Finding the perfect scientific board game that is both educational and fun to play again and again is quite the feat! Read on to discover the very best science board games in the areas of biology, chemistry, astronomy, geology and more.
You’re sure to find an educational game or two from the list below and these games are a great way to have the whole family critical thinking together while having fun playing a competitive game.
From Earth Science to learning about new molecules, all of these themed games are great for problem solving and more. These are great for learning fun and are perfect for kids of all ages to join in on the fun! Who says that you can combine social skills with space exploration and more?

I did fine in all my science classes in middle school and high school, but I didn’t particularly enjoy them. The only science class I truly enjoyed was physics and that’s mostly because it seemed more applicable to real life and had more math. I liked math more and did well in math too.
As we homeschool, teaching science is definitely not a big passion of mine and I am almost constantly learning things about animals and space and the world and just about everything right along with my 3rd-grade twins.
While I’m not complaining about learning new stuff myself, I don’t love that I can’t answer many, many of my kids science-related questions!
I often rely instead on our Google Home in our homeschool room or some awesome Youtube video for an answer or inside look into science topics and questions.
But, that’s why I love things like monthly science kits for kids (among other educational subscription boxes) to get my kids excited about learning science! Just because I don’t love science, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t!
To further engage my kids in learning science, I thought it would fun to look up what type of scientific board games are out there, you know, truly educational science board games that are also a ton of fun for kids to actually play (and hopefully fun for the adults to play too!).
Afterall, there are several other types of educational board games that I already love!
I was surprised to find so many science board games and science card games covering things like chemistry, biology, astronomy, and general science learning.
I’ve divided the scientific board games down into the various fields of scientific study they primarily focus on. Some I wasn’t sure exactly where they best fit as they were more of a science trivia board game, so I just lumped them all together a bit.
I really hope this helps you learn more about science, whether for yourself, or for your kids, and have fun along the way!

Scientific Board Games
For each scientific field of study, I’m listing the science board games I found first and then explaining what each game is like, suggested ages for the science games, and other details as I could find so that you could get the board games that sounded the most appealing to you and would work best for the ages you are looking for.
General Science Board Games
I’m started with the science board games and card games that I wasn’t sure what field of science they fell into or they seemed to incorporate many different fields of study or were the only one in their field.
- The Magic School Bus Science Explosion Board Game
- Totally Gross: The Game
- Wonders of Science
- Mad Science Foundation
- Science Bingo
- The New Science
- Tesla vs. Edison
The Magic School Bus Science Explosion Board Game
Learn all about the different fields of sciences and be the first player to explode the volcano.
Science Explosion includes two edxciting games in one! Match science-based topic cards to master cards in one game and use memory and strategy skills in another game! Get ready for a science adventure! Wahoo! It’s time to burn rubber and discover! Recommended for ages 5+.
Totally Gross: The Game
A dose of gross helps science make sense! Full of amazing facts about our wonderful world, Totally Gross helps kids adsorb and understand all the major scientific disciplines.
Kids travel around the game board answering questions and engaging in antics. The first player to stretch his/her Totally Gross Slime 10 point spaces and complete a lab experiment correctly wins the game!
So go ahead. Answer sickening questions. Take part in revolting activities. Perform bizarre experiments. It’s all in the name of science! Recommended for kids ages 8+.
There is a Totally Gross! card game version too.
Wonders of Science
Players take turns rolling the die and asking each other scientific questions from the cards. If a question is answered correctly, the card is won; if answered incorrectly, the card is returned to the bottom of the pile.
The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. Players have a few chances throughout the game to get a Noggin’s Choice card. This means they can choose a card from any other player, and get ahead. Remember the correct answers. If a question is not answered correctly the first time, that question will come up again.
This science card game is recommended for ages 7+.
Mad Science Foundation
Throughout the centuries, mad scientists have always encountered the same problem of very limited access to the dangerous resources they require. To solve this problem, the Mad Science Foundation was created. Now these “misunderstood geniuses” can finally get the access they need to the four vital building blocks of mad science: Lasers, dark matter, cryptomium, and sharks.
At its heart, this is a drafting game. You draft resources to craft wacky inventions and dispatch Minions to help with your diabolical plans. Each round, one player controls the crooked director for that round. He or she then separates the available commodities into piles to be drafted. It’s up to the scientist controlling the director to determine the value of whatever resources are available and separate them into piles. Not all piles are created equal!
Players then take turns selecting which pile of goodies they will grab, with the director’s controller choosing last. Sizing up your competition is key! You know what they need. Don’t let them have it. Or give them two choices of equal terrible-ness! But each player also has a secret side objective that you may not figure out until it’s too late by crafting new inventions, you might be able to put together an engine of cards that eventually fuel themselves.
Recommended for ages 15+.Science Bingo
Name the three possible forms that all things are made. What is mass attracting mass? Learn more about these and other facts while playing a fun game.
A creative spin on classic bingo featuring vibrant color images and informative facts on the back of each calling card. Suggestions for different ways to Bingo are on the back of each box to add interest to playing the game, or play like original bingo.
Made in the USA and recommended for ages 3+.
The New Science
In The New Science, you play as Isaac Newton, Galileo or one of three other great minds from the scientific revolution in 17th century Europe. You are in a tense intellectual race with your opponents, attempting to publish your remarkable scientific discoveries first in order to gain prestige, be seen as the finest mind of your era, and consequently be appointed the first President of the Royal Society.
You achieve this by first researching, then experimenting on, and finally publishing new discoveries. But you need to carefully decide what and when to publish: while the only way to win is publishing to gain prestige, all other scientists will read your books and gain the same knowledge, costing you a key advantage.
You’ve precious little energy to put into the many groundbreaking scientific disciplines. Your efforts will be further impacted by critical happenings in the world around you, requiring savvy as well as smarts.
The New Science is a fast-playing worker placement and area control game for 2-5 players. If you like classic Euro games with an innovative tech tree and a dash of uncertainty, the New Science is most certainly for you! Recommended for ages 10+.
Tesla vs. Edison
You control a start-up company in the early days of the U.S. electric industry. In the beginning, you only have your lead inventor, some shares of preferred stock, and some money.
Over the course of the game, you will be hiring other famous technicians and business people to work for you. Each luminary in the game has their own unique ratings, and the inventors also have their own special abilities.
The actions that you allocate this team of exceptional historical figures to take will determine the fate of your company. There are four focuses in the game: claiming electric projects on the map, advancing up a tech tree, investing in public relations to improve public opinion of your company or the technologies it uses, and buying and selling stock on a dynamic market.
You will need to pay attention to all of them but can win the game by specializing in just a specific one or two of your choice, or trying to build a more balanced company. The path you take is up to you. Recommended for ages 14+.
Biology Board Games
These board games are great for science fun and even some math added in!
- Cytosis
- Some Body
- Plague Inc.
- Dr. Dreadful Scabs n Guts Game
- Virulence
- Copernicus Strain: The Bioengineering Game
- Horrible Science Blood & Guts
Cytosis
Players take turns placing workers on available organelles within a human cell in order to collect resources (such as Carbohydrates or ATP!) or take actions (such as purchasing Cell Component cards or translating mRNA into Proteins!)
Players use their resources to build Enzymes, Hormones, and Hormone Receptors and also to help detoxify the cell – all of which score health points. The player with the most health points at the end of the game wins! Recommended for kids ages 10+.
Some Body
It’s easy to understand why Some Body is so popular. Young children play it as a puzzle, carefully placing body parts on the body boards and taking them off again and again. Older kids learn names, functions, and locations as they play. With five different games included, all ages will learn and grow with this game for years to come.
Recommended for ages 6 to 10.
Plague Inc.
Plague Inc: The Board Game is a strategic game of infection, evolution, and extinction based on the smash hit video game Plague Inc. with over 100 million players.
Each player is a deadly disease, evolving unique symptoms to customize their pathogen as they compete against each other to infect cities across the globe and be the first to wipe out humanity! The engaging theme and intuitive game mechanics allow players to rapidly start the outbreak whilst the constantly changing world, advanced genetic tactics and contagious gameplay ensures repeat infections for years to come! Recommended for ages 14+.
Dr. Dreadful Scabs n Guts Game
Learning has never been such yucky fun. The Dr. Dreadful Scabs N’ Guts game is the zany and sometimes gross “educational” game where players attempt to outwit one another by answering questions about science and the anatomy.
Do you know what Eructation is more commonly known as? Burping. Learn fun facts while exploring your anatomy with the Dr. Dreadful Scabs N’ Guts game. Recommended for ages 6+.
Virulence
Virulence is a strategic bidding and engine-building card game that’s addictively quick and simple. It was created by a professor of game design who is also a chemical engineer and science teacher! Players compete as viruses trying to collect viral component cards and take over the host cell!
Each player starts with the same set of six bidding cards, and each of the six has different strengths. Every round, Viral Component Cards worth varying numbers of points are flipped face up in center of the table. Players then use their bidding cards to simultaneously place secret bids to determine the order they will select from those Viral Component Cards. Highest bidder selects first, followed by the next highest bidder, and so on down to the lowest bidder. Players try to get their highest pick for the lowest bid – but bid too low and you might get stuck with whatever’s left!
Recommended for ages 8+.
Copernicus Strain: The Bioengineering Game
This game is infectious fun. It is easy to learn, fast moving and looks great. No science knowledge is needed to play.
You must evolve, adapt, and outsmart to build the mightiest micro-organisms. Use your resources to add powerful organelles, infect opponents with Viruses and harness Chain reactions to achieve big victory! Contains everything needed to play Strain and start bioengineering. Recommended for ages 10+.
Horrible Science Blood & Guts
Chemistry Board Games
- Compounded
- Valence Card Game
- Covalence
- Chemistry Fluxx
- Operation Escape E.V.I.L.
- Peptide: A Protein Building Game
- Elementeo Chemistry Card Game
- Subatomic: An Atom Building Game
- Ion: A Compound Building Game
- Dr. Microbe
Compounded
Compounded is a game about building chemical compounds through careful management of elements, a fair bit of social play and trading, and just a bit of luck.
In Compounded, players take on the roles of lab managers, hastily competing to complete the most compounds before they are completed by others – or destroyed in an explosion. Recommended for ages 13+.
Science Ninja: Valence Car Game
Check out your hand; find a set of Valence numbers that add up to 0; coordinate the color of each element; create a molecule! In Valence, it’s that simple and players find themselves learning quite a bit about chemistry at the same time they’re having fun playing a card game!
The brainchild of two Ph.D.’s in chemical engineering along with a New York Times best-selling cartoonist on a mission to stimulate scientific curiosity, Valence packs a powerful understanding of chemistry into an addictively good-natured game that will hit the spot for kids ages 8-12.
Covalence: A Molecule Building Game
Covalence is a cooperative, deduction-based card game modeled accurately around the basics of organic chemistry! Players must work together to build a number of organic molecules. But the challenge is, they have a limited amount of information and a limited number of clues.
One player is the Knower while all other players are the Builders. The Knower looks at the secret molecules assigned to each Builder and then gives each Builder clue cards that relate to their specific Molecule. The Builders then attempt to deduce the structure of their Molecule by bonding their Elements in various arrangements until they believe their molecule matches the correct molecular structure. As the game progresses, Builders may spend clues to get more information about their Molecule, but be careful, clues are limited! If each Builder is able to correctly build all of their Molecules before the clues run out, everyone wins!
Recommended for ages 8+.
Chemistry Fluxx
Chemistry Fluxx is the elemental card game where the rules are always changing. Use atoms and laboratory gear to match the current goal and win!
Chemistry Fluxx is the perfect compound of chance and skill, where you’ll not only be playing with elements and molecules, but you’ll also be learning about them! It is so much fun you’ll be playing it more than periodically. Recommended for ages 8+.
Operation Escape E.V.I.L.
Four scientists from across the world have been invited by the Earth Vision Industrial Labs (E.V.I.L), to create a chemical potion that would eradicate malnutrition. However, the E.V.I.L Chairman is looking to rule the world with a potent mind control potion. On refusing to cooperate, the scientists have been detained.
Can you help them escape E.V.I.L? Each player chooses a magic trick from a collection of 16 tricks that involve chemicals. Players roll dice and move on the board to collect the chemicals. Once collected, players distract the warden with their magic trick and escape. The first player to escape wins! Recommended for ages 8+.
Peptide: A Protein Building Game
Peptide is a fast-paced and competitive card game with play-based on how cell use RNA to build Protein and is engaging and entertaining for younger, older or mixed age gaming crowds.
In Peptide, players make a set of thoughtful selections from a number of openly available Organelle Cards (that are then removed) creating an interactive open-card-drafting mechanic. Players do this in order to link Amino Acid cards side-by-side, thus building a protein chain, and thus scoring points. Recommended for ages 10+.
Elementeo Chemistry Card Game
In the Elementeo Chemistry Card Game, elements have their own personalities: Oxygen becomes Oxygen Life-Giver, Sodium becomes Sodium Dragon, and Iodine becomes Iodine Mermaid. Oxygen Life-Giver can rust metals, Copper Cyclops can shock cards around him, and Helium Genie can lift element cards in balloons. Students create compounds, play with elements, and explore the world of science like never before.
Elementeo has five different game levels for different ages and grades: Element, Reaction, Compound, Alchemy, and Fusion. The goal of each game is to cross the battlefield and reduce your opponent’s electrons to zero. Each game can be played by 2 – 4 players and takes ~20 minutes or more to play, depending on the level. Recommended for ages 8+.
Subatomic: An Atom Building Game
Subatomic is a deck-building game about building elements from subatomic particles!
Players begin the game with a small deck of quarks and photons. Each turn, players draw a new hand of cards and decide to either build up their atom to score points, or buy stronger cards for their deck. Players use their quarks and photons to build protons, neutrons and electrons. They then decide to either (1) place these subatomic particles within the atom on their player mat (racing to build up an entire atom which will score them points), or (2) use them to buy proton, neutron and electron cards which go into their deck (making their deck more powerful and allowing them to build atoms even faster in the future!)
Players may also “hire” famous scientists like Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Albert Einstein. Players use scientists to break the standard rules of the game, like turning energy into matter and replicating cards played by other players! Recommended for ages 8+.
Ion: A Compound Building Game
Ion is a simple card drafting game where players select from a number of available ion cards and noble gas cards, with the object I’ve of forming either neutrally charged compounds or sets of stable noble gases! It accurately themed around the chemistry of how Ions bond to form Ionic Compounds. Recommended for ages 8+.
Dr. Microbe The Microscopic Logic Game
Help Dr. Microbe complete her research with your tweezers, a petri dish, and the colorful microbes. Using logic, race your fellow scientists to figure out which microbes are missing from the incomplete challenge card and snatch them up fast!
Find the answer using this key: the superbug must always be a different shape and color than the other three microbes in your dish. Be the fastest scientist in the lab to impress Dr. Microbe and win! Recommended for ages 8+.
Astronomy Board Games
Qurious Space
There has never been a more fun way to learn about our Solar System, Milky Way galaxy, and beyond.
In this unique card game, players of all ages develop their memory skills to find matching symbols, learn trivia and facts about 72 different aspects of our universe and try to keep their laughter in check while playing space-oriented challenges of speed and creativity. You can play with up to 18 players. Reading not required for all games and some can be played as young as age 3!
Xtronaut
Xtornaut is a Good Housekeeping Award Winning game that captures the real-world science, technology, and challenges of planetary exploration. It is a board game that is easy to learn, and gives 2 – 4 players ages 7 and up the chance to develop space missions, build authentic rocket systems, and explore the solar system.
Designed by Professor leading major NASA OSIRIS-REx space mission, the game is fun and engaging, but also exposes players to space science concepts related to planning and undertaking a real space mission — complete with full-color education workbook that explains game scientific concepts.
Constellations: An Xtronaut Game
Constellations: The Game of Stargazing and the Night Sky is a card-based game that gives 2-4 players the chance to explore our amazing night sky, the science and mythology behind stars and constellations, and have fun competing as they piece together the constellations in the night sky as they collect the correct star cards.
Based on real science and constellations you can recognize in your own sky. Turn off the lights, and the stars in the constellations glow-in-the-dark! Recommended for ages 7+.
Geology Games and Nature Games
- Rock on!
- Jax Hit the Nature Trail
- Into the Forest: Nature’s Food Chain Game
- Evolution
- Photosynthesis
- Herd Your Horses
Rock on!
Spark kids interest in rocks, minerals, geology and foster a love of nature that can last a lifetime. ROCK ON! includes nice-size specimens of many different rocks and minerals with at least one rock from each of the 3 classes: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary.
Plus beautiful, polished rock and mineral pieces such as rose quartz, agate, aventurine, jasper and many others.
Identification guides make sorting and identifying engaging and fun. Recommended for ages 5+.
Jax Hit the Nature Trail
Follow the stone trail through the earth’s habitats. Learn about our environment and discover ways to improve it. Answer a knowledge card question correctly and collect one “Habitat Card”.
The player with the most “Habitat Cards” at the end of the trail is the winner. But all the players are winners in this fun, fact learning game.
Custom “knowledge cards” that ask wonderful questions and teach the answers as well as being “understandable” for all ages. Custom wisdom cards that tell about hazards to the environment and solutions to make things better for all of us.
It is recommended for ages 8-adult and can be played with 2-6 players.
Into the Forest: Nature’s Food Chain Game
The Ampersand Press’ Into The Forest, Nature’s Food Chain Game for two to six players or groups provides educational information about the food relationships between plants and animals in the forest to students in grades 3 and up (ages 7 and older).
Students learn about the natural food relationships, and the importance of plants in food energy. Each game card has a detailed, full-color illustration of a plant or animal commonly found in the forest, and lists what it eats and what it is eaten by.
The cards can be used independently to reinforce and review knowledge about the food chain and life cycle in the forest.
Evolution
In Evolution, players create and adapt their own species in a dynamic ecosystem with hungry predators and limited resources. Traits like Hard Shell and Horns will protect you from Carnivores, while a Long Neck will help you get food that others cannot reach.
With over 12000 different species to create, every game becomes a different adventure. So gather your friends around the table and see who will best adapt their species to eat, multiply and thrive! Recommended for ages 12+.
They have a younger version Evolution: The Beginning for kids ages 8+.
Photosynthesis
Welcome to the world of photosynthesis, the green strategy board game! Plant and shape the ever-changing forest as you cultivate your seeds and your strategy.
Take your trees through their life-cycle, from seedling to full bloom to rebirth, and earn points as their leaves collect energy from the revolving sun’s rays. Carefully pick where you sow and when you grow, as trees in the shadows are blocked from light, and from points. This game features realistic gameplay and beautiful graphics. Recommended for ages 8+.
Herd Your Horses
Ever wonder what it would be like to be part of a wild herd of horses’ Or what it’s like to conduct a round-up’ Herd Your Horses allows you to experience life from the horse’s or the rancher’s point of view. Along the way, you’ll learn to appreciate more than just the majestic beauty of these animals.
Meet more than 50 horses, each fully illustrated in color on jumbo playing cards. Each game also includes four horse playing pieces, 42 adventure cards, a game board and game booklet with rules and information about horses.
Join the herd for 3 wild adventures. In each adventure, you will learn all about these beautiful animals while you play. Learn to appreciate more than just the majestic beauty of these animals by meeting more than 50 horses.
Herd Your Horses allows you to experience life from the horse’s or the rancher’s point of view. Herd Your Horses! has a multi-level play to keep the child challenged, but never overwhelmed. Recommended for ages 8+.
I hope you have enjoyed this list of scientific board games! I hope it makes learning science more fun and engaging for yourself and your kids and you have FUN in the process!
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