Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Dragon Games for the iPad – Play Dragon Games on the Go



Dragon games are pretty addictive. Whether you’re the kind who enjoys looking after dragons in dragon breeding games, or you spend your time training to face them in battle in dragon fighting games, these engrossing games keep you coming back for more. Until recently, dragon games were mostly played online, on large devices like PCs and laptops. However, the increasing availability of dragon game apps now makes it possible to carry them around and play on the go! Here are some of the most popular dragon games available for the iPad.

1.       School of Dragons Mobile
The School of Dragons mobile game is an extension of the MMO game of the same name. Based on the characters and story of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, School of Dragons is where kids join Hiccup and Toothless to raise and train dragons of their own. Players live on Berk and engage in fishing and farming to take care of themselves. They also complete missions and explore the surroundings to learn science facts and practice the scientific method of investigation. The popular educational dragon game scores well with dragon lovers, fans of the DreamWorks animated movie, parents and teachers alike. 

2.       Dragon Eternity
Dragon Eternity is an MMORPG where players role play as a warrior fighting for an empire. With a trusty pet dragon for company, players explore the vast world of Adan, traversing beautiful lands and encountering numerous perils. This dragon game allows players to train their dragons and other creatures for additional help during battles. They also have an array of weapons and magic spells at their disposal. When not in battle, players are completing hundreds of tasks and solving mini puzzles within the game.

3.       Choice of the Dragon
This dragon game is meant for people who fantasize about being dragons and wielding tremendous strength, power and ferocity. It is a text-based adventure that allows players to choose how the story plays out. The player drives the story as a fire-breathing dragon that sleeps on gold, dominates the kingdom, loots and pillages villages at will and kidnaps princesses for fun! With every turn of the story, the player chooses from a variety of responses to shape the unfolding adventure. Though simple, the game is popular for the element of fantasy, mystery and adventure it holds. 

4.       Dragon Island Blue
When you find a dragon egg near your village, it is the beginning of a new era. Dragons have returned to the world, and it is up to you and your new friend to figure out why. During your quest, you find and breed various types of monsters to create new ones, battle with enemy forces using your army of monsters, go on challenging expeditions and try to solve the mysteries of Dragon Island. This dragon game combines dragon breeding, dragon training and dragon fighting to create an addictive adventure game in a humungous virtual world.

5.       Dragon Raid – Village at War
This is a fun, quick and fast-paced dragon game, perfect for casual play. The app cleverly combines elements of racing and running games with the dragon theme and tablet functionality to create a crowd pleaser. As the dragon races through the skies, players tilt the device to control its flight, blow through the microphone to breathe fire and collect power ups for special abilities. The high score feature ensures that you and your kids spend hours on this game trying to beat each other’s scores.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

3 Innovative Online Games that Develop Science Skills - JumpStart



As new research continues to find links between learning and play, educators looking for interesting ways to foster science skills in children are beginning to focus on a particular kind of play – online games. Online science games are a great way to build foundational skills in science and technology – skills that are vital if you want your child to succeed in a scientific career. But even if your child doesn’t really want to carve out a career in science, science games are a good training ground for developing a range of academic and life skills. Here are the best 5 online gamesto help your child learn science. 

3 Online Games for Science Skills

1.    The Radix Endeavor
If you want your child to think as a scientist or a mathematician, researchers at MIT have designed this Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-aligned educational game to help you. Radix players are Good Samaritans trying to help the denizens of a fictional world acquire math and science education despite the efforts of the land’s rulers to deny them the privilege. The game mostly focuses on biology and its subtopics like ecology, evolution, genetics and systems of the human body. Radix also allows players to speed up the outcomes of real world experiments to see whether the decisions they took were the right ones. This interesting online game is not intended to be a substitute for conventional classroom teaching but it can definitely be a useful supplement.





2.    CSI Web Adventures
The American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Rice University and CBS have all come together to produce a series of educational web adventures based on Catching Killers, the CSI T.V. series. Players (high school and above) learn to investigate and solve 5 cases of increasing complexity, using the principles of forensic science and problem solving. The online game features a serial killer on the loose, who can only be caught by generating leads, following up on them and analyzing the available evidence. Students learn (in English, Spanish and German) how science can be used to assist criminal investigation.

3.    Garry’s Mod
This is a popular sandbox game where players are introduced to physics concepts such as mass and gravity, while having loads of fun the whole time. There are no predefined goals in this online game – you have a set of virtual tools that you use to create and weld objects in order to create your own gizmos; whether it’s a calculator or a truck or a camera is up to you. And even if you aren’t too good with construction, you can still play around with the tools and have a lot of fun!

Online games are really effective for building and reinforcing science concepts in kids. Use these innovative science games and help your child learn better!