Reviewing for the Biology Exam by Playing Spoons

Near the end of the school year, I had been chatting with the other teacher in my school who teaches Living Environment. We were discussing the time we would have to review in class before the Regents exam and how we wanted it to be engaging.  Then that weekend, as I was scrolling through posts from the AP Biology Facebook group, I saw a picture from a teacher whose students were playing review "Spoons".

I loved this game growing up (actually, I still enjoy it!). The aim of the game is to get 4 matching cards in your hand and then to quietly take a spoon from the center of the table. The last person to notice the spoons have been taken loses. (There is one less spoon on the table than there are players around the table.) If I remember right, each time you are the player without a spoon, you get a letter and once you have spelled the word "SPOONS" you are out of the game. There is a draw pile of cards by the dealer, who keeps picking up one card and passing it on, and it continues around the table. The rule is that you may not have more than 4 cards in your hand at one time (you will have 5 temporarily while you are deciding which one to pass on).

The teacher on Facebook, had made cards involving terminology from photosynthesis and respiration. There was a word card, a picture card, and a description card. In the review game, students had 3 cards in their hands, and once they had 3 matching cards, they could take a spoon.

Since I wanted to do this for my Honors Biology class I made my own set of cards. There are 6 cards related to photosynthesis, 6 for cellular respiration, and 6 for the immune system. Students will need to get 4 related cards to be able to take a spoon. To make a "deck" of cards, I made two copies of each sheet on cardstock, laminated them, and cut them out.

The students loved it! They did find it a challenge to decide which were respiration vs. photosynthesis, but the immune system cards were much easier since they were so different than respiration and photosynthesis.  Maybe next year, I'll add another topic--like types of cells and organelles to add a little more challenge.

Here is the document with the review cards.