I think either my parents or a teacher legit once asked me "how come you can remember all the Pokemons but not your homework?" and the answer is simply "one's fun, the other isn't." And this was back in the days of gen 2.

It does sound like a decent idea for an edutainment game, give each monster traits related to the things you want kids to remember about each element and some kind of combat mechanics related to basic chemical reactions and you could have a great teaching tool on your hands.