Simulations
ss
Social Studies
Playing History Aggregates info on history games and simulations in a simple, searchable database making it easy to find, rate, and review historical games. There are currently 126 shared games.
Government
Our Courts.
Planned especially for middle school students, the site engages visitors in online games that teach about legal decision-making, the role of various components of government, and the judicial system. Our Courts is about civics education—nicknamed cyber-civics by some participants. The interactive games and complementary lesson plans are well-scaffolded and segmented to allow teachers and students to proceed at a pace appropriate for the classroom and to allow for both interactivity and classroom discussion and reinforcement.
If You Were President a short activity from Scholastic through which elementary school students can learn about budget balancing basics. In the activity students select a three member cabinet, set a five part budget, and answer questions from the Press. When they've finished answering questions from the Press, a short newspaper article is written about their budget and cabinet decisions.
Game to “Vaccinate” Students Against Disinformation
Researchers have developed an online game to “vaccinate” people against fake news—by showing them how to become a fake news mogul. In the game, called Bad News, players use misleading tactics to build their own fake news empire. The game is free to play in any browser and on any device and takes about 15 minutes to complete. Players start as anonymous Twitter users who go professional by starting their own news site, and gradually become a fake news tycoon. On the way, players learn how the techniques of disinformation can be used to suit a purpose.
The ReDistricting Game
is designed to educate, engage, and empower students around the issue
of political redistricting. The game provides a basic introduction to
the redistricting system, allows players to explore the ways in which
abuses can undermine the system, and provides information about reform
initiatives, including a playable version of the Tanner Reform Bill to
demonstrate the ways in which the system might be made more consistent
with tenets of good governance. In addition, the website for the game
provides a wealth of information about redistricting in every state,
along with hands-on opportunities for civic engagement and political
action.
Win the White House, which is barnstorming
its way through middle schools across the United States. In this online
video game—timed to the 2016 election cycle—students take on the role of
imaginary presidential candidates who must learn how to compete civilly
against opponents with divergent views on issues such as immigration
and gun control. Click Here to Access Free Game
Life Without the Bill of Rights?
Have you ever imagined what life would be like without a Bill of Rights to protect our rights as American citizens? Explore the Life Without the Bill of Rights? Flash Activity to consider how life would change without some of our most cherished freedoms.
Madison's Notes are Missing
Madison's Notes Are Missing gives you a chance to become a reporter and travel back in time to the Constitutional Convention. You will ask questions of the Founders and report your findings in a news story.
Legislative simulations.
iCivics is a site for learning about Civics through Game Based Learning. iCivics has an educational portal that allows educators to create and manage student accounts. Also, teachers can create assignments such as games/webquests and track student performance w/ detailed reports. Finally, a educator can create a forum or message board to engage students in online discussions and send out class announcements.
We The Jury. We The Jury puts students in the role of a juror for two trials.
Branches of Government from icivics site
Executive Command Do your students have what it takes to lead the nation?
Win the White House, which is barnstorming its way through middle schools across the United States. In this online video game—timed to the 2016 election cycle—students take on the role of imaginary presidential candidates who must learn how to compete civilly against opponents with divergent views on issues such as immigration and gun control.
Click Here to Access Free Game
Race To Ratify is a brand-new game from iCivics – they unveiled it today.
Here’s how they describe it:
Race to Ratify drops you into 1787, where the ink is still drying on the new Constitution. Will it become the law of the land or will it fall into the dustbin of history? The fate of the young nation is in your hands! Dive deep into the heated national debate over the future of a radical new plan for American government. Travel across the 13 states to hear from a diverse and opinionated cast of characters and use what you have learned to influence others through the social media of the time… pamphlets.
USA Simulator! Experience yourself as a politician - earn money, evade taxes and exceed authority! Develop your country, extend the sphere of influence and lead the country to the world domination!
Simulations for Negotiating Solutions to Global Challenges
The United States Diplomacy Center’s education programs immerse students in the world of American diplomacy and the critical work of the United States Department of State. At the heart of the center’s education programs is Discover Diplomacy, a free diplomacy simulationsprogram that allows students and teachers to experience what it is like to be a diplomat while grappling with complex foreign affairs topics.
“The Waiting Game” Simulates The Challenges Facing Someone Seeking Asylum In The U.S.
Do I Have a Right? - Explore the Bill of Rights in the context of operating and growing a Constitutional law firm from obscure to distinguished status.
Mock Trials
Juvenile Justice
Perp Walk - A Game of Science and Lies
Copse and Robbers - solve the crime game
Court Quest (gr 6-12)The game is designed to teach students about the federal and state court systems and the appeals process. As students navigate around the country, they will encounter citizens who need assistance getting their cases to the correct court. They will be responsible for reading each case and analyzing the details in order to assign the case to the right court. You can find more details about game play in the Court Quest Game Guide for Teachers
Branches of Power a game that lets you chose your team of politicians, pick your attributes, and gain supporters on your topics. This game is great for future politicians.
The Redistricting Game The game introduces the redistricting system, explores potential abuses, and offers info about reform.
Budget Hero
Spent is an online game designed to teach players about the challenges of living on minimum wage (or slightly higher) employment. Players begin by selecting a job which will provide the wages they have to survive on for a month. Then throughout the game players are confronted with challenges that they have to handle by making an "either or" choice. After each choice the player's account balance is adjusted. In addition to the change in the player's balance sheet, each choice is followed by an explanation of consequence of the choice made.
Game to “Vaccinate” Students Against Disinformation Researchers have developed an online game to “vaccinate” people against fake news—by showing them how to become a fake news mogul. In the game, called Bad News, players use misleading tactics to build their own fake news empire. The game is free to play in any browser and on any device and takes about 15 minutes to complete. Players start as anonymous Twitter users who go professional by starting their own news site, and gradually become a fake news tycoon. On the way, players learn how the techniques of disinformation can be used to suit a purpose.
The Living Wage Calculator The purpose of the Living Wage Calculator is to provide a snapshot of what it actually costs to survive in counties and cities in the United States. The Living Wage Calculator shows the differences between minimum wages and minimum living wages for each county and some cities in the U.S. The calculator accounts for eight different household scenarios from single adult to two adults and three children living in the same household.
Executive Command (gr 6-12) Take on the role of president
Law Craft (gr 6-12) You pick an issue that’s important to you and your constituents and take it all the way through the law-making process.
Branches of Power (6-12) Allows you to do something that no one else can: control all three branches of government at the same time
Argument Wars (gr 6-12) Test out your persuasive abilities by arguing real Supreme Court cases. The other lawyer is your competition, and whoever uses the strongest argument wins.
Civics: Activate (gr 6-12) Campaign for an issue of your choice.
Budget Heros balance the federal budget simulation
Democracy is a government simulation game that was first developed by Positech Games in 2005, with a sequel released in December 2007 and a cracythird game in 2013. The player plays as if they are the president or prime minister of a democratic government. The player must introduce and alter policies in seven areas - tax, economy, welfare, foreign policy, transport, law and order and public services. Each policy has an effect on the happiness of various voter groups, as well as affecting factors such as crime and air quality. The player has to deal with "situations", which are typically problems such as petrol protests or homelessness, and also has to make decisions on dilemmas that arise each turn.
General for Understanding History
archeology, culture, conflict, migration
The Dig 6 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive, promotes an understanding of how humans have evolved by showing how a skeleton reveals secrets from the past.
Playing History
Aggregates info on these resources in a simple, searchable database making it easy to find, rate, and review historical games.
Thinking About Integration and Segregation In this resource, use a computer model to investigate how people tend to cluster into groups of similar people.
Discovery Box Homepage This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the discovery boxes submitted by others.
Jimmy Chin's Adventure in Extreme Photography: Student Interactive 3 - 5
This student interactive, from an Xpeditions lesson, is used to create a chart contrasting how an average tourist and an adventurer would view events.
360 Cities Interactive Panoramas of interesting places
The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.www.newseum.org
Conflict Map
Democracies in the World
Nuclear Weapons
Prisoners of War
Culture Goggles 4 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive demonstrates how culture affects our perceptions. Click the bottom circle in Room II to view this interactive,
Fate of the World: The whole world is in your hands. This award-winning game forces you to deal with crises like natural disasters and a growing global population. By playing through the different scenarios, players get a sense of the real challenges the world could face in the next few generations.
Disaster Detector is an online interactive game from the Smithsonian that looks like it would be an excellent game for students to play who are learning about natural disasters. Players have to plan what they think would be the most effective defenses for a community facing various natural disasters and then see how effective they are when the hurricane, earthquake, etc. hits.
UN – Against All Odds
Darfur is Dying
September 12th – A Toy World
Gumbeat
What Goes Around – Experimental Anti-War Game
The Curfew
Locator Booth 4 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive explores physical and human characteristics of places. Click on the top circle in Room II to view this interactive,
The Advisory Board 6 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive describes forces for cooperation and conflict among civilizations from 1916 to 1991. Click on the top left circle in Room IV ..
3D World Farmer 3rd World Farmer Simulation Game Endure the hardships of a 3rd world farmer
HSI - where History and CSI collide, student solve case studies about historical events.
Museum Box provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.
Migration Station 7 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive promotes understanding of why people migrate, using a virtual train station. Click on the top right circle in Room IV to view...
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask 6 - 8
Students analyze a Jacob Lawrence painting and poems by Helene Johnson and Paul Laurence Dunbar considering how each work represents the life and changing..
Ancient and Modern Migrations 9 - 12
This interactive Venn diagram, from an Xpeditions lesson, guides students through the process of comparing ancient human migration to modern human...
Freeciv Website Freeciv is an empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. The game commences in prehistory and your mission is to lead your tribe from the stone age to the space age.
Walking in Someone Else's Shoes A group of education researchers at Harvard University has developed a virtual simulation for “walking in another person’s shoes” to help students relate to one another better. The simulation is part of a project calledSocial Aspects of Immersive Learning (SAIL). The technical term is “social perspective taking,” and it means understanding another person by taking in their thoughts, feelings and motivations. To create an experience that will help build these types of positive relationships through nuanced social perspective, the research team created a scenario that involves a confrontation between a park ranger and a golf course owner who share land but disagree over how to use it. The simulation allows a participant to play the role of the golf course owner, walking around in his world, talking to his colleagues and getting a sense of his perspective and opinions about the world. The player then has the same experience walking in the shoes of the park ranger. Finally, the player is asked to negotiate from the perspective of the golf course owner with the park ranger over various differences of opinion related to how the land should be treated. Each of the points of negotiation have a money value attached, giving the player a stake in the outcome of the negotiations. The research team would like to hear from educators interested in getting involved in this project.
Click Here for More Information
Click Here to Get Involved in Project
Ancient and Modern Migrations 9 - 12
This interactive Venn diagram, from an Xpeditions lesson, guides students through the process of comparing ancient human migration to modern human...
Tut's Treasures Venn Diagram K - 2
In this student interactive, from Xpeditions, students use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast artifacts from ancient Egypt with modern...
Death in Sakkara: Egyptian Adventure http://deathinsakkara.com/it is 1929 and ‘Egyptomania’ is all the rage. Adventurers,
archaeologists and conmen are swarming to Cairo to feed the public’s
thirst for pharaohs, curses and lost gold. Charles Fox is a journalist
whose recent brush with the modern fad for ancient Egypt has left him
wary of frauds and imposters. But an intriguing invitation has lured
him to a meeting with the curator of Hull Museum in England. This could
be the start of his next big story.
BBC Best Link: History - Death in Rome game
Your chance to be a sleuth in ancient Rome and work out who killed Eutychus. You may even learn some history along the way
BBC Dimensions: Ancient Worlds - Explore the scale of ancient worlds and historic journeys by overlaying them on other locations on a Google Map.
Nova Ancient Worlds Interactives
Create a Roman Aquaduct
Interactive site which integrates science and history
The Emperor of Rome Game
Choose which emperor you want to be, then you'll face real situations where you have to decide what you want to do.
Virtual Field Trip through the Great Pyramids Nova
Viking Quest (BBC History Site)
Step back into 793 AD
Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii in 79 AD This is a scavenger hunt that presents the user with several web sites and asks them to research the answers to various questions.
The Mummy Maker Test your knowledge of history with an interactive challenge. Enter the embalmer's workshop and prepare a body for burial.
Roman Villa This is an interactive reconstruction of a Roman villa viewed in Google Earth.
Discover Babylon This strategy game provides challenges and mysteries that can only be solved through developing an understanding of Mesopotamian society.
Death in Rome This game presents the user with a scene where a Roman dies and the user then has to figure out how the Roman died. The player uses evidence from the scene and information both from witnesses and modern experts.
Pyramid Challenge This game presents the user with a series of challenges related to building a pyramid for the Egyptian Pharaoh. The construction of the pyramid succeeds or fails based on the player's decisions.
Inca Adventure Take on the role of an archeologist
Inca Investigation is from The American Museum of Natural History. Students can play to learn about the…Incas.
Asian Middle Ages Chronology This game prompts the player to reorder several events that took place in Asia during the Middle Ages
Asian Middle Ages People, Places, and Things This game quizzes the user on Asia during the Middle Ages.
Build a Medieval Arch find out how medieval masons built cathedral arches - without the benefits of modern technology.
Arab - Israeli Conflict This is a simulation of the Arab-Israeli conflict that has been going on in the Middle East. Students get to take on the roles of real world leaders and are given a main problem to try and solve in the game. They can then communicate to all of the world leaders and one another individually through messages and press releases. The students can also submit action forms to make things that they want to happen become a part of the game.
World Issues includes Peacemaker, Quandary, Refugees, Child Labor ...,
PeaceMaker is a serious game where you play as either government
officials from Palestine, or Israel. Then, you make the discussions that
decides whether your country fails or prospers.
Darfur is Dying gr 6-8 is a serious game that
shows the situation the people of Darfur are in. You are a family in
Darfur, and you have to attempt to gather water to bring back to the
camp. The only problem is the militia is after you. In Darfur just going
to get water could be life threatening.Darfur is Dying
Inca Investigation Players investigate maps and artifacts to learn what life was once like in Huánuco Pampa.
Orange Revolution Game (Game about Power and Politics in Ukraine) Taking IT Global
Games About Japan (3-8)
3rd World Farmer: This game was originally created by students at the IT-University in Copenhagen in 2005. The player is put in control of an African farm and must struggle to keep family, crops, and livestock alive while conflict and a lack of resources work against them. The designers’ hope is that people will play and realize how precarious survival is for many in Africa, and then do what they can to improve the lives of poor people there.
WeTopia: Such big names as Mattel, Clorox, and DeGeneres have lent their support to this game that’s like Farmville for a cause. Players build communities and accumulate "Joy" as a form of currency, which they can then donate in-game to real-life causes. When those causes reach 100% joy, the game’s developer donates real cash to the organization that was earned through player purchases and advertising revenue.
Sweatshop: Sweatshop takes things one step further by incorporating humor, albeit black, into its message. The game begins by showing you a factory floor filled with crying or injured children who make high-end sneakers. Then it guides you through a series of choices you must make as the factory manager. As you decide whether to give your workers a safe working environment or focus on your bottom line, hopefully you will begin to wonder what kind of conditions the clothes you’re wearing came from.
Fate of the World: The whole world is in your hands. This award-winning game forces you to deal with crises like natural disasters and a growing global population. By playing through the different scenarios, players get a sense of the real challenges the world could face in the next few generations.
The China Game is about…China
General American History
Go Back in Time 4 - 12
Travel back in time to visit five of the families who lived at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts over the past 200 years in this interactive game
HSI - where History and CSI collide, student solve case studies about historical events.
History Buff
A website that teachers of US History should spend some time exploring. One of the best features of History Buff is a set of fifteen narrated panoramic tours of interesting and significant historic sites. Some of the panoramas you will find in the collection include Davy Crockett's childhood home, Appomattox Courthouse, Thomas Edison's birthplace, and Valley Forge.
ImagineNation Matters “virtual tour” modules
are like storybooks come to life, in which upper elementary students
can experience, for example, the human drama of the Underground Railroad
or life as a modern Arab American. Each of the modules is in the form
of a story that involves protagonists of the approximate age of student
participants. As they turn the pages of their virtual storybook,
students are prompted with questions to consider. Students’ comments are
responded to by University of Michigan student
mentors, who speak in the voices of the characters in the stories. These
mentored conversations continue throughout the tour, offering students a
chance to develop writing and research skills while they experience
important moments in history.
Museum Box provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view and comment on the museum boxes submitted by others.
American Dynasties - This immersive digital video game enables players to live the lives of Americans from eras past.
Tenement Museum is a resource for US History teachers that can best be described as an interactive virtual museum. Students select a male or female character for their passport from Europe to Ellis Island. Once at Ellis Island students learn about the process of legal immigration. Eventually students make it to the Orchard Street tenement where they have to choose an occupation as well as make choices regarding living conditions. At the very end of the exhibit, students can write a post card to their friends and family back in Europe. Throughout the journey, students see short video clips featuring "Victoria Confino" who explains to students what they are seeing and reading.
Timeline of American History K - 12
Take a journey through time and discover fascinating stories from America's past as you explore this interactive timeline.
The Price of Freedom: Learning Resources 4 - 12
Included in this collection of learning resources connected with the online exhibition entitled "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War" It features a timeline of America's wars, from the Revolution to Iraq. Watch an interactive presentation on each war -- slide shows and movies, text and photos, and dozens of artifacts...
Experiencing War (Voices of War): Stories from the Veterans History Project is the companion website for a book from the Veterans History Project. Video interviews, photos, and letters relate war through the eyes of 60 veterans and civilians.
Early America
Our Story: American History Stories and Activities You Can Do Together K - 12
Experience history first-hand through activities and books! "Make Your Own Fish Kite", "Build a Sod House Online", "Buffalo Hide...
Freecol - This is a strategy game based on the game Colonization where the objective is to create an independent nation. The game is a free download and is played offline.
The Flames of the Rebellion - This downloaded feature is a strategy game that allows two players to play either as the British or the Colonials and play out the Revolutionary War for control of the thirteen colonies.
Jamestown Simulation students try to do better than the original colonists
On the Trail of Captain John Smith: A Jamestown Adventure
Follow in the footsteps of Captain John Smith to discover what life was like in the New World 400 years ago.
More Jamestown Games For example, "Would you have survrived?"
PBS - American Colonial History Interactive
What Can You Make From a Buffalo? K - 12
Building a Sod House K - 12
Building a sod house? It's not as easy as it seems! In this interactive activity, taken from the "OurStory" series produced by the Smithsonian's..
Revolution is the Education Arcade's multi-player, American Revolution-themed role-playing game based on historical events in the town of colonial Williamsburg. Set in 1775, the game gives students an opportunity to experience the daily social, economic, and political lives of the town's inhabitants. By allowing role-play from one of seven social perspectives -- from an upper class lawyer, to a patriotic blacksmith, to an African American house slave
Jamestown Online Adventure
Mission US Grade 5 - Year 9
Mission US is an interactive adventure game designed to improve the understanding of American history. The first game in a planned series, Mission 1: “For Crown or Colony?” explores the reasons for Revolution through the eyes of both Loyalists and Patriots in 1770 Boston. This website provides information and materials to support the use of Mission 1 in your classroom.
Resources: Mission US Classroom Guide - http://www.mission-us.org/pages/classroom-guide
Mission 2 Flight for Freedom players take on the role of Lucy, a 14-year-old slave in Kentucky. As they navigate her escape and journey to Ohio, they discover that life in the “free” North is dangerous and difficult. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act brings disaster. Will Lucy ever truly be free?
Mission 3 Cheyenne Odyssey, the third interactive game in the Mission US series of digital role-playing games created to engage middle school students in the exploration of United States history. The game engages students as they take on the role of a 12-year-old Northern Cheyenne boy in the 1860s. As they play A Cheyenne Odyssey, students gain insight and understanding of westward expansion and its impact on America’s native peoples, the economy, the landscape and the environment.
Mission 4 City of Immigrants
players navigate New York’s Lower East Side as Lena, a young Jewish
immigrant from Russia. Trying to save money to bring her parents to
America, she works long hours in a factory for little money. Should she
go on strike to protest conditions, and risk losing her job?
Mission 5 Up From the Dust The mission provides young people with an experiential
understanding of the enormous hardships facing Americans during the late
1920s and early 1930s, as they struggled against the joint catastrophes
of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
Civil War
Who Am I? A History Mystery 5 - 8
Students select a mystery character from the Civil War and examine objects that hold the key to their identity, video footage, first person reenactments,...
MISSION US: "Flight to Freedom," gr. 6-8 Takes students through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old girl enslaved on a Kentucky plantation in 1848. With its accompanying educator materials on the MISSION US website, "Flight to Freedom" demonstrates the historical concept of cause and effect, and enables students to build upon their understanding of historical context by reading primary sources and examining a collection of multimedia resources.
The Underground Railroad Escape from Slavery takes students on a virtual trip from a southern plantation to freedom in Ohio.
Following The Footsteps, you are simulating an escaped slave on the Underground Railroad.
Underground Railroad - National Geographic
Valley of the Shadows 9-12 The archives tell the story of major national political events that occurred between 1859 and April 1870.
Abraham Lincoln’s Crossroads – National Constitution Center
Who Am I? A History Mystery 5 - 8
Students select a mystery character from the Civil War and examine objects that hold the key to their identity, video footage, first person reenactments,...
Geography
Globe Projector 3 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive uses maps and other geographic tools to explore information from a spatial point of view. Click on the left circle in Room I
Continent Assembler K - 2
In this student interactive, from an Xpeditions lesson, students reassemble maps of the seven continents
Geo-friendly Travel in the United States 3 - 5
This student interactive, from an Xpeditions lesson, guides students in creating a brochure encouraging geotourism in a state or region of the United...
Geonet (gr. 5-8) A challenging online game based on the six essential elements from the National Geography Standards.
Adventure Tour Brochure 3 - 5
This student interactive, from an Xpeditions lesson, allows students to create an adventure tour brochure ...
Looking at Landmarks 3 - 5
In this student interactive, from a ReadWriteThink lesson, students look at and take notes on the famous landmarks featured in "Ben's Dream,"
1920's
The Harlem Renaissance 9 - 12
In this student interactive, from a ReadWriteThink lesson, students identify concepts related to art, music and poetry from the Harlem Renaissance and arrange..
Jazz for Kids
The Dust Bowl interactive, which complements The Dust Bowl, the PBS series produced by Ken Burns, students are about to embark on an experience that will show them what life was like on the southern Great Plains during the Dust Bowl. On their journey, they will learn about the changing market and weather conditions and be asked to make decisions about whether to play it safe and keep their farm the same size or expand it for greater profit. They will also meet several of their “neighbors,” who are doing their best to make it. Some will stay on the land, trying to scrape out a living. Others will say “enough” and head west. What choices will your students make? Click Here to Access Free Interactive
To March or Not to March 3 - 5
In this activity, children pretend to be an American during 1963 and decide whether or not to join the March on Washington. Children base their choice on...
Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Educartion
Education Homepage 4 - 12
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954,...
Join the Student Sit-Ins Classroom Videos 5 - 12
In this series of five short videos, students can watch a museum theater presentation from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
More
Japanese Americans Internment WWII
Migrant Trail. from PBS. a video game that introduces players to the hardships and perils of crossing the Sonora Desert. Players have the chance to play as both migrants crossing the desert from Mexico to the United States and as U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the desert. As migrants, players are introduced to the stories of the people willing to risk their lives crossing the unforgiving Sonoran desert to reach America. By playing as Border Patrol agents, players see that the job goes beyond simply capturing migrants to helping save lives and providing closure for families who lost loved ones in the desert.
Westward Trail is very similar to the famous Oregon Trail game. Its major advantage is that it’s actually online and can be easily played.
Making History (gr. 10-12) Try to prevent World War II, in a complex geopolitical simulation.
Past/Present takes place in a New England mill town in 1906. Students take on the role of either an immigrant female worker or a native-born male manager. Both characters must deal with labor strife as well as earn money to support their families. Covering industrialization, immigration, the Progressive era and organized labor, the game promotes historical reasoning, fosters cooperative learning and intellectual teamwork, and teaches the use and interpretation of primary sources, all while being fun to play.
The refugee challenge: can you break into Fortress Europe? – interactive is from The Guardian. It’s done in the mode of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game.
Picturing the 1930's is a Smithsonian exhibit about 1930's cinema. In Picturing the 1930's students can walk through a virtual museum exploring paintings, documents, music, and film. While walking through the virtual museum students will be greeted by "tour guides" who will explain various aspects of the exhibit. After exploring the art work in the virtual museum, students can create their own documentary-style film using images, text, and narration using the Picturing the 1930's film editor.
Past/Present game thrusts students aged 10–15 into the everyday hustle and bustle of life in a fictional mill town in 1906. While studying American history, students become fictional characters in this free immersive online game designed to impart decision making and critical thinking skills.
Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage is a virtual tour of Charles Darwin's nearly five year journey on the Beagle. Throughout the tour viewers will see sketches from the journey, hear readings from Darwin's journals, and learn about the journey as a whole. The virtual tour is not limited to just Darwin's work as a naturalist. Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage explores social issues of the time such as slavery.
Darfur is Dying is a “game” focusing on the genocide in Darfur
Spent is a “choose your own adventure” type game where you play the role of a very low-income person.
Arab-Israeli Conflict Simulation run by Dr. Jeff Stanzler students at the University of Michigan.
The Dust Bowl is a PBS interactive using a “Choose Your Own Adventure” form
3rd World Farmer: This game was originally created by students at the IT-University in Copenhagen in 2005. The player is put in control of an African farm and must struggle to keep family, crops, and livestock alive while conflict and a lack of resources work against them. The designers’ hope is that people will play and realize how precarious survival is for many in Africa, and then do what they can to improve the lives of poor people there.
Fate of the World: The whole world is in your hands. This award-winning game forces you to deal with crises like natural disasters and a growing global population. By playing through the different scenarios, players get a sense of the real challenges the world could face in the next few generations.
Go West across America with Lewis and Clark
Science
Portal of Multiple Areas of Science Simulations
Science Simulation games for middle and High schoolers
Game for Science
Virtual world for students can learn about health, aeronautics, environment and more. Can play as a tourist without registering
Prepmagic Customize science simulations to highlight phenomena by adding pause points, notes, and quizzes to simulations, teachers can help build and assess student understanding. Not all simulations are customizable yet, but there are plans to add more in the future.
The Wild Classroom is a website that features a collection of podcasts and videos for science classrooms. One aspect of The Wild Classroom that impressed me was the Biomes of the World Map. The Biomes of the World map allows students to explore the map and watch an informational video about each biome.
The Why Files
the Science behind the news. videos and animations
Game for Science
A virtual world for kids dedicated to getting them excited about science and technology. Students can explore various virtual islands where they will learn about health, aeronautics, genomics, environment, engineering, and more.
Play games, learn interesting facts, and explore science photos and videos.
Virtual Experiments is a very useful website from Reading University that provides simulations of many standard school science experiments which can be carried out on your interactive whiteboard.
Some of the experiments available include: Photosynthesis with Elodea, Transpiration, Reflection and Refraction, Chemical Clocks and looking at the Viscosity of Glycerol
Interactive Science Animations for Children animated lessons covering seven science subjects for students of early elementary/ primary school age. The lessons cover The Body and Medicine, Energy and Environment, Earth and Beyond, Teeth and Eating, Micro-organisms, The Brain, and Exercise.For each science subject covered there is an introduction followed by seven to ten interactive animations. For example, in The Earth and Beyond students can see how the position of the sun affects the length of shadows. Students can advance the sun through the sky. As they advance the sun they can use a ruler to measure the lengths of the shadows that they create.
NSF Multimedia Gallery
Provides nearly 100 videos and webcasts on a range of science topics: a fossil that may represent the first vertebrate to emerge from the sea, turning forest-industry waste into fuel...
Slow motion video of just about anything you can think of
Sumanas
Science and statistics animations. Especially plentiful for biology.
Jason Science Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
JASON games and digital labs are designed with the practical realties of the classroom in mind. Teachers can search for games and labs by state standards in the JASON Mission Center Web site, where you will also find worksheets and handouts. Games include Operation: Resilient Planet, Coaster Creator, StormTracker and a host of other mini labs.
Gooru is a service that aims to provide teachers and students with an extensive collection of videos, interactive displays, documents, diagrams, and quizzes for learning about topics in math and science. Access to hundreds of resources according to subject areas such as chemistry, biology, ecology, algebra, calculus, and more. Within each subject area you can look for resources according to media type such as video, interactive display, slides, text, and lesson plans.
Ecosystems, Energy and Environment
Energyville - http://ecogamer.org/environmental-games/energyville-energy-game/. Energyville is a game that allows users to choose future energy options while building a virtual city. Students who are enrolled in Environmental Science class must develop a plan for new and renewable energy sources while building their new city. The game displays the many challenges faced when making decisions that could potentially have global impacts.
Energy and Climate Change Games a variety of grade level games with direction for teachers.
ElectroCity is an online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand.
Environment Games at various levels and includes activities to compliment the games
Invasive Species Start as an Asian carp, and then drive a simulation to prevent this invasive species from entering Lake Michigan.
Feed the Dingo is a fun game that teaches students about the importance of maintaining balanced ecosystems. In the game students have to build and maintain a desert ecosystem. The game begins with a blank slate to which students have to add plants and animals. The game plays out over twelve virtual days. Each day students have to add more elements in order to maintain balance in the ecosystem. At the end of each day students are given feedback as to which plants and animals are healthy, which are in danger, and which have died.
Aquation is a free game offered by the the Smithsonian Science Education Center.
The game, designed for students in upper elementary school or middle
school, teaches students about the distribution of clean water and what
can be done to balance global water resources.
Energy City (National Geographic: Jason Project)
Collapsus terrific graphics for this energy crisis game
Climate Challenge
Oiligarchy
National Geographic Eco Games – Need to Register for Free Download
Precipice – Beyond a certain point there is no return
Starbuck’s Planet Green Game
Harpooned – Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator (must download)
Windfall – Windfarming
SEREF, the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation, has built a couple of tools that could be of interest to science teachers. SEREF has an energy estimation tool that allows you to estimate the potential solar and wind energy of any location. To use the estimation tool you have to enter your location using a Google Map and input the size of the solar panels or wind turbine structure. The potential energy is then calculated based on climate, latitude, and typical weather patterns.
Interactive Science Animations for Children Energy Environment, animated interactive lesson early elementary/ primary school age. Energy Environment,
NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab
Provides dozens of animations and images about topics such as coral reefs, ocean acidification, humans' impact on the ocean, the dead zone, hurricanes, African droughts, and more.
Your Carbon Diet This interactive allows you to learn about how we use different energy sources and how it affects not only our environment but also our budget. You will look around a typical New England house and click on the various items. You'll see what is draining energy and learn how to make your home more energy efficient..
Global Carbon Footprints map provides four ways of looking at carbon footprints created by the largest economies in the world. You can roll over the map to view carbon footprints on a per capita basis, cumulative basis, intensity, and current totals.
Ozone is a lower elementary science game to show how pollution can affect the Earth's population.
Jean-Michael Cousteau Ocean Adventures: Predator Protector players to guide three different threatened shark species to food and away from danger. At the same time, players can learn about the behaviors and habitats of these three species.
Personal Energy Meter is a tool for evaluating your personal carbon footprint. The meter asks for your location then asks a series of questions about your energy consumption. The result compares you to the average person in your region. I was below average in my footprint until I entered the number of flights I take every year. Wow! Flying leaves a huge carbon footprint.
The Great Energy Challenge is a National Geographic feature that offers some nice interactive posters for evaluating personal and global energy consumption.
Plan It Green Live is a game from National Geographic that challenges you to build an environmentally-friendly city.
Global Electricity Outlook is an interactive display of electricity consumption across the globe. You can view the global picture or click on the map to view regional consumption. The display shows the means of electricity production globally and regionally. To see how shifting production sources would impact the world or a region use the sliders below the map.
Electrocity play to learn about electricity production and consumption. In the game students take on the role of mayor of a fictitious town. As the mayor the student has to manage the consumption and production of electricity for the town.
Electric Circuits
from Hyperstaffs. On the Electric Circuits site your students can learn
about the power sources used by common household products and then
safely experiment with the creation of electric circuits. Electric
Circuits presents students with a circuit to construct by using virtual
power sources and switches.
Close Knit Neighbors Help organize a jar of mud and its plant and organisms
The Personal Energy Meter is a tool for evaluating your personal carbon footprint. The meter asks for your location then asks a series of questions about your energy consumption. The result compares you to the average person in your region. I was below average in my footprint until I entered the number of flights I take every year. Wow! Flying leaves a huge carbon footprint.
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Ecology Lab (Grades 9-12)
In this lab you will get a chance to build your own ecosystem, and explore the effects of these interrelationships.
The Wild Classroom is a website that features a collection of podcasts and videos for science classrooms. One aspect of The Wild Classroom that impressed me was the Biomes of the World Map. The Biomes of the World map allows students to explore the map and watch an informational video about each biome.
Build a Prairie
The prairie is one of North America's great ecosystems and a vital habitat for many plants and animals. Over 98% of the prairie has been lost in the past 150 years—but some people are trying to bring it back, hectare by hectare. Restoring a prairie is a great challenge, requiring knowlege of biology, ecology, climatology, and even economics.
Build a Fish (gr 3-8) In this interactive activity, you must build a fish whose adaptations make it suited to its ocean environment.
Over Fishing
A player goes fishing over ten virtual days, using a simple graphic to point and click fish into his or her boat. The money earned from selling those fish supports the player's fictional family. But there are two other people fishing, and they always catch the same number of fish as the player. What unfolds is a vivid lesson in overfishing.
Enviromysteries
Asthma. Rising cancer rates. Viruses we have never heard of before. Just a few of the incredibly complex health problems that confront society today. What part does our environment play? That's the Question EnviroMysteries sets out to answer.
Plan It Green ( gr. 5-8) Turn Greenville into an eco-friendly town.
WolfQuest An immersive, 3D wildlife simulation game, WolfQuest challenges players to learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
Planet Arcade This arcade is a portal to games and interactive activities focused on ocean and air themes. It highlights the science and the activities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies and organizations promoting environmental stewardship.
Electrical Construction Kit
This is an online simulation that will allow you to construct various types of circuits to test what you have learned in your research.
Alternative Energy Systems What could we use to generate electricity? Explore the possibilities in this 3-level platforming game.
Physics
Simple Machines, Forces, Space
Logger Lite.
An online program used in conjunction with weights, sleds, friction boards, and force sensors to teach students how to measure the force of friction when dragging various masses over various surfaces. When teaching Newton's Laws, this program is used to help students investigate and understand scientific principles and technological applications of work, force, and motion through hands-on experimentation. Students work in small groups to conduct the experiment using friction boards with three different surfaces (smooth, coarse, sandpaper), three different weights (aluminum, lead, brass) and a sled attached to a sensor connected to the logger lite program. It is recommended that the same student pull the sled, at the same speed, for each trial. The sensor records the force for each trial. Students manually record their observations on a lab sheet. Students are also asked to compare the differences in accuracy of measurement using the computer sensor and the spring scale for measuring forces.
Crayon Physics a puzzle-solving game. The full version costs $20.00, but they have a demo which you can download for free.
Electric Circuits
from Hyperstaffs. On the Electric Circuits site your students can learn
about the power sources used by common household products and then
safely experiment with the creation of electric circuits. Electric
Circuits presents students with a circuit to construct by using virtual
power sources and switches.
Edheads is an interactive site about simple and compound machines. Edheads provides a glossary of simple machines and then challenges you to identify simple machines in everyday objects. There are two activities you can choose when you go to the site: House and Tool Shed. In the House you can identify simple machines and in the Tool Shed you can identify the simple machines that make up compound machines.
Roller Coaster.
Try your hand at designing your own roller coaster. You will be building a
conceptual coaster using the physics concepts that are used to design real coasters. You won't need to compute any formulas. You will decide the following - the height of the first hill, the shape of the first hill, the exit path, the height of the second hill, and the loop. When you're done, your coaster will need to pass an inspection for both safety and fun.
Amusement Park Physics (Grades 9-12)
How do physics laws affect amusement park ride design? You'll have a chance to find out by designing your own roller coaster.
Roller Coaster Simulator Activity is to get the coaster through the track without any roll-backs. To that end the Roller Coaster Simulator allows users to design the height and spacing of the rise and fall of a roller coaster track. Users can also adjust the speed of coaster, the mass of the coaster, the friction of the coaster on the track, and the strength of the gravitational pull on the coaster.
Autodesk Digital STEAM Applied Mechanicsis a free iPad app that contains five simple games. The games are designed to let students experiment with five connected physics concepts. The concepts in the games are energy and work, force, power, loading, and mechanisms. In each game students control one variable to see how changing that variable affects other aspects of the equation.
Roller Coaster Building at the Jason Project.
This project allows students to learn about potential and kinetic energy while building on-line roller coasters. The roller coaster is either a success or crashes into the end barrier. The roller coaster is also rated for difficulty. Great fun. Students work together together and also compete to build successful roller coasters.
Rollercoaster.
See http://www.funderstanding.com/k12/coaster/. Quoting from
the Website:This simulator is designed for people who want to design their own thrilling coaster and educators who want to use a cool activity to simulate the application of physics by using an exciting interactive tool and access to a wonderful reference source.It is your mission to design the coaster so that you can achieve maximum thrills and chills without crashing or flying off the track (unless that’s how you like your coaster to work!).
phet
A website that hosts a wide variety of science and math simulations. The simulations permit scientific experimentation and discovery in a fun, engaging environment. Students enjoy playing with them while they are learning!
My Physics Lab
This site, created Eric Neumann, contains a number of interactive physics simulations. Also included are the math components of the simulations.
Physics Simulations - Simulations for all types of physics topics.
Online Labs for Physics
Nobelprize.org's educational section consists of productions. Of these, some are interactive learning games of various sorts and degrees of difficulties. Most of them also includes a "Read more" about the subject.
Accelerators | Energy from Matter | Imaging Life | Integrated Circuit | Invar & Steel Alloys | Laser Challenge | Liquid Crystals | Microscopes | Observing the World of Particles | Relativity | Semiconductors | Star Stories | Structure of Matter | The Quantised World | Transistors | Vacuum Tubes | X-rays
Java Physics Simulations serious physics applets
Assess Physics Learning Through Gameplay Physics Playground
teaches and assess two-dimensional physics simulations dealing with
Newton’s Laws of Motion—concepts such as gravity, mass, momentum and
energy. Embedded in the game are assessments for creativity, conscientiousness and physics understanding.
The game has a simple objective: get the green ball to hit the red
balloon. The ball and balloon are placed in various locations on the
screen, sometimes with obstacles in between, and students have to draw
“agents of motion,” such as levers, springboards, pendulums or ramps, to
get the ball to hit the red balloon. To increase the level of
difficulty and receive more points, students can solve the problems
using fewer agents to accomplish a task. Other times, difficulty is
added if a level looks completely different from the previous levels.
The problems have no one “right” answer.
NASA HIAD game gr. 6 - 8 (available online and as mobile apps) see how velocity, trajectory, and friction affect spacecraft upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. students learn to control HIADs to land them safely back on Earth. In the game students have to navigate the HIAD while accounting for velocity of the HIAD, wind speeds, timing of inflation, and shape of the HIAD. Make a mistake and the HIAD could burn up on re-entry or crash when it misses the landing zone. The game has four progressively more difficult levels. The first level teaches students the basics concepts and skills needed to complete the game.
Kerbal Space Program ( gr. 9 - 12) is somewhat like a NASA simulator except it's set in a fictional star system on the planet Kerbin. Players use various rocket parts, put them together, and then see if they can get their ship into orbit, to one of Kerbin’s two moons, or even to another planet. The star system closely resembles our own, The demo version is adequate for classroom use.
Power Play (gr 6-8)This interactive game helps students learn about harnessing energy from different power sources.
123D Circuits collaboratively designi electronic circuits online. On 123D Circuits you can design your circuits and test them on the simulator in your browser. You can create circuits from scratch or use and modify templates and other publicly shared projects. All projects are public unless you pay a subscription fee to make your projects private. Watch the video
Engineering Interact (gr. 4-6) offers five games designed to teach students physics concepts. The games address concepts related to light, sound, motion, electricity, and space travel. Each of the five games presents students with a scenario in which they have to "help" someone solve a problem. The games require students to learn and analyze the information presented to them.
A Slower Speed of Light demonstrate the visual effects of special relativity. A Slower Speed of Light seems simple enough on the surface, you walk through virtual worlds picking up orbs, but the game gets quite difficult because of the visual effects. The game attempts to mirror the speed of light to the player's actual walking pace which is what changes the visual complexity displayed in each level of the game. video
Parachute Drag
Explore the effects of mass, displacement, and drag on the low functioning of a parachute in this simulation.
Bridgebuilder.
A simple bridge simulation that allows students to design their own bridges that must hold a weight. I used this as a way to give my students a common experience that was also flexible enough to give them a comfortable start.
FWG Bridge create and test bridges
NASA Mission Control
Can you dock a Gemini capsule in space? How about flying a lunar module and bringing it down safely on the moon? Test your astronaut skills.
Planet Makeover Create your own planet and see it evolve
PBS Nova Space and Flight Interactives
NASA's Lunar Electric Rover Simulator is a free iOS app that lets you explore the moon. The app is really a game in which players perform tasks to support the activities of a lunar outpost. Players transport items from place to place and along the way encounter lunar challenges to overcome. You can download the app for free from iTunes.
Station Spacewalk Game is designed for middle school students to learn about the purposes and functions of the International Space Station. In the game students go on Extravehicular Activities modeled after real EVAs performed by astronauts. Station Spacewalk can be played online or downloaded for free as a Windows game or as a Mac game.
NASA Space Place is a sizable collection of fun projects, games, animations, and lessons about Earth, space, and technology. Before playing the games or attempting one of the projects, students should explore the animations and facts sections to gain some background information.
Eyes on the Solar System NASA site where you can see lots and lots of natural and
man-made objects throughout our solar system in real time. Follow and find
information about planets, moons, satellites space probes and more in is
realistic 3D stimulation.
Planetary Photojournal
A photo album of the universe. See images of the planets. Look through the Hubble telescope at nebulae far beyond our galaxy. Watch a video of the Mars rovers or catch up on news...
Seasons This interactive is a simulation of Earth’s seasons.
Trip Around the Earth Explore the curvature of Earth by taking this multimedia trip up through the atmosphere and then around the planet. Starting your trip at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the Space Shuttle is assembled and launched, you can quickly rise though the atmosphere to space
Build a Solar System Players can build their own solar system, trying to find a perfect balance, or creating a system unlike any we’ve ever seen
8 Wonders of the Solar System, Made Interactive: Scientific American Wonders of the Solar System, Made Interactive
What might future explorers of the solar system see? Find out by taking an interactive tour through the eyes of Hugo Award-winning artist Ron Miller.
Celestia:
Explore Universe in 3D Celestia is a free download that works on Mac, PC, and Linux systems. The advantage of Celestia over other satellite imagery programs is that in addition to seeing the Earth's surface, students can zoom in on moons, stars, and planets. The user controls what they see. Operating the program is easy enough to be used by students as young as six or seven.
Can you put the moon in orbit?
MrMont.com, click "games" for physics simulations
Earth and Beyond Interactive animation
Drop the Watts Challenge How much do you know about recycling? Do you lead an eco-friendly lifestyle? Take this challenge to find out!
PowerUp
part of IBM's TryScience initiative, is perhaps the most sophisticated of these new computer games. The game charges players with saving the imaginary planet Helios from ecological destruction by carrying out missions to supply solar, wind, and water power before severe storms wreak havoc. Students learn engineering and science principles by building solar towers or searching junkyards for parts to repair wind turbines. powerupthegame.org free downloadable game where players try to save world from evironmental disassters. by IBM
- For simulations on levers, friction, gears, center of gravity, click on the Adventure tab and then Extreme Challenges
Fantastic Contraption gr. 3-8
An online Physics puzzle game
Invention Playhouse K - 12
Explore the playful side of invention and the inventive side of play in the Invention Playhouse, part of the "Invention at Play" online exhibition.
Gravity Launch Gravity Launch is an interactive activity that allows you to virtually launch a rocket into space to see how the force of gravity can pull an object toward the earth and moon. You also can experiment with different thrust and angle settings to learn how these settings change the motion of the rocket.
Planet Quest Multimedia
Offers 20 animations related to the search for earth-like worlds. Take an interactive tour of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Explore extrasolar planets. Find out how new planets are..
Atom Builder In this activity from A Science Odyssey on the PBS site, you have a chance to build a carbon atom.
Earth Science
Stop Disasters
A game designed for students to learn about natural disasters, disaster prevention, and city design. There are five game scenarios that students can play. Students can plan to prepare for hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, and tsunamis. The scenarios are set in geographically accurate contexts of Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean.
Tsunami Mapper
A visualization creation tool built upon the Google Maps platform. Using Tsunami Mapper you can quickly measure how large an area a tsunami would affect if it hit your community. To use Tsunami Mapper just enter your location then enter a wave height and direction.
PBS Nova Planet Earth Interactives
Natural Disaster Games includes student activities.
Weather (Grades 9-12)
Try your hand at tornado chasing or discover how wind chill works.
The Smithsonian Science Education Center's Weather Lab is one of many online learning activities produced and hosted by the Smithsonian. The Weather Lab is designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about weather patterns. In the Weather Lab students select an ocean current and an air mass then try to predict the weather pattern that will result from their choices.
Climate Change Kids Page Animations shows how global warming happens. Learn about the carbon and water cycles. Take online quizzes to test your knowledge on global warming, carbon cycle, and water cycle.
Explore Climate Change series.
The tours explore the actions of organizations to prevent or adapt to climate change in different parts of the world. These tours include the World Wildlife Foundation's efforts in the peatland swamps of Borneo, Greenpeace's actions to prevent deforestation of the Amazon, and Conservation International's efforts to reduce deforestation in Madagascar. The tours can be viewed three ways, in Google Earth, in the Google Browser plug-in, or through YouTube.
Stop Disasters! ( gr 7 - 12 ) Game Few other browser-based sims better illustrate the potential of gaming for learning about serious issues in our world.
Breathing Earth
An interactive map demonstrating CO2 emissions, birth rates, and death rates globally and by individual countries. From the moment that you first visit Breathing Earthecological footprint calculator. Using this calculator students can calculate their personal footprints, take quizzes, and learn about the ecological footprints of various it starts counting the number of births occurring worldwide. Placing your cursor over any country on the map reveals information about birthrate, death rate, and rate of CO2 emissions. One of the additional resources linked to Breathing Earth is an ecological footprint calculator. Using this calculator students can calculate their personal footprints, take quizzes, and learn about the ecological footprints of various businesses.
Seasons This interactive is a simulation of Earth’s seasons.
Aquation is a free game offered by the the Smithsonian Science Education Center.
The game, designed for students in upper elementary school or middle
school, teaches students about the distribution of clean water and what
can be done to balance global water resources.
Planet Arcade
This arcade is a portal to games and interactive activities focused on ocean and air themes. It highlights the science and the activities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies and organizations promoting environmental stewardship.
Exploring Earth: Visualizations features over 100 animations and images that illuminate key concepts in earth science. Examples are: coal formation, nuclear fission, growth of a continent, tectonic plate movement...
Stromboli: Volcanoes
Virtual tours, videos, interactive explorations and people and cultures of people around volcanoes
Virtual Woodland (gr. 2 - 5)- The program features a simulation of a woodland and shows: how food chains and webs operate; how living things are adapted to specific habitats; how a woodland changes over the seasons; how habitats can be affected by natural change and human activity.
Living Landscapes K - 12 This Xpedition Hall interactive illustrates natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic explosions, mudslides, and forest fires.
Big Island Pool K - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive demonstrates how the forces of water, wind, and geology mold and give shape to the Earth. Click the top circle in Room III
Continent Assembler K - 2In this student interactive, from an Xpeditions lesson, students reassemble maps of the seven continents
Living Landscapes K - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive illustrates natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic explosions, mudslides, and forest fires.
Big Island Pool K - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive demonstrates how the forces of water, wind, and geology mold and give shape to the Earth. Click the top circle in Room III
Life
Cells, Diseases, Forensics, Immunology
Molecular Workbench.
Molecular Workbench is a cross platform (Java) application that allows students to run simulations on all kinds of scientific content. I use the simulations for classroom demonstrations and then have students work with them individually as virtual labs.
Biology in Motion (gr. 5 - 12)
interactive biology learning activities
Online Labs for Biology (gr 8-12)
The Body and Medicine | Teeth and Eating | Micro-organisms | The Brain | Exercise. Interactive Animations
Cellcraft Suitable for: Year 7 - 12
Build a cell, fight off viruses, survive harsh worlds, and save the Platypus species!
This game was made possible by a grant from the Digital Media & Learning Competition. The goal was to make a truly educational game that was also genuinely fun to play. We hope students, teachers, and gamers will all enjoy the game, and encourage you to visit www.cellcraftgame.com, which will soon have an open forum and eventually downloadable teacher materials.
Build-a-Cell gr. 4-12 A drag and drop game to teach students about the organelles and organelle substructures .
Cell Division Simulation (gr 6-12) Students drag chromosomes to demonstrate their understanding of mitosis and meiosis
Control the Cell Cycle Three hundred million cells are replaced in your body every minute. Before you can begin as supervisor, you must review what happens to cells when they die and how they are replaced. Different cells divide at different rates, but the division follows a specific pattern called the Cell Cycle. Once you are sure of how this cycle works, you are ready for your job. When you enter the cell cycle control center, be prepared to make decisions that will let your cells grow, divide, and contain the correct chromosomes.
Solve the Outbreak app Get clues, analyze data, solve the scenario, and save lives! In this fun app, you get to be the Disease Detective.
The Interactive Ear students can learn about how the human ear works. The site has three sections; the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. In each section students can click on little pinmarks on the drawings to learn about the parts of the ear and their functions. Students can also click the "journey" button to see how sound travels through the ear.
Cell Defense: The Plasma Membrane -app The only barrier between the cell and the dangers of the outside world is the plasma membrane. Defend your cell by building a functional plasma membrane and thwart the evil plans of Dr. Vial to destroy all life on earth! Learn how the membrane works and its parts, including phospholipids, cholesterol, proteins, and carbohydrates. Also, learn about cell transport!
Snurfle Meiosis and Genetics Snurfles, app just like any other organism, must reproduce in order to continue as a species! But how does this happen? By the end of this game, you will understand how MEIOSIS and FERTILIZATION work to make offspring! You will also see how GENETIC characteristics are passed on through these processes and the connection between meiosis and genetics!
Snurfle Meiosis and Genetics 2: app Genetic Diversity When Snurfles reproduce, their offspring can have a lot of different traits (lots of diversity). But how? By the end of this game, you will understand how the processes of CROSSING OVER, INDEPENDENT ASSORTMENT, and RANDOM FERTILIZATION result in increased diversity of offspring! Also, you will learn how to perform a DIHYBRID CROSS!
Glycolysis Game Take a trip inside the cytoplasm and control the necessary enzymes to make pyruvate from sugar.
Microbes Challenges players to isolate a single microorganism that is causing a plague while supporting understanding of scientific inquiry and life sciences.
Spore Create creatures and apply thinking skills for survival
Virtual Cell Animations (gr. 5-12) The Molecular & Cell Biology department at North Dakota State University hosts a nice collection of virtual cell animations. The collection of virtual cell animations introduces students to seventeen molecular and cellular processes. For each process there is a series of annotated images, a text explanation, and a video explaining the process.
Incredible MegaCell Learn about ultracentrifuges and orgnelles.
Virtual Cell Animations
Includes 17 cellular and molecular processes. Includes annotated and video explanations.
You Make Me Sick gr 5 - 9 Explain some of the ways that people can avoid bacterial and viral infection.Describe the anatomy and functions of bacteria and viruses.
Describe how bacteria and viruses reproduce and carry out life functions.
Evaluate how lifestyle choices and environments (e.g., tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, amount of exercise, quality of air, and kinds of food) affect the immune system in the human body. Collaborate with other students to generate creative solutions to a problem, and apply methods for making trade-offs to choose the best solution.
Molecular Stepping Stones
Features online activities, including simulations, to help students understand 10 key concepts underlying many biological processes. Topics include atomic structure, random motion... (The Concord Consortium, supported by National Science Foundation)
Interactive Cell Tutorials, Games and Quizzes (elem)
A nice interactive site that steps you through the different parts of the Animal, Plant and Bacterial cells. After learning about the cells, students can play a game or take a quiz on what they've learned.
Medmotion
(Middle & High School)learning cellular and body systems interactive
Secrets of Plant Genomes Revealed!
A lively, upbeat video exploration of how plants got to be the way they are and how we can make better use of them in the future. Learn how plant genome research is revolutionizing...
Virtual Cell Animations
Includes 17 cellular and molecular processes. Includes annotated and video explanations.
Molecular Stepping Stones
Features online activities, including simulations, to help students understand 10 key concepts underlying many biological processes. Topics include atomic structure, random motion... (The Concord Consortium, supported by National Science Foundation)
Interactive Cell Tutorials, Games and Quizzes (elem)
A nice interactive site that steps you through the different parts of the Animal, Plant and Bacterial cells. After learning about the cells, students can play a game or take a quiz on what they've learned.
Medmotion
(Middle & High School)learning cellular and body systems interactive
Inside Cancer
Uses animations and video clips of experts to reveal what is known about cancer. Learn about kinds of cancer, how they start (cell mutations), and their distribution worldwide. Explore... (National Center for Research Resources, supported by National Institutes of Health)
SCI: Skin Cancer Investigation gives you the opportunity to learn about skin cancer diagnosis and prevention. It is divided into two sections. An introductory section walks you through the basic biology of healthy skin and then goes on to further explore the types of skin cancer, the causes of skin cancer, and the means of lowering skin cancer risk. The second section provides two practical and engaging applications of the information covered in the tutorial section. In this section, assume the role of an employee in a fictional skin cancer lab called Glowell Labs. In the Lab, you can screen skin samples, identify symptoms, and determine whether samples are cancerous. Or field phone calls from patients concerned about skin cancer risks in the Helpdesk.
You and Your Skin (3-8) This interactive provides an introduction to the basic structure of the skin, information about how it protects us, and how to care for the skin.
Genetic Science Learning Center
Features animations and activities for learning about DNA, cells, and other topics in genetics and bioscience. Build a DNA molecule. Transcribe and translate a gene. See why a... (University of Utah, supported by National Institutes of Health)
Genomics Primer
An overview of the science of genetics and the Human Genome Project. Learn about genomes, DNA, genes, chromosomes, and more. Find audio and video files about genetics and the...
Genetic Science Learning Center
Features animations and activities for learning about DNA, cells, and other topics in genetics and bioscience. Build a DNA molecule. Transcribe and translate a gene.
From Cell to DNA 9 - 12
This tool, created by Science NetLinks, features an animation that takes students through a tour of a typical human cell, moving from larger to smaller cell..
Genetics: Tour the Basics
Uses animations to answer six questions: What is DNA? What are genes? What are chromosomes? What is a protein? What is heredity? What is a trait...
DNA Microarray is a "virtual lab" of a DNA microarray experiment. Compare samples of healthy tissue and cancerous tissue as a scientist would. Learn the basics about DNA and gene expression...
EpiSims Simulate the spread of epidemics at the level of individuals in a large urban region.
Protein Synthesis: At the Ribosome 9 - 12
This tool, created by Science NetLinks, presents a brief animation that demonstrates the process by which messenger RNA (mRNA) is translated into protein.
NanoQuest Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 10
Discover that size really matters in NanoQuest, an epic 3D adventure through the tiny world of nanotechnology. The new version includes the Virus Attack Bonus Game which takes Jack and Orla on an adventure inside an animal cell.
Great Sperm Race Learn about the journey of a sperm cell to the egg.
Gut Instinct Battle intruders in the digestive tract.
Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage is a virtual tour of Charles Darwin's nearly five year journey on the Beagle. Throughout the tour viewers will see sketches from the journey, hear readings from Darwin's journals, and learn about the journey as a whole. The virtual tour is not limited to just Darwin's work as a naturalist. Darwin, A Naturalist's Voyage explores social issues of the time such as slavery.
CSI: The Experience Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
The CSI Web Adventure will put you in the shoes of a rookie crime scene invesitgator. You will need the help of fellow CSI agents.
Forensic Science Resource - CSI: The Experience Web Adventures - forensics is a great way to get kids interested in science and this site has virtual cases for students to solve.
Forensic Firsts (gr. 9-12) is a Smithsonian Channel television show. The show examines (in sometimes gruesome detail) how science can be used to solve crime mysteries. The Forensic Firsts game asks players to try to catch a serial murderer on the loose. The murderer can be caught by generating leads, correctly following up on leads, and correctly analyzing evidence.
Rice University’s CSI Web Adventures is a series of six online interactives, including the CSI web experience.
Each of the Web Adventures is appropriate for middle school or high
school use. In each adventure, students take on the role of a scientist
to solve a crime, conduct experiments and learn about scientific methods
and processes. In Cool Science Careers,
students explore five STEM-based career areas. In
MedMyst, students learn about microbiology
through a series of interactive lessons and games that focus on
infectious diseases and ways to prevent the spread of those diseases. Reconstructors includes three games in which students need to gather evidence and data
to solve drug-related cases. Virtual Clinical Trials puts
students into the role of research scientists who are working toward
developing treatments for spinal cord injuries, depression and brain
injuries. In N-Squad, students investigate the
effects of alcohol on the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems.
The CSI Web Adventures are designed to teach students the process of forensic investigation and problem solving.
Foldit is an experimental video game about protein folding, developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington's departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry . This game provides a chance for students to contribute to real scientific research.
Resources: The Science Behind Foldit - http://fold.it/portal/info/science
Glycolysis Game Take a trip inside the cytoplasm and control the necessary enzymes to make pyruvate from sugar.
DNA - The Double Helix Make copies of DNA by matching base pairs and identify the source.
Genetic Code Crack and learn the genetic code.
Nobelprize.org: The Immune System
The official site of the Nobel Prize brings us an online game (yea!) based on the 1908 award-winning immunity work of Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov and Paul Ehrlich. The Immune System Defender Game lets you explore what happens when you are wounded, what kind of cells are involved with the immune system, and how immune cells remove bacteria. "In this game, you are a trainee soldier of the Immune System Defense Forces, defending a human against bacterial infection."
More from Nobelprize.org Blood Typing | Control of the Cell Cycle | Diabetes and Insulin
DNA - RNA - Protein | DNA - the Double Helix | Ear Pages | ECG/Electrocardiogram
Immune Responses | Immune System | Malaria | MRI | Nerve Signaling | Pavlov's Dog
Split Brain Experiments | The Cell and its Organelles | The Genetic Code |Tuberculosis
Vitamin B1
Malaria Game Mosquito and Parasite games based on the 1904 Nobel Prize research.
Blood Typing Game Learn about blood types and Rh factors.
MedMyst Investigate infectious disease outbreaks.
Antibiotic Attack (3-8) This interactive activity helps students look at the pros and cons of using antibiotics to treat illness.
Diabetes and Insulin Game Learn about Diabetes and Insulin by helping a diabetic dog.
Tuberculosis - Experiments & Discoveries Game Reproduce classic experiments.
Inside Cancer uses animations and videoclips of experts to reveal what is known about cancer. Learn about kinds of cancer, how they start (cell mutations), and their distribution worldwide. Explore... (National Center for Research Resources, supported by National Institutes of Health)
Medical Animations animations of diseases, body systems and injuries
Immune Attack (9-12) In this resource, you get to navigate through a 3-D representation of the human body, fighting germs and restoring a healthy immune system to a sick patient.
Immune System Defense What happens if you get a breach in the skin? Try to get rid of bacteria that have gathered around a wound
Immune Responses
IMMUNOLOGY Go through ten interactive stops and find out how our immune system protects us and sometimes could harm us.
1. The Blood Typing Game
2. The Laser Challenge Game
3. The DNA - the Double Helix Game
4. The Pavlov's Dog Game
5. The Diabetic Dog Game
6. The Lord of the Flies Game
7. The Electrocardiogram Game
9. The Control of the Cell Cycle Game
10. The Split Brain Experiments Game
Online Labs for Biology (gr 8-12)
Reconstructors Students use neuroscience approach to explain the impact of substance abuse.
Healthline Body Maps
Provides interactive three dimensional models for learning about human anatomy. Body Maps has male and female models. The models have eight layer views, from skin to skeletal, that you can select. There are also videos that connect with each anatomy section, for example, in lungs there is a video on asthma.
Build a Body Construct a human body system-by-system. To build a body students drag and drop into place the organs and bones of a human body. Each organ and bone is accompanied by a description of the purpose of that bone or organ.
Guts and Bolts helps students understand the complex relationships among
the circulatory, respiratory, and digestives systems in the human body.
Students play from the perspective of Moby, who is trying to create a
robot version of Tim. By connecting “parts” (body organs) and “pipes”
(arteries and veins) in each of 11 increasingly complex steps, students
develop an understanding of the interrelationships that exist among body
systems. The goal of the game is to successfully create a robot with
functional “guts and bolts.”
Kinetic City Suitable for: Grades 3-5. A program of standards-based online science games on the human body systems, animals, memory and more
Inner Body Point and click your way around this interactive body systems It is like a virtual tour of a human body.
N-Squad Students work with forensic scientists to solve an alcohol related crime. Along the way, they will learn about alcohol's interaction in different body systems: digestive, circulatory, and nervous.
Secret Life of the Brain
Presents a history of efforts to understand the brain, a three-dimensional tour of the brain, optical illusions, and an animation showing how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) works. Videoclips examine how the brain evolves and differs from infancy to childhood, adolescence, and through adulthood.
Split Brain Experiments Game Perform classic experiments.
Virtual Brain Tour (6-12)
PBS Nova Interactives - Body and Brain
Get Body Smart (8-12)
An Online Examination of Human Anatomy and Physiology. Visually Learn About the Human Body Using Our Interactive "Flash" Animations
All Systems are Go (gr. 3-8) In this online activity, a fictional character named Arnold is missing a number of body parts. You are presented with a body system and a variety of organs. You should drag and drop all the organs that belong in that particular body system to Arnold's body.
Organs (6-12) In this interactive on organs, produced by BBC Science & Nature, students will learn about the organs of the human body.
Inner Learning Online (9-12)
Welcome to inner exploration of Human Anatomy. Each topic has animations, 100’s of graphics, and thousands of descriptive links.
Virtual Body (K-12)
This site contains a collection of interactive presentations on the functions of the brain, the digestive system, the heart, and the skeleton of the human body.
Virtual tour through the human heart
Beginning with the oxygen-poor blood in the right atrium and ending with the oxygen-rich blood going out to different parts of the body. Along the way, you can learn the anatomy of the heart, as well as some quick facts about the heart’s function. While you are learning from the website, the website is tracking how much blood your heart is processing in the same time period.[Flash required]
Muscles ( 6-12) In this interactive, produced by BBC Science & Nature, students will have fun learning about the muscles of the human body.
Nervous System (6-12) In this interactive, produced by BBC Science & Nature, students will learn about how different body parts are connected to the nervous system.
Skeleton (6-12) This interactive, produced by BBC Science & Nature, contains a great deal of information about the skeletal system.
Medical Animations
animations of diseases, body systems and injuries
Animals and Plants
The Dig 6 - 12
This Xpedition Hall interactive, promotes an understanding of how humans have evolved by showing how a skeleton reveals secrets from the past.
Life Preservers gr 6-8 The game teaches National Science standards on evolution, adaptation, and the history of life on earth.
Jean-Michael Cousteau Ocean Adventures: Predator Protector players to guide three different threatened shark species to food and
away from danger. At the same time, players can learn about the
behaviors and habitats of these three species.
Reach for the Sun manage a plant to help it produce as many seeds as possible before winter comes.
Evolution Lab Do-it-yourself evolution! Use this humorous but powerful simulation tool to test the effects of selection, mutation and chance on the evolution of a trait.
Pollution and Peppered Moths
This model explores the effects of pollution and bird predation on the protective coloration of peppered moths(through directed selection). A series of questions guides students' exploration
PBS Nova Animals and Plants Interactives
VistaZoo
A customizable portal from where you can create stunning, professional Virtual Tours combining panoramas, pictures, video, audio, floorplans and objects in 3D. Your tours will be uploaded and placed on a map instantly. Once the tour has been created, you can easily embed it into any website in seconds. It works just like YouTube. Create and share instantly.
Animal Community Comparison K - 12
In this student interactive, from Xpeditions, students use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two animal communities of their choosing....
A Touch of Class ( gr. 2-5) This is an interactive activity in which students classify various plants and animals, including organisms such as a frog, jellyfish, venus flytrap, bat, human, and seaweed.
Build a Fish (gr 3-8) In this interactive activity, you must build a fish whose adaptations make it suited to its ocean environment.
Color and Camouflage This interactive activity allows you to check out different types of camouflage that an animal can use to protect itself depending on the habitat in which it lives.
WolfQuest An immersive, 3D wildlife simulation game, WolfQuest challenges players to learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
LIFE: The Game
Compete as an animal from Life in this fast, competitive strategy game. Can you gain control and take over other animals' habitat.
Animal Community Comparison K - 12
In this student interactive, from Xpeditions, students use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two animal communities of their choosing....
The Journey North
Migratory Animals - interactive science studies about animals that migrate.
Chemistry
MeCheM Suitable for: Year 7-10
A game for middle schoolers learning chemistry and the properties of elements. Players select elements and strategies to equip their mechs with armor, batteries, capacitors and weapons, and then battle the Mechs to see which is the stronger.
Online Labs for Chemistry
Acids and Bases:Kitchen chemistry Acids and bases react with other chemicals in predictable ways. This interactive activity from the ZOOM Web site allows you to conduct virtual experiments on various solutions to determine if they're acidic or basic. In one experiment, you can test the acidity of different household substances by trying to launch a virtual cork rocket.
Mixed Reception game gr. 10 - up is set in a research group developing an antivenom for spider bites. In the opening scene, Nelson Pogline, a talented graduate student, dies unexpectedly at a university reception. In their role as detectives, students use chemistry concepts to determine if his death was murder and, if so, to solve the case. They interview suspects using QuickTime movies, investigate the crime scene for clues with QuickTime Virtual Reality images and analyze the evidence from the crime lab. The activity requires basic knowledge of formula weight, chemical reactions and the scientific method. The Flash-based software is suitable for chemistry students at the high school and college levels. The game was developed by ChemCollective with students from the Departments of Chemistry and Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. Click Here to Access Free Game
Web-based High School Chemistry Simulations This site has provides teachers with links to chemistry simulations, organized by which McREL standard (and in some cases, national science education standard) to which they correspond. You can view the site either through Simulations Aligned to the Standards or you can view the complete list of simulations in our Catalog of Simulations
ChemCollective - Carnegie Mellon's online lab simulations for class
The Chemical Education Digital Library is a large collection of resources for teaching and learning chemistry. The ChemEd DL contains tutorials for students, 3D models, lesson plans, and more. The tutorials include 3D chemical models and explanations of what each part of the models does and how those parts work together. In the lesson plans section you will find downloadable lesson plans organized by subject. ChemEd DL also features a periodic table that links each element to data and explanations about that element.
EleMental Stack up elements and combine them into compounds.
Rice University’s CSI Web Adventures is a series of six online interactives, including the CSI web experience. Each of the Web Adventures is appropriate for middle school or high school use. In each adventure, students take on the role of a scientist to solve a crime, conduct experiments and learn about scientific methods and processes. In Cool Science Careers, students explore five STEM-based career areas. In MedMyst, students learn about microbiology through a series of interactive lessons and games that focus on infectious diseases and ways to prevent the spread of those diseases. Reconstructors includes three games in which students need to gather evidence and data to solve drug-related cases. Virtual Clinical Trials puts students into the role of research scientists who are working toward developing treatments for spinal cord injuries, depression and brain injuries. In N-Squad, students investigate the effects of alcohol on the digestive, circulatory and nervous systems. The CSI Web Adventures are designed to teach students the process of forensic investigation and problem solving.
Language Arts
Samarost
Used as a stimulus for writing, the children play the game collaboratively in one or two sessions, then using screen grabs and knowledge of the adventure they write their own adventure story.
Online Lyrics Chart 6 - 8
In this student interactive, from a ReadWriteThink lesson, students record information about the significance of words and phrases in a song's...
Literature (Grades 9-12)
Journey through a classic short story, "A Jury of Her Peers" and solve the mystery along the way.
Secret Builders
Secret builders is a virtual world for kids (age 8-12) that introduces them to fictional characters from history and literature. Secret builder has historical characters for students to interact with including Jane Austen, Bach, Alexander Bell, Emily Bronte, Confucius, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Hafez, Magellan, Omar Khxyam, Mozart, Isaac Newton, Rumi, and Lao Tzu just to name a few.
Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World
In this virtual world, students are dropped into the middle of a story where
they become world travelers to places around the real-world, meeting historical characters, playing brain games, building culture-inspired houses, exploring secret locations, and solving ancient mysteries. There are 100 educational real world and imaginary places for students to visit from the past, present, and the future.
Math
10 Interactive Financial Websites That Teach Kids Money Management Skills
Fleet Kids
In the FleetKids program, each child investigates an array of mathematics, financial, and social concepts. For example, a participant can manage a baseball team, investigate the stock market, manage a simple budget and more.
Brain Nook
Math simulations for grades 3-6
Trading Around the World (middle school)
An economics game hosted on the International Monetary Fund's website. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.
Ayiti - The Cost of Life Classroom support materials for Ayiti - developed by UNICEF
A role-playing video game in which the player assumes the roles of family members living in rural Haiti. Over the course of the game, the player must choose among and balance various goals, such as achieving education, making money, staying healthy, and maintaining happiness while encountering unexpected events. The player must make many decisions that contribute to or detract from achieving his or her chosen goals.
Lure of the Labyrinth (pre-algebra)
Think like a mathematician in this digital learning adventure for pre-algebra students. Work through intriguing math-based puzzles while immersed in an exciting narrative in which students work to find their lost pet and save the world from curious, quirky creatures!
BizEd is a great resource for economics lessons and virtual field trips. I started using BizEd a few years ago and it has been a valuable resource to me ever since. BizEd is a UK based website so some of the lessons and activities have to be manipulated a little bit for use in US classrooms, but the overall value of activities is fantastic. Some of the highlights for teachers are frequently updated lesson plans, a comprehensive glossary of terms, slide shows available for download, and fantastic virtual field trips.
Minyan Land A free virtual world environment designed to teach kids about budgeting their money. Each player starts out in Minyan Land with $50,000 cash and a condo valued at $50,000. In Minyan Land players can invest their money, spend their money, and complete tasks to earn more money.
Statistics (Grades 9-12)
Follow a year in a fictitious election campaign for an inside look at the mathematics behind the polls and the news you hear everyday.
Math by Design
Build it; learn it! Become a junior architect and build two virtual environments using geometry and measurement skills. Math by Design encourages problem solving and critical thinking, while helping to build mathematical skills for students taking algebra I and II.
Gazillionaire III- Gazillionaire is the award-winning simulation game. It puts the player in charge of a trading ship in a fun universe filled with great characters. This a simple, classroom appropriate game that can easily be the basis for many lessons on resource management, economics, planning and collaboration. (Windows only)
SMG2000, the stock market game (4-12) This World Wide Web (WWW) site is designed to help students in grades 4 to 12 understand the stock market, the costs and benefits involved in decision making, and the sources and uses of capital and other related economic concepts
Online Stock Market Trading Simulation
Invest smart (9-12) This site contains an interactive stock market simulation in which high school classes can use a $100,000 fantasy money account to invest in the stock market or mutual funds. This market simulation is a hands-on tool.
A Web-based Interactive Stock Market Learning Project for K-12 www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/edu/RSE/RSEyellow/gnb.html
The Stock Market Game - The Stock Market Game is an education program for Grades 4-12, college students, and adults. SMG is the original game in USA since 1977. Teams receive $100,000 which they invest over a 10 week period. The game can be played over the Internet or by mail.
The Stock Market Game
A program that involves students in a simulation of stock market investing in order to teach lessons from a variety of subjects, including mathematics and economics. Related teaching materials incorporate national voluntary and state educational standards from fourth grade to college levels.
Villainy, Inc.
This field trip integrates mathematical experiences and high adventure into a fun learning experience for middle school math students. In James Bond fashion, students use their problem-solving acumen to foil the plans of the evil Dr. Wick in animated missions that require critical thinking and math calculations in order to pave the way to a successful outcome.Villainy Inc PDF - Color Villainy Inc PDF - B&W
Math Simulations at Shodor.org
Mathematics Simulations
A great list of mathematical simulations - from the stock market down to visualizing fractions. All ages
Pattern Maker
Looking for a way to help your students build their spatial sense? Pattern Maker – a special combination of art and geometry -- might be just the right tool for you. Students can flip, slide, turn, scale, and tessellate colorful objects, creating patterns of their own imagination or copying pre-selected patterns. Finishing a pattern triggers a brief question for the student to answer, based on the geometric techniques used and linked to key terms in a Shape Dictionary.
Give PatternMaker a spin View Sample Student Activities for this tool.
Explore Learning
Offers a catalog of modular, interactive simulations in math and science for teachers and students in grades 6-12. The simulations are called "gizmos." Gizmos are fun, easy to use, and flexible enough to support many different teaching styles and contexts.
Math Open Reference is a free online reference for geometry teachers and students. It features animated and interactive drawings to demonstrate geometry terms and concepts. The table of contents is divided into four basic categories; plane geometry, coordinate geometry, solid geometry, and function explorer tools. Click on any subject in the first three categories to find definitions, examples, and interactive drawings. In the function explorer category users can select linear functions, quadratic functions, or cubic functions to explore how changes in variables affect the graphed output.
Parachute Drag
Explore the effects of mass, displacement, and drag on the low functioning of a parachute in this simulation.
Pollution and Peppered Moths
This model explores the effects of pollution and bird predation on the protective coloration of peppered moths(through directed selection). A series of questions guides students' exploration
Lure of the Labyrinth
This site contains a interesting digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters.
Gooru is a service that aims to provide teachers and students with an extensive collection of videos, interactive displays, documents, diagrams, and quizzes for learning about topics in math and science. Access to hundreds of resources according to subject areas such as chemistry, biology, ecology, algebra, calculus, and more. Within each subject area you can look for resources according to media type such as video, interactive display, slides, text, and lesson plans.
Art | Media
Art Zone invites children of all ages to design a virtual mobile; create a collage, painting, or a geometric sculpture online; design and texturize 3-dimensional shapes (and see how artists... (National Gallery of Art) Destination Modern Art - Interactive art activities for kids
Art and Music |
11 Videos for Economic Lessons
Spent An online game designed to teach players about the challenges of living on minimum wage (or slightly higher) employment. Players begin by selecting a job which will provide the wages they have to survive on for a month. Then throughout the game players are confronted with challenges that they have to handle by making an "either or" choice. After each choice the player's account balance is adjusted. In addition to the change in the player's balance sheet, each choice is followed by an explanation of consequence of the choice made.
Living on a Minimum Wage (7-12) Not not an online simulation, but worthwhile
Economics Games A wide variety of simulations that include Spent, Sweatshop, Third World Famer
Game Changer some examples are Spent, Lottery of Life
BM CityOne Suitable for: Year 7-12
CityOne offers players the opportunity to optimize banking, retail, energy and water solutions via an online, sim-style game in which the player is tasked with guiding industries within a city through a series of missions. Players will make decisions to improve the city by attaining revenue and profit goals, increasing customers’ and citizens’ satisfaction, and making the environment greener with a limited budget. In parallel, players will learn how the components of business process management, service reuse, cloud and collaborative technologies make organizations in the city system more agile.
Trading Around the World (middle school)
An economics game hosted on the International Monetary Fund's website. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.
Living on a Minimum Wage (7-12) Not not an online simulation, but worthwhile
Practical Money Skills hosts
a series of eight online games designed to teach students some money
management skills. One of the games that is timely considering that the
Super Bowl is just a few days away is Financial Football.
Financial Football has students answer questions about budgets,
savings, and spending to move their football teams down the field
against another team. The games use real NFL team logos. Financial
Football takes at least twenty minutes to play.
The Living Wage Calculator The purpose of the Living Wage Calculator is to provide a snapshot of what it actually costs to survive in counties and cities in the United States. The Living Wage Calculator shows the differences between minimum wages and minimum living wages for each county and some cities in the U.S. The calculator accounts for eight different household scenarios from single adult to two adults and three children living in the same household.
Ayiti - The Cost of Life
Classroom support materials for Ayiti - developed by UNICEF
A role-playing video game in which the player assumes the roles of family members living in rural Haiti. Over the course of the game, the player must choose among and balance various goals, such as achieving education, making money, staying healthy, and maintaining happiness while encountering unexpected events. The player must make many decisions that contribute to or detract from achieving his or her chosen goals.
Third World Farmer
UN World Food Force (must download full game)
Food Force 2
One Hen – Microfinance for Kids
Banzai A Financial Literacy Tool gr. 8-12 Life skill financial scenarios for students to work through.
Money Metropolis is hosted on Practical Money Skills. In the game students choose savings goals then navigate their way through a virtual town to earn money toward those goals. games require students to have some prior knowledge of financial basics. These games could be good review activities after a lesson that you teach about budgeting, saving, borrowing, and spending.
Trade gr. 5-8 Play and learn about trade theory
Economics Games (gr. 3-8) Money, Investing, Federal Reserve and more
BizEd is a great resource for economics lessons and virtual field trips. I started using BizEd a few years ago and it has been a valuable resource to me ever since. BizEd is a UK based website so some of the lessons and activities have to be manipulated a little bit for use in US classrooms, but the overall value of activities is fantastic. Some of the highlights for teachers are frequently updated lesson plans, a comprehensive glossary of terms, slide shows available for download, and fantastic virtual field trips.
SimCEO is an entirely online simulation where participants create companies, research each other’s companies online, buy/sell other company’s shares and reacting to daily news posting that can affect the market.
Minyan Land is a free virtual world environment designed to teach kids about budgeting their money. Each player starts out in Minyan Land with $50,000 cash and a condo valued at $50,000. In Minyan Land players can invest their money, spend their money, and complete tasks to earn more money.
Secret Millionaires Club is a series of animated videos and games designed to help kids learn the basics of business creation, management, and finance. The Secret Millionaires Club contains twenty-six animated videos featuring Warren Buffett talking with kids. The videos cover topics like debt, supply and demand, marketing, and consumer confidence in products. After watching the video your students can play two games to test their understanding of the content they've watched.
Gazillionaire III- Gazillionaire is the award-winning simulation game. It puts the player in charge of a trading ship in a fun universe filled with great characters. This a simple, classroom appropriate game that can easily be the basis for many lessons on resource management, economics, planning and collaboration. (Windows only)
SMG2000, the stock market game (4-12) This World Wide Web (WWW) site is designed to help students in grades 4 to 12 understand the stock market, the costs and benefits involved in decision making, and the sources and uses of capital and other related economic concepts
Online Stock Market Trading Simulation
Invest smart (9-12) This site contains an interactive stock market simulation in which high school classes can use a $100,000 fantasy money account to invest in the stock market or mutual funds. This market simulation is a hands-on tool.
Money Games gr. 8-12 Games on topics like credit cards, budgeting, trade-offs ...
A Web-based Interactive Stock Market Learning Project for K-12 www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/edu/RSE/RSEyellow/gnb.html
Spent Get to make tough economic decisions that real working class families have to make. See the immediate results of your decisions
Rich Kid Smart gr. K- 12 All lessons are taught by Toki using four financial games.
The Mint Games that are built around earning, saving, spending, and giving. Lessons on how money moves are also imparted in an easy to grasp language. With a basic understanding, you can play the quizzes and calculator games like the Be Your Own Boss Challenge on the website.
Planet Orange gr. 1-6 interactive financial game Join Cedric and Amy as they help you navigate the deep reaches of space and learn all about earning, spending, saving and investing. The game involves activities that focus on different features of money and the choices you have to make for completing the mission.
The Stock Market Game - The Stock Market Game is an education program for Grades 4-12, college students, and adults. SMG is the original game in USA since 1977. Teams receive $100,000 which they invest over a 10 week period. The game can be played over the Internet or by mail.
Stock Market It is the next best thing to spending $500,000.00. Begin with the Crews Stock Market Handbook.
Pay Credit When Credit is Due - (gr 7-12) Students investigate the fundamentals of credit including credit cards, credit ratings and credit management.
Invest in Yourself (gr 7-12) Students learn personal financial management strategies based on budgeting and theoretical concepts involved with budgeting and financial management, including income, expenses, savings, and debt. Students watch a video segment from the PBS series What's Up in Finance? They then complete hands-on activities to create three different saving and spending scenarios based on their own lives and expenses. After completing these activities, students use an online interactive game to apply the financial management concepts and strategies they have learned.
Entrepreneurship: HotShot Business ( gr 2-5)Full-featured business simulation for younger students.
Entrepreneurship: Industry Player (gr. 9-12) Realistic online business simulation game in which entrepreneurs manage their own corporation.
Entrepreneurship: IndustryMasters ( gr. 9-12) Develops entrepreneurial and strategic management skills.
Cartoon on international trade gr 6-12 The video is appropriate as an introduction to the topic for middle school and high school students. After watching the video on international trade have your students put their new knowledge to use in Trading Around the World from the International Monetary Fund. The object of the game is to provide students with knowledge of the variables affecting international trade. Students experience the impact of each variable by playing the game as a representative of a country or region that is trying to buy or sell resources. The overall object of the game is to accumulate cash through buying and selling natural resources.