Quark Wars - a particle physics outreach game in the age of Star Wars

TL;DR

Quark Wars is an outdoor educational game inspired by Star Wars that helps middle school students learn particle physics through active, team-based play involving identifying elementary particles on opponents' foreheads.

Contribution

This paper introduces a novel outdoor game that combines particle physics education with active gameplay, inspired by popular culture and existing outdoor games.

Findings

Students enjoyed the game and found it engaging.

The game helped reinforce particle terminology.

It made particle identification more tangible for students.

Abstract

Quark Wars is an all-new, adventure style game. We recommended playing it outdoors. Quark Wars is modeled upon the outdoor game called Hungarian Number War, with notable influence from Star Wars, the American epic space saga. The players form two opposing teams. Both teams elect their own leader. The team members and their leaders wear particle war bonnets on their foreheads. These headdresses consist of three or four cards indicating combinations of elementary particles. The two teams compete by identifying (reading out loudly) the elementary particle cards on the foreheads of their adversaries. Players are allowed to use the terrain to cover their particle identity on their foreheads and may try to hide, run, or band together in a group to win. Quark Wars was tested at a Summer Camp of Berze Science Club in Hungary. Students loved playing Quark Wars, as this game resulted in lots of hilarity and action. In addition, Quark Wars also solidified particle terminology and made the concept of particle identification and discovery more tangible to secondary/middle school students.