Student engagement is always a target, regardless of topic area or class format. Students may be accustomed to a passive, consumer-oriented classroom atmosphere of presentations with occasional homework and structured exams. However, not all content-heavy courses can be delivered in this traditional format. Our 300-level plant and seed identification course focuses on developing skills for in-field assessment of species. Students are expected to learn hundreds of physical plant and seed samples, along with botanical features key to describing and spotting subtle differences between similar species. Historically, this course had a reputation of being very difficult. Over the past four years, we have completely restructured this lecture-heavy lab course to include a variety of interactive, competition-base elements to improve student enrollment and retention with active learning. To ensure students had adequate hands-on materials to practice with outside of class, physical and online review materials were developed in conjunction with “lab study hours” to promote review of materials in the classroom space beyond class meeting times. To boost student engagement in-class, we developed and integrated a variety of interactive memory games to involve students more directly in the learning process and help them develop peer relationships to facilitate out-of-class review in group settings. Games developed and modified for plant and seed identification review purposes include “Go Fish”, “Taboo”, “Telestrations”, and “Hedbanz”. Students have overwhelmingly positive feedback on these changes to course materials and structure, with enrollment steadily increasing every year (up 68% from our first semester with implemented changes). Most students are genuinely excited about coming to class and competing with their classmates while learning content with these review activities. We plan to continue improving these teaching tools but have been very impressed by how “fun” can create community and engagement in a relatively difficult lab course.