For the students in Jianshelu Third Primary School in Zhengzhou city, learning science can be as interesting as playing a game - a game of chess.

Science teacher Yan Hewang has invented many teaching tools that integrate knowledge into chess games so that his students no longer memorize everything by rote.

Over the past 20 years he alone has been granted five patents for the gadgets and games he invented, along with 10 other patents in partnership with others.

One of the most popular with students is Evolution Chess.

The chessboard illustrates animal evolution with 16 camps standing for 16 categories in the process, from the earliest protozoan at the bottom to modern birds and mammals at the top. The evolution tree also has 32 nests.

Two players each have 16 pieces, each of which represents a typical animal in a category and can move a certain number of steps.

The player with more pieces that have moved along the evolutionary ladder to home bases wins.

Li Shuaijun, a fifth-grade student, said the game is "exciting and interesting".

"I thought biology was boring, but now I can learn it through the game," he said. "It is far more interesting than just reading books."

The 60-year-old inventor, who retires this year, said that he designed the game many years ago to attract student attention.

"I was getting old and there were always some students making trouble in class," he said. "But I don't want to be angry with them - so I designed the game to make them interested in science."

Sometimes students argue during the game, which "indicate that they are actually digesting the knowledge", Yan said.

In his office there is a box with batteries, circuit boards, diodes and other tools. He said he often thinks about creating inventions and encourages his students to make experiments.

He has also designed other board games including Zhengzhou Tourism Chess, which uses the map of Zhengzhou as the chessboard and has pieces start from the city center and go along 52 tourist attractions around the city.

Student Zhang Mohan said she can remember many terms and figure out their relationship through playing the game.

Another game Yan designed is based on traditional Chinese chess, but uses a board that simulates the battle map of the Chu-Han War more than 2,200 years ago along with tourist sites in use today.

He plans to improve the game by replacing the pieces with figures of ancient soldiers, horses and weapons to create stronger sense of ancient times.

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(China Daily 04/09/2014 page17)