Did you catch dysentery? I sure did.

Only some of you will know what I'm talking about. Those of you who are forty-ish.

You eagerly sat down at the black screen with the green letters, pulse racing. You had been the chosen one to use the computer in class. And what would you do on the computer? Obviously, play Oregon Trail! You would buy your supplies in Independence, Missouri and head off on your journey. Hoping that you would survive the trek. It seems that there were many ways to die on the trail. But the only one that I remember is dysentery. And it was then, as a wide-eyed fourth grader, that I decided to make every attempt to avoid dysentery in my real life. And so far, so good.

And that is what I learned from games in school. Avoid dysentery. And while I suppose that is a noble lesson, from an academic standpoint, it falls short of the teacher's intentions. And this is the struggle with teachers using games in the classroom.

Are my students really learning while they are playing games?

There isn't a pat answer to that question. Some games teach the so-called "soft-skills." These include cooperation, strategy, communication and the like. But I teach chemistry. And for better or worse, chemistry requires "hard skills." The struggle I have as a teacher that teaches hard skills but wants to utilize games in the classroom is that too many "chemistry" games are merely games with chemistry words mixed in.

And thus was born this company; Stoich Decks. After many years of developing games to fill the void of learning hard skills while playing games, I am beginning to bring them to life. It has been a real joy to meet the struggles of getting a company off the ground, kickstarter campaigns run, teaching full time, coaching varsity basketball, and being a dad and a husband. And I did it without catching dysentery.

Please consider helping us spread the word of Up & Atom (our first game about estimating mole values) and the rest of the developping line of Stoich Deck games.

Find us on Facebook and instagram @StoichDecks.

Email us at stoichdecks@gmail.com