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!
No comments:
Post a Comment