Linear Equations Game

Students groups act as aerospace engineering teams competing to create linear equations to guide space shuttles safely through obstacles generated by a modeling game in level-based rounds. Each round provides a different configuration of the obstacle, which consists of two "gates." The obstacles are presented as asteroids or comets, and the linear equations as inputs into autopilot on board the shuttle. The winning group is the one that first generates the successful equations for all levels. The game is created via the programming software MATLAB, available as a free 30-day trial. The activity helps students make the connection between graphs and the real world. In this activity, they can see the path of a space shuttle modeled by a linear equation, as if they were looking from above.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: AMPS GK-12 Program,, Stanislav Roslyakov

Play NewsFeed Defenders - News Literacy Game

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.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: iCivics

Civics 360

Use this module to help students learn about being and engaged citizen. Evaluate the obligations citizens have to obey laws, pay taxes, defend the nation, and service on juries. Experience the responsibilities of citizens at the local, state, or federal levels. Conduct a service project to further the public good. This teaching module comes with lesson plans, readings, student guides and handouts, practice, games, a review, a gallery walk, and an opportunity for student simulation/engagement.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Formative Assessment, Game, Homework/Assignment, Learning Task, Lesson, Module, Primary Source, Reading, Self Assessment, Student Guide

Authors: Civics 360, Lou Frey Institute

Layers of Time: Fossil Game

Students use rock layers with fossils in them to order the layers from oldest to newest.

Material Type: Game

Author: American Museum of Natural History

To Eat or Not To Eat?

In this game, students will work to understand what kinds of food animals eat, how prey attempts to avoid being eaten, and how rapid changes affect predator-prey interactions.

Material Type: Game

Author: Natural History Museum of Utah

Teach Computing Curriculum

The Teach Computing Curriculum is broken down into 4 key stages: Ages 5-7, Ages 7-11, Ages 11-14, and Ages 14-16. Curriculum Information: - Resources include lesson plans, slides, activity sheets, homework, and assessments - Each key stage has a teacher guide and curriculum map to help you get started - Built around an innovative progression framework where computing content has been organized into interconnected networks we call learning graphs - Created by subject experts, using the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback All of the content is free for you to use, and in formats that make it easy for you to adapt it to meet the needs of your learners

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Curriculum Map, Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Learning Task, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Teach Computing

The Legend of the Lost Emerald

Take a deep dive into maritime mysteries with this point-and-click adventure game! Learners will use critical thinking and historical inquiry skills to recover the real treasure—the stories of shipwrecks inspired by real Great Lakes history. Dive into the game, and explore the educator guide at pbswisconsineducation.org/emerald.

Material Type: Game

Authors: Field Day, PBS Wisconsin Education, Wisconsin Sea Grant

CodeMonkey

CodeMonkey is a great way for students to gain a better understanding of how programming works.  It is an engaging platform where programming knowledge is acquired alongside 21st century skills through collaboratively playing and solving puzzles, inventing, creating and sharing.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Game, Interactive, Rubric/Scoring Guide, Simulation

Code.org Intro to Algorithms: Dice Race #1

From Code.org: "In this lesson, students will relate the concept of algorithms back to real-life activities by playing the Dice Race game. The goal here is to start building the skills to translate real-world situations to online scenarios and vice versa."

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Game

Author: Code.org

WIND SIMULATOR

In the WIND SIMULATOR students explore the relationships between high and low pressure and wind speed and direction. The game, which was developed by the Field Day Lab, is designed for use with middle school students.

Material Type: Game, Interactive, Learning Task

Antibiotic Resistance

In this playful introduction to the world of bacteria, players create a simple visual representation of bacteria reproduction, mutation, and antibiotic resistance. Click to add bacteria and watch as they reproduce, mutate, and pass on their attributes.

Material Type: Game, Simulation

Author: Field Day

Carbon Cycle Game

Learn how carbon moves through the world! In this board-game style game, players use Action cards, like Photosynthesis and Soil Respiration, to convert carbon from one form to another. Available as single player or multiplayer.

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day

Wave Combinator

This game introduces kids to the science of sound waves! Join the kids of the Yard as they discover a mystery Wave Combinator and figure out how it works. Players take on simple challenges, adjust wavelength, amplitude, and offset, and learn how waves interact with each other.

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day

Crystal Cave

This simple puzzle game introduces kids to crystals! Players join the kids of the Yard and try their hand at arranging molecules with different shapes and properties into an ordered, stable configuration. Learn about crystals, repeating patterns, and molecular charges.

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day

Lakeland

In the strategic building game Lakeland, you’ve decided to build a new town called Lakeland. In order to grow your town and keep your people alive, you need food and resources. Luckily, you’ve got some friendly advisors to help you get started. Your Farm Advisor shows you how to grow corn. Now your people have food! Then you start a dairy farm. People love dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream… what could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. Cows don’t just produce milk. They also produce lots and lots of poop, which means the lakes your people love are about to turn into a toxic cesspool of blue-green algae. Your mission: grow your town without destroying their lakes. This game puts kids in charge of building their own town. Players add houses and farms, export produce, and manage resources like food, money, and manure. Students will get an introduction to the complex relationship between farming, soil nutrition, and lake pollution.

Material Type: Game, Simulation

Author: Field Day

Wake: Tales from the Aqualab

Wake is a science game that challenges students with engaging and authentic missions in a variety of ocean-based ecosystems, designed to target the NGSS science practices of experimentation, modeling, and argumentation, in the context of middle school life sciences. In the game, students take the role of a scientist studying ocean ecosystems, traveling to different ocean research sites to answer questions and solve problems. Students play the game at their own pace, working individually, and taking on gradually more complex science challenges in an open-ended environment. Check out the Teacher Support Site for curriculum ideas and resources: https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/waketeacherguide/home

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day

Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case

Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case is a tool for students to engage in critical thinking and historical inquiry. As the plot unfolds, players come across primary source materials. Players use the same skills as real historians: investigation, identification, corroboration and contextualizing evidence. To win each challenge, players must piece together the evidence to argue their case. The game was designed by WPT Education, Field Day Lab, and a cohort of 3rd-5th grade social studies teachers. The game was tested by students throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Material Type: Assessment, Game

Authors: Field Day, PBS Wisconsin Education

Headlines and High Water

In Headlines and High Water, players take on the role of a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, where the annual Cherry Festival is thrown into chaos by a catastrophic flood. The player is tasked with interviewing locals and writing stories to keep the town informed—all while staying safe during the town’s worst flood of the century. Throughout the game, players build trust with the townspeople and interview a cast of quirky characters—like Birdie, the aptly-named nature conservationist, and Fred Finkler, the gardener who’ll talk your ear off. In the end, the player’s reporting will determine if Twin Lakes is still around a year from now, or if future floods wash the town right off the map.

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day

Lost at the Forever Mine

You are a material scientist who just crash-landed on an abandoned mining planet. You’re out of fuel, and your suit’s oxygen is running low. You need to mine enough fuel to power your ship, or you won’t survive. You stumble into the old mining facility. That’s where you meet MAL, the mine’s Artificial Intelligence, who is thrilled to have someone to talk to. With MAL’s help, you’ll build scientific models to predict if you’re mining fast enough and what you need to do next. Each level puts the student in the role of the scientific modeler. Students will set up equations, work with graphs, input data, and use models to make predictions. Along the way, as obstacles keep popping up, students will experience how models are used as a tool to make decisions. Note: For best compatibility, use Chrome. Use Lost at the Forever Mine to introduce units on graphing or scientific modeling. The game was designed to help kids experience the need for math to make predictions. This story-based game gives a context to why graphing, math equations, and collecting data can help us solve problems. Try introducing a unit with this game. Let the kids figure out how the game works with little introduction. Remember, struggling to figure it out is part of the process. Games are safe places for struggle and failure to become part of the fun.

Material Type: Game

Author: Field Day