This activity is an interactive game that helps students learn that vertebrates are classified into five groups and that each group has common characteristics that distinguish the animal group from other respective groups.

The League of Librarian Gamers is a closed group affiliated with the ALA Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT). GameRT facilitates this space as a positive, progressive, and inclusive venue for library workers and game designers/publishers interested in the use of games in libraries to gather, discuss, and share resources and expertise. There is no requirement to join ALA or GameRT to utilize and join this Facebook group (please note joining this group is not the same as being an ALA GameRT member).

We discuss board games, card games, RPGs, video games, tabletop games, Magic: the Gathering, miniatures, dice games, classic games, strategic games, educational games, and escape games/puzzles. We have a particular interest in how these games can be applied to the library space (academic, public, school, and special).

The League of Librarian Gamers Facebook group was established in January 2014 by Joshua J. Carlson.

Students wear nametags of an ion and find others throughout the school with whom they can create ionic compounds.

Here at MagiKids, our mission is simple:

TO SUPPORT THE INTELLECTUAL HEALTH OF YOUNG ADULTS WITH MAGIC: THE GATHERING
We give kids access to the card game Magic: The Gathering, by giving teachers and mentors the cards and resources they need to teach the game.

But why teach kids Magic: The Gathering?

We believe that teaching Magic builds skills such as critical thinking, math, and reading. Magic also helps encourage socialization and engagement. At our local MagiKids groups, there’s not a phone in sight. Our Sort, Build, Play curriculum gets kids to engage with the game in a way that not only keeps them focused on the learning in that moment, but makes it more likely they will stick with it down the road.

How do we accomplish this?

MagiKids collects unwanted Magic cards, which we provide to teachers and mentors for free. We also supply them with deckboxes, sleeves, dice, and other accessories- anything that helps kids with taking ownership of their cards has a positive effect on their engagement. We also give teachers and mentors a number of teaching resources, from quick-reference cards for the kids, to information on our Sort, Build, Play curriculum.

We have shipped kits to dozens of teachers and mentors across the US, as well as working with local organizations and the Boys and Girls Clubs in our region. We have brought Magic: The Gathering to hundreds of kids so far, and we hope to spread this opportunity to many more.

"As an avid board game hobbyist, I love when libraries include games in their collections. Games are a source of entertainment, social joy, and intellectual challenge. What better place to showcase those things than at the library!

The world of board gaming has exploded in the last few decades, and while this has infinitely improved the hobby, it has also made it much more difficult to organize. If a library wants to craft a truly great board game collection, it has to look beyond merely well-known classics such as chess and Monopoly. Consequently, as the quality of the games in the collection improve, so must the quality of the cataloging.

In this project, I endeavor to showcase how libraries currently manage board games collections as well as offer a few suggestions I have for improvement. " ~Maria Becker, Instructional, Reference, & Research Support Librarian at Rincker Memorial Library.

Website includes CURRENT CATALOGING PRACTICES, COLLECTION MANAGEMENT FAQS, SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE BOARD GAME COLLECTION MANAGEMENT, MARC CATALOGING EXAMPLES, and BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING.

This group learning activity involves students in an engaging review of concepts of microbiology. The review is set up as a power point presentation in the style of the "Jeopardy" gameshow where students groups compete against each other to answer review questions.

From the site:
Developed for use in middle and high school classrooms, Mission US engages students in the study of transformational moments in American history. Each mission consists of an interactive game and a set of curriculum materials that are aligned to national standards and feature document-based activities. The game immerses players in rich, historical settings and then empowers them to make choices that illuminate how ordinary people experienced the past. The Educator's Guide provides a wealth of resources and activities for both teachers and students, including primary source documents that show the broader social, political, and economic context of events and perspectives featured in the game.

From Site:
NASA and DESIGN SQUAD developed this online workshop for educators and afterschool leaders who want to build their skills and confidence in guiding kids through engineering activities.

Whether you're experienced or new at this, you'll come away with insights and strategies for strengthening your kids' critical-thinking abilities and getting them excited about using the design process, the series of steps engineers use to arrive at solutions.

In this self-guided workshop, you'll:

Experience the design process in action. Learn and reflect on ways you can use the design process to tap into your kids' problem-solving skills and creativity.

Watch an engineering activity. See how easy it is to integrate the design process into the hands-on activities you do with your kids.

Get resources. Discover a variety of engineering activities from NASA and DESIGN SQUAD for kids in grades K–12.

Resources with an emphasis on play, child development, belonging and inclusion, and social and emotional learning, grades K-3. 

November 11th is Veteran's Day! Do you know any veterans? How do you honor them? This video segment provides a quick overview of the holiday for elementary-age students.

This activity teaches students about the periodic table and how element properties can be predicted through periodic trends.

Students will work with money manipulatives to solve word problems that involve adding money amounts and making change. The lesson is introduced with the literature book, "Pigs Will be Pigs". After solving the problems posed in the book, the students will work with partners to create their "pig problems". Assessment will require students to solve similar problems on a teacher made worksheet. When time allows, each student will have the opportunity to go to an Internet site to work with money problems and games.

Help Sam the gardener in the Sunflower Greenhouse. Learn about plants and their parts, photosynthesis and energy. This lesson includes practical exercises. Good for grade 3.

The Play Make Learn Conference is a place for collaboration and discovery in the design, research and practice of playful learning, games for learning and positive social impact, making and makerspaces, STEAM education, and arts in education. PML creates an inspirational space for preK-12 educators, designers, developers, innovators, librarians, museum professionals, makers, and researchers to tinker together, share knowledge, and celebrate one another’s work.

NewsFeed Defenders is a challenging online game that engages players with the standards of journalism, showing you how to spot a variety of methods behind the viral deception we all face today. Join a fictional social media site focused on news and information, and meet the challenge to level up from guest user to site admin. This can only be achieved by spotting dubious posts that try to sneak in through hidden ads, viral deception, and false reporting. In addition to maintaining a high-quality site, you are charged with growing traffic while keeping the posts on topic.

"I created this site to make it a little easier for parents, teachers and students to find resources, games, and have additional resources to support online learning without having to create a bunch of new accounts or remember a bunch of passwords. This is a database of links to free educational pre-K-12th grade games and research tools with no log ins or sign ups or memberships required. This site is aligned to Common Core Standards, teacher and parent needs and student interests.
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I invite you to explore and play and to maybe learn something new."

__________________________

"This site came about in early 2020 when schools around the country started to close, due to COVID 19. I saw online that there were a lot of resources that families could access, but felt that the choices were overwhelming to parents and kids who were looking for some fun and educational things to do online. I narrowed down the sources and put them onto a manageable site that is easy for kids and parents to use. The use of technology is encouraged in schools and at home in order to support student engagement. With technology, I hope to inspire the STEM leaders and innovators of tomorrow.

All of the links on this site are aligned with the Common Core Standards and are all age appropriate. With these links, all materials are free to use, without having to sign up or register for anything. I hope that you enjoy exploring these sites."
-Ms. Krystal
Youth Services Coordinator

Create your own sandwich and then see how many sandwiches you can make with different amounts of ingredients. Do the same with chemical reactions. See how many products you can make with different amounts of reactants. Play a game to test your understanding of reactants, products and leftovers. Can you get a perfect score on each level?

This is a .pdf of the accompanying slides that Chris Baker, Jenna Gilles, and Jamie Hein used in their "Video Game Collections in Libraries, Pt. #1: The 'Why', 'What', and 'How' of Selection & Acquisition" webinar that was originally offered on October 30, 2024, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 noon EDT (10:00-11:00 am CST).To watch the webinar, you can visit this link on WISELearn; alternatively, you can watch it directly on YouTube.Any questions? Please contact presentation lead Chris Baker at Chris.Baker@dpi.wi.gov. Thanks for watching -- and thank you for implementing video game collections in your library spaces!

An excellent series of continuously developing resources (links, documents, readings, webinars, presentations, and more) about 'video games in libraries' -- hosted, curated, and maintained by the American Library Association Games & Gaming Round Table. These resources are the perfect way to jump start a librarians journey into integrating video games in library programs and collections.

This 2014 thesis aims to explore how video games have become an extremely beneficial tool in regards to education, art, medicine, psychology, economics, and beyond. Chapter 1 focuses on how ubiquitous video games have become in America, and what makes video games such a uniquely enjoyable experience to warrant such popularity. Chapter 2 explores how video games have become instrumental in various fields. Chapter 3 discusses the role that video games now play in the world of education; specifically how we, as educators, must adapt a modern pedagogy best suited to students who have grown up with video games, which have influenced how they learn. This is the thesis’ primary contention and purpose. Chapter 4 dissects the two most studied controversies which surround video games as a medium: video game violence and video game addiction.