THE SNAKES AND LADDERS OF RESEARCH - USING A BOARD GAME TO TEACH THE PITFALLS OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DESIGN

The Snakes and Ladders of Research is a board game aimed at summarisin g and reinforcing the pitfalls and virtues of research design in under graduate research projects. The game was used as part of a second-year research design course, in which an attempt was made to transfer know ledge of good and bad research practices from a passive learning envir onment to an active one. When played with two undergraduate classes th e game was well received and the short-term recall of good and bad res earch practices averaged 73%.