There is substantial literature on the use of innovative and non-conventional approaches to promote interest and learning. Aids, such as the use of puzzles & crosswords, can offer students an alternative strategy to help slot concepts into place. These have been shown to be an effective teaching technique in many disciplines resulting in improved retention of facts and association of concepts, as well as increased levels of confidence.

Over the last decade or so we have developed a variety of "card games", used as aids to stimulate group discussion, by bringing together information and concepts from a number of sources to assist students in the pulling together and linking of material. The "card game" elements include logic, memory, visualisation and problem solving. They do not refer to a simulation or competition (as in the strict sense) but to an activity played using a series of cards that is intended to stimulate active learning through problem solving. Each card game, known as a card game discussion, is described within the student notes with directions as to how to "play" the game, and with questions for the students to complete during play. The "games" are embedded in the curriculum and there is an expectation that all students will use these resources during the relevant laboratory session. One of the primary aims of these resources is to be a fun activity for the students and encourage group discussion as well as being an active learning experience. It is hoped that, when used in this way, these card game discussions would help students develop a confidence with integrating the content of the course. They are designed to be very flexible in their use and to be interactive, requiring no real staff input except as a moderator at times during the game, although teachers find them useful in identifying misconceptions and gaps in knowledge, which can be discussed during the game. Examples of the different types of card game discussions are:

• "The Animal Reproduction Game": students in groups of five are provided with a pack of playing cards depicting, in picture or text form, the life cycles of frog, earthworm, chicken, rat and human. Within the pack are five sets of cards, each set comprising six cards which together contain the complete life cycle of one of the organisms. The game is played like "Happy Families" with cards being exchanged between players until one player holds a complete set and is declared the winner. The game requires that the students are familiar with the life cycles of all the organisms.
• "The Cell Game": students are provided with a package containing a variety of cards depicting the parts of a cell, the names of structures within a cell and the functions of structures within a cell.  The students draw the outline of a cell on a large sheet of paper and arrange the cards as a collage to create a functioning cell.
• "The Digestion Game": students are provided with a package containing sets of coloured cards. One colour set comprises the anatomical structures within the digestive tract, another colour set comprises the secretions involved in digestion and another components of a meal and their breakdown products. The students arrange the anatomy cards on a large sheet of paper in the form of a flow chart and add the secretions to the structures that produce them. Then they trace the passage of the food items as they pass through the digestive tract, indicating the action of the secretions and where they are absorbed. As the flow chart is built up showing the process of digestion, the students can write or draw additional information on the sheet of paper.

Crossword puzzles have been developed, using CrossWord Maker98 software, and included in several courses. The aim of introducing crosswords was to provide another fun exercise that would give students a "quiz" on some of the course content and to help them identify areas of weakness. Each crossword was designed to be more content-oriented than concept-oriented and to cover three or four biological topics, thus helping students to consolidate their basic biology knowledge, in particular definitions and terminology. Ideally each crossword should be handed out in a practical session to be completed in the laboratory or at home. It was expected that most students would use this type of resource individually and that not all students would choose to use them as they were provided as a non-compulsory learning/revision resource. A solution is provided online (at a later stage).

Preliminary data from quantitative and qualitative evaluations of student perceptions of the effectiveness of crosswords in learning indicated that 54% of students attempted the crosswords and 75% of those students who attempted the crosswords rated them as very good/good (on a 5-point Likert scale), with the majority wanting more puzzles. This encouraged us to continue to develop and improve the puzzles.