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Gottwald Games help to unite University of Richmond science students

Posted at 5:00 AM, Jul 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-24 12:32:17-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- Welcome to the Gottwald Games at the University of Richmond. Biology Professors Carrie Wu and Angie Hilliker brought the games here eight years ago.

"The Gottwald games are a collection of field games, the kind you would recognize from your elementary school days," Professor Hilliker said.

More than 100 students are on campus for summer research from the biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, math, and computer science departments. That's why a game of cornhole is played with googles that distort your vision by 30%.

"That is something that a lot of times they use in psychology in order to kind of think about how your brain is working to adjust to these things," chemistry professor Julie Pollock said.

If that sounds hard, you should try the Petri dish relay.

"It's silly, but it kind of breaks up the hard work we do in the lab and I thought it would be great for undergraduates," Professor Hilliker said.

"We're in the lab all day," rising sophomore Elle Jackson said. "You don't really get to interact with people from other labs, so it's a really nice way to get everybody together and build a community because we're all here doing research."

That building community... is Building Better Minds.

Building Better Minds with Rob Cardwell airs Wednesdays on CBS 6.