6 to 9.1±1.0, P <0.001), laboratory hazards (7.7±1.5 to 8.8±1.1, P <0.001) and laboratory equipment (7.5±1.5 to 8.9±1.1, P <0.001). Stratification of participants based on socioeconomic factors and university entry qualifications revealed no significant differences between stratified populations, highlighting the equity of this approach to learning.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the wide benefits of card games to enhance health and safety education whilst providing a positive and equitable student experience during the induction period.

References (Max 5 references)

Bochennek, K., Wittekindt, B., Zimmermann, S. Y., & Klingebiel, T. (2007). More than mere games: a review of card and board games for medical education. Medical teacher, 29(9-10), 941-948. https://doi.org/10.1080/01421590701749813
Hussain, T., Namvar, S., & Jones, M. (2023). Authentic Pathology Specimen Reception: A Valuable Resource for Developing Biomedical Science Student Competencies and Employability. British Journal of Biomedical Science, 80. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11731
Minhas, P. S., Ghosh, A., & Swanzy, L. (2012). The effects of passive and active learning on student preference and performance in an undergraduate basic science course. Anatomical sciences education, 5(4), 200-207. https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1274

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Challenges and Solutions for Physiology Education (Physiological Society)
• Start Date: Apr 8, 2025
• End Date: Apr 9, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Feb 21, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 8, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 10, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed