I play a lot of games – Zelda and Civilization, intense strategy board games with my 10-year-old, role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, distracting apps on my phone – but I never considered developing a game until Zach London, neurologist and professor from the University of Michigan, reached out to me through Twitter. Zach is best known for an app called Nerve Whiz and an artistic board game called The Lesion: Charcot’s Tournament, both designed to teach players neuroanatomy (and a stack of other games including The Plexus, Foramina!, and Cranial Vault).

Zach suggested that we create a game to  teach others about women in the history of neurology. This was an answer to a question I had struggled with: how do you teach information that is important, but not at all clinically necessary? How do you reach the widest audience, ensuring that you aren’t only talking to the people who already care? You can write a book, make a TikTok, tweet a lot…there are many options with different levels of investment and different audiences. Games can be an excellent way to introduce people to novel ideas in a way that is engaging, fun, and approachable.

Our card game, Endowed Chairs: Neurology, features 12 women from the history of neurology – but you don’t have to know about the women (or the history of neurology) to play the game. My goal with this game is not to have players remember the details of the life of Audrey Penn, but to recognize her name, understand that she was important in our history, and feel a sense of excitement and curiosity when they encounter her name again. If players are enthusiastic (or if you’re now curious), essays are available about each of the women at the game website: www.EndowedChairs.com.  We’re now working on Endowed Chairs: Pediatrics – and stay tuned for future specialties as well.

More recently Zach suggested that we create a word game like Wordle, but with neurology-themed words (including proper names, acronyms, and plurals), and a daily neurology-related learning point: Neurdle. This is a game with an entirely different intent: to engage learners, ideally through discussion on Twitter and Instagram, where previous learning points are posted – and to entertain. Neurdle is available daily for free at Neurdle.com. 

How do you use games to teach students in digital education? What are the benefits – to you and to your students?