Questions and answers
Questions about Bohr Blast
Short answers for teachers, parents and players.
What is Bohr Blast?
Bohr Blast is a learning game about the periodic table. You clear the nucleus of each of the 118 elements with antimatter, and along the way you learn the elements' names, symbols and atomic numbers, and how their atoms are built.
Who is Bohr Blast for?
It is made for physics and chemistry lessons in lower secondary school, grades 7 to 9, and for anyone who wants to learn the periodic table. Three difficulty levels make it playable for both beginners and practised players.
What does Bohr Blast cost?
The game on the website is free. Playing with a class is free for schools, and it stays free.
An app for iPhone, iPad and Android is on its way. In the app the first 11 elements are free, and one purchase opens the rest. That purchase helps keep the classroom free for schools.
Do students need an account?
No. Students type a class code from their teacher and choose a first name or a nickname. They need no email and no password. The teacher signs in with a code sent by email.
How does a class round work?
The teacher creates a class, which gets a class code, and starts a round of 5 to 90 minutes. Everyone starts at the same moment, and the projector view shows the clock and the live leaderboard. Afterwards the teacher sees each student's cleared elements and quiz answers and can download the results.
Which devices does Bohr Blast run on?
It runs in the browser on computers, tablets and phones, and works with touch, mouse and keyboard. There is nothing to install.
Which languages is Bohr Blast in?
18 languages: English, Dansk, Svenska, Norsk, Íslenska, Suomi, Deutsch, Français, Español, Português (Brasil), Polski, Українська, Bahasa Indonesia, 简体中文, 繁體中文（香港）, 日本語, हिन्दी, اردو. Element names, facts and quiz questions are translated, and questions can be read aloud when the device has a voice for the language.
What do students learn?
How an atom is built from protons, neutrons and electrons; the name, symbol, atomic number, group and period of all 118 elements; the number of electrons in each shell; and, in the later worlds, isotopes, radioactivity and half-life.
What are the three difficulty levels?
Student, Researcher and Professor. As Student the electrons move slowly and a hit costs no life. As Researcher you start with three lives. Professor is the full challenge: single electrons at full speed, and you start with one life. In a class round the teacher chooses one level for everyone.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, on the device you play on. Stars and progress are saved in the browser, not with us, so on another device you start again. Scores from class rounds are saved on the server.
On iPad and iPhone it is best to add the game to the home screen before playing, because Safari can delete what a website has saved if it is not opened for about a week.
What data is stored about students?
Only what a class round needs: the name the student chose, the class and the scores. Students who join with a code get an anonymous account on their device, with no email. The data is stored in the EU (Frankfurt). There are no ads, no tracking and no third-party analytics.
What is the atom builder?
A page of its own on the website, where students build atoms themselves from protons, neutrons and electrons. It shows which element they have made, whether the nucleus is stable and whether the atom is neutral or an ion. It covers the first 20 elements, hydrogen to calcium.
Is the Bohr model correct?
It is a simplified model. Niels Bohr proposed in 1913 that electrons circle the nucleus in fixed orbits, and the picture of shells grew out of that. The picture is good for counting electrons and for seeing the pattern behind the periodic table, which is why the game uses it. But electrons do not travel in neat circles: today's model describes a cloud that shows where an electron is likely to be found. The atom builder shows both models.
Can you really clear an atom with antimatter?
No, that is the made-up part. Antimatter is real: when an antiproton meets a proton, both vanish in a burst of energy. But nobody empties a nucleus that way. In the game it is a way of counting the protons and neutrons in each atom.
How many elements are there?
118 elements are known, from hydrogen (number 1) to oganesson (number 118). The game has all of them, in seven worlds that follow the seven periods of the periodic table.
Can students play at home?
Yes. Besides class rounds, anyone can play on their own, at school or at home, and each difficulty level keeps its own progress.
Is there an app?
An app for iPhone, iPad and Android is on its way. Until then the game can be added to the home screen from the browser; from there it opens like an app.
How do I send feedback?
Choose Send feedback on the game's menu. We would like to hear how the game works in your class, and what is missing.