Instructify

BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

What plot could be more alluring than a murder mystery? Whether you’re teaching about the Roman Empire or just want to give your students an exercise in logic, the BBC game Death in Rome will bring CSI-style detective drama into your classroom.

This game is especially easy to play and requires no software. Within seconds of clicking the start button you’re presented with the basic police report: In the year 80 AD Tiberius Claudius Eutychus was discovered dead in his Ostia apartment. (more…)

BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

It’s a fact that some video games have been shown to have beneficial effects for developing minds. The merger of video games and educational instruction has been coming for quite some time now, and at one particular school in New York City, it’s already happened.

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BY AARON FOWLES

Have you ever scrambled to find a game or activity for your students to use to practice a particular skill?  Mr. Nussbaum, created by a 6th grade teacher in Virginia, is home to dozens of free games, activities, and online stories that will solve that problem in no time.

When you enter the site, you can choose from casual games, academic games, online storybooks, and activities sorted by subject. The activities are colorful, engaging, and fun for students.

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

The origins of words and phrases from the English Language gets a nice twist with Etymologic, a fun online quiz that can be difficult to master. The site consists of a series of questions with two to four possible answers, most of which seems plausible. You have to show an uncanny knowledge of English (or be incredibly lucky with your educated guesses) to get all the questions correct.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Just because the presidential election is two years away, that doesn’t mean you have to wait around to get your students interested in presidential politics is the web-based game, eLections. Free to play and requiring only an internet connection, eLections takes you step by step through the presidential election process, from declaring candidacy to getting your party’s nomination to landing the most difficult job there is.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

No longer just a way for kids to waste hours on the couch during perfectly good daylight hours, video games have gained renown as a legitimate means of educating and informing people. Take Games for Change, where the idea is to use gaming to directly affect positive change in the world.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Forty-one years ago today, man first set foot on the moon. Could Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have known that less than half a century later we’d all be living on cities on the moon, driving flying cars to work?

Until science catches up with science fiction, your students can still get excited about the space program and science with Moonbase Alpha, a 3-D multiplayer game from NASA. (more…)

BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Ever wonder what it would be like to live the life of a wolf in the wild? Well, the free-to-play WolfQuest is about as close as you’re going to get. WolfQuest puts you in the role of a lonely wolf in the wild with two things on your mind: survive and start a family. Along the way you’ll learn about how a wolf perceives the world around him with “scent view” which shows trails of recent creatures and other territorial markers. You can hunt everything from bull elk down to hares (although I was never able to get my teeth around a hare — those little guys are fast!).

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BY REBECCAH HAINES

I have never been a big fan of physics.  I’m more of a biology gal.  However, if I did like physics, or if I were required by law to teach it (which of course, I am), I would definitely check out this website: Physics Central.

I have to admit, despite my lack of enthusiasm for physics, this website is actually…fun. There are engaging pictures, videos, podcasts, and articles.  In addition, there is a physics superhero comic — Spectra, the original laser hero. You can access an online version of her comic book, which is definitely an enticing aspect for a middle school student.

Physics Central packs a lot of content for teachers, but thankfully it is nicely organized at the Educator’s Resource page.  Some notable features include illustrated instructions for experiments, downloadable coloring books, and cool free posters.

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BY BILL FERRIS

A game called Karma Tycoon causes a little cognitive dissonance for me — accumulating good karma seems contrary to to the word tycoon, which I associate with greed. Nevertheless, there are worse qualities than having a competitive desire to make a difference in society.

I’ve never played games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, but I’ll assume Karma Tycoon is based on the same principles — you acquire good karma by building and maintaining homeless shelters, performing arts centers, and other facilities designed to make a positive impact in a community. You can apply for grants and loans to bankroll your philanthropy, and the more people you help, the better your karma score.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Let me start off by saying InterroBang is both ambitious and potentially time-consuming, but it’s also a really cool idea. In a nutshell, InterroBang is a game that sends you on real-life missions of discovery and learning. Now I use the term mission because that’s what they refer to it as, but these really cover a wide range of activities, from basic — go somewhere you’ve never been before and observe who goes there and try and deduce why — to complex — go to both a supermarket and a farmers’ market and compare produce varieties and countries of origin. The more complex the mission, the more points you receive. You prove your team completed the mission by uploading pictures, video, and other documentation of your activities.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Any time there is a good merger of the study of history and the use of technology, it’s a surefire Instructify post. This is the case with the site Show Me from our friends on the British Isle. Show Me is a cataloging of the best (and most fun) resources from museums and galleries across the United Kingdom. It’s a great idea — with as many museums and historical locations as Britain has, it’s a lot easier to collect all the kid-friendly content in one place rather than having to go to each museum’s web site.

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BY BILL FERRIS

It’s amazing how pervasive advertising is in our culture. There are the obvious means — billboards, commercials, newspaper inserts — as well as the not-so-obvious channels, like logos on clothing, branded shopping bags, giveaway products, and lots more. Though advertising isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s important for students to recognize it for what it is — a message designed to persuade them to give someone else their money. Admongo, an online game from the Federal Trade Commission, takes students on a journey into a virtual tower that’s crawling with advertisements. Along the way, the game teaches kids exactly how they’re being marketed to, and how to recognize it when it’s happening.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

If you’re like me, you remember with fondness long nights with your friends, your trusty plastic icosahedron, pencils and paper, and junk food. I’m talking about Dungeons and Dragons of course, the game many of us geeks played when we were younger and had a lot more time on our hands. At one point blamed by pundits and media outlets as a bad influence on children, D&D is now making inroads in libraries and touting its value toward teaching children problem solving, teamwork, and mathematics and reading skills.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Chemistry is one of those subjects that really can flourish with the addition of multimedia elements, but often requires you to blow the whole budget on supplies and equipment. What you end up with is a state-of-the-art chemistry lab in which you show instructional videos that run on those ancient 8mm projectors talking about the dawn of atomic power.

If this is the case in your neck of the woods, you should check out the Chemistry Educational Digital Library. (more…)