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Valence is available on Amazon HERE.
{I purchased this game myself. All opinions are my own!}
I bought Valence when my son was doing elementary level chemistry. I thought it would be a fun way for him to learn the periodic table of elements, {and it was} but it turns out, Valence does much more than that. It does so much more that we plan on playing a lot more of this game when he ventures into a live, online Chemistry class for his Sophomore year. Check out this review of Valence to see if it might be something fun for your budding scientists, both little and big!
In addition to reviewing the
FUN FACTOR and the
EDUCATIONAL VALUE,
I will also include info on the
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT,
TIME COMMITMENT,
CLARITY LEVEL
and an OVERALL SCORE.
NAME: Valence
PUBLISHER: Science Ninjas
CATEGORY: Science
SUB CATEGORY: Chemistry
TIME COMMITMENT: Minimal {20+ minutes}
PLAYERS: 2-4
AGES: 8+
HOW TO WIN: Be the first player to collect enough molecules to earn 10 points!
CLARITY LEVEL: ♥♥♥♥♥ I won’t lie and say Valence is the easiest of games to understand. I mean, really, it’s chemistry after all! Nothing related to chemistry is easy in my mind. But, I will say that considering the topic and the educational objectives, the directions are clear and concise. My only issue, and this is totally just because I need a new contact prescription, is that the font on the instructions is fairly small. But, that’s on me! And, it just means my kid has to read it all to me! CLARITY LEVEL SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
FUN FACTOR: ♥♥♥♥♥ Valence’s tagline is “Advanced Chemistry+Simple Rules+Ninjas!” They don’t actually say what those three things are supposed to equal but my son and I both think they equal fun! I will admit that my son has more fun than I do because he gets all tricky and uses the “attack cards” and “vulnerable cards”. This allows him to increase his chances of winning by planning ahead and making strategic decisions. For me, it’s too much thinking to try to use those against him so I stick with the easy way. But that’s fine by me! He has to apply more chemistry knowledge to make it work so that’s a win-win! FUN FACTOR SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
EDUCATIONAL VALUE: ♥♥♥♥♥ Just about any resource that attempts to teach chemistry while having simple, safe, unmessy fun is a winner in my book! And Valence does just that! As mentioned above, I tend to play the easy way while my son uses more advanced tactics. But, even if you just stick to the easy way, you can’t help but learn some important base-level chemistry along the way. With every turn, you have to try to make molecules by balancing out the valence numbers. Then, if you accomplish that, you get to see which kind of molecule that is {acid, base, salt, etc. } And if you use the more advanced route, you have to apply your knowledge of which elements will cause detrimental changes to others. Like I said, it’s a wee bit too much thinking for me, but my kid manages it just fine. If you can read and follow directions, you can do it! And, there is lots of detailed information on each card. It would be super easy to add extra learning by insisting kids read the info out loud before they can play the card. Or keep a Table of Elements close by so the player has to locate each element before he/she can play it. And, finally, there is lots of math taking place with each turn! EDUCATIONAL VALUE SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT: ♥♥♥♥♥ Valence comes in a cute sturdy little box with a simple divider insert and two stacks of durable cards. Add in the instructions, and that’s all ya have to worry about! Easy, peasy and organized! My kind of game for sure! I will note that the box color in the Amazon picture seems to have changed. My version is white and the current one is blue. I am assuming the quality is still the same but can’t know for sure. ORGANIZATIONAL COMPONENT SCORE: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥
OVERALL SCORE: ♥♥♥♥♥ This is an all-around winner in our home! I’m not sure my son could’ve played it or enjoyed it at 8 {like the box says} but he has been playing it since he was 10 and loves it! And, like I said in my intro, we plan to play a lot of it while he’s taking Sophomore-level chemistry this fall! OVERALL SCORE: 100% ♥♥♥♥♥
If you think your kids would enjoy “Advanced Chemistry+Simple Rules+Ninjas” now, you can buy Valence here on Amazon.
If you want to look more closely at HOW to play Valence, keep reading….
STEP ONE: Organize the MOLECULE CARDS into stacks in the middle of the table. You should have 8 stacks with varying amounts in each.
STEP TWO: Shuffle the ELEMENT CARDS.
STEP THREE: Deal each player 6 ELEMENT CARDS.
STEP FOUR: Each player places their cards face up in a row and familiarizes themselves with each one.
STEP FIVE: Place the remaining ELEMENT CARDS face down in the center. This will be your draw pile.
STEP SIX: The player with the highest atomic number goes first {don’t worry, they make it clear what that means in the instructions.}
STEP SEVEN: Player One draws the top of the draw pile. He now has seven ELEMENT CARDS.
STEP EIGHT: Player One looks over his ELEMENT CARDS to find combinations that equal 0 {don’t worry, they make it clear what that means in the instructions.}
STEP NINE: Player One then finds the MOLECULE CARD that matches what he just created {again, this is easier than it sounds…it’s actually color-coded, no worries!}
STEP TEN: Player One takes that MOLECULE CARD and places it in front of him {this is the start of acquiring points…10 is needed to win.}
STEP ELEVEN: Player One discards the ELEMENT CARDS he used to create that molecule {this is the start of the discard pile.}
STEP TWELVE: Player One continues to make as many molecules as he can/wants to in that turn.
STEP THIRTEEN: When he is finished making molecules, he discards one ELEMENT CARD.
STEP FOURTEEN: It is now Player Two’s turn. He can draw either from the draw pile or the discard pile to begin his turn.
STEP FIFTEEN: Repeat Steps 7-14 until somebody acquires 10 points.
NOTE: There are other plays that can be made…these are the advanced moves I spoke of above. The instructions provide a lot of details on how to make those moves!
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