Pre-Health Students Build a Life-Sized Board Game for Regional Health

Most of us have played the classic Operation board game at some point in our lives. A month ago, Regional Health contacted us to ask about scaling up this classic board game concept into a life-sized version for use at outreach events. Two of our rockstar pre-health students, Keaton Gray & Kaylee Wilson, rose to the challenge and built the awesome game you see below:

Keaton shows off their exciting creation.

They also recruited fellow Mines student, Anthony Best, to help out. Regional Health was on a strict timeline to have the project completed by then end of January, so our students worked quickly to have it ready to go. Our students completed the project in less than a month! We caught up to Keaton, Kaylee, & Anthony to ask them about this fun and exciting project.

Keaton (left) and Kaylee (right) play their new game.

How would you describe your overall experience of being involved in this project?

Kaylee: This project was interesting for me because I have never worked with anything regarding circuits before. I have never taken a physics class so I was glad that I had help on the project. A lot of time and effort went into the project and it was a great experience getting to meet people from the hospital. I was pleased with how the project turned out since we were finally able to get the light and buzzer working in sync.

Keaton: I had lots of fun working on the board! It was time consuming and stressful sometimes, especially trying to find times that worked for both of us considering we are both students and have jobs as well. Overall, it was an awesome experience to do a hands-on project and do some networking through employees at Regional Health!

Anthony:  I only worked on the project for the very last day, consisting, mainly, of the electrical components. I would describe the experience as nerve wracking since once we got past a certain point, a large majority of the board became inaccessible and we had to hope that none of the circuitry came apart. Overall, however, it was a lot of fun.

What was your favorite part of working on the board?

Keaton: My favorite part, and also the most frustrating part, was trying to wire it so the nose and buzzer would go off. We used aluminum foil tape to line the edges of each part and then connected this aluminum tape to the wiring on the back. The tape was tricky because only one side carried current and rips in the tape obviously shorted the circuit, so it was a meticulous process, but that is the reason I liked it. 

Kaylee: My favorite thing about working on the board was getting to make it life size. I feel like the game is more engaging when it is realistic. I have not yet seen the 3D printed organs, but I feel like that is one of the best aspects of the game. 

Anthony: My favorite part of working on the board was troubleshooting where the gaps in the circuit were. 

It works!

What was the most frustrating part of working on the board?

Kaylee: Originally we used copper foiling, but that turned out to be too unreliable in holding a connection and was causing a lot of cuts on our hands from working with the pieces. We decided to use aluminum foil tape instead as it was easier to shape around the corners and stuck in place better.

Anthony: The most frustrating part was trying to get the speaker working since the wires were incredibly small and short. 

Keaton: I hadn't had that much experience with electrical circuits or even in the construction aspect of the project, and because of that I definitely learned a lot. 

What is the biggest lesson you have learned from your involvement in this project?

Anthony: I learned about just how finicky some wires can be when trying to connect them all together.

Keaton: During the wiring process we also had a lightbulb blow up, which was terrifying so I think the biggest lesson I learned was to not adjust circuits while connected to the battery. Hahaha! 

Kaylee: I have learned a lot more about how electricity and circuiting works. I always thought it was a basic concept where you connect two pieces together, but when working with the cutout pieces on the board, there is a lot more to it.

(From left to right) Keaton, Anthony, & Kaylee test out their creation during last week's stock show, where it made its debut.