Designed to help you memorize names and facts about the 44 US Presidents? Combining flashcard-like facts with a “break-out” game mechanic, the app doles out multiple-choice questions like “Which President succeeded Thomas Jefferson.” To answer the question, you touch one of four labeled portraits. Correct answers give you a chance to fling a President, in ball form, at a set of aliens, until no more are remaining. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This one player trivia game for the Wii and DS lets you explore in a virtual town and schoolyard, where you encounter random motivational quotes from famous women mixed with mini-games. These include sliding puzzles, soccer goal making, tetherball, basketball, and multiple-choice-style trivia games. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This 14 page ebook glosses over the life of President Barack Obama, from growing up, to meeting Michelle Robinson, to working in the White House. Each page contains one or two photos that can be zoomed in on; along with automatic scrolling narrated text. Features include the ability to view the book in three languages (English, Chinese or Spanish), while hearing it in another language. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Mission US is a free (grant funded) adventure game that teaches US history. In Mission 1: For Crown or Colony? you help Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. Nat must complete tasks, meeting with merchants, soldiers, sailors and poets. The site is currently in beta form, and is open for free registration. Content includes reading primary historical documents, collecting period artifacts, and clicking on “Smartwords” (vocabulary) embedded in the dialog. Nat’s fate rests in players’ hands: Should he complete his apprenticeship and support the Patriots’ cause, remain loyal to the crown, or leave Boston, taking a new job at sea? No matter what path Nat chooses, he witnesses the events of the Boston Massacre and, ultimately, must decide where his allegiance lies. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This 14 page ebook for the iPad or iPhone glosses over the life of Michelle Obama, from birth through the White House. Each page contains a fun fact, consisting of a narrated page with scrolling text. Features include the ability to view the book in three languages (English, Chinese or Spanish), while hearing it in another language. In other words, you can see the printed pages in English, while hearing them in Chinese, or the other way around. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Following the historical battles of the infantry division The Big Red One, you play through some of the most famous battles of World War II. The game features 72 missions in total. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Great science and ecology content is combined with low levels of interactivity and a didactic presentation in Wonder Rotunda (www.wonderrotunda.com), a subscription-based ($45/year) web delivered service first released in the summer of 2009. In order to make the site work, you need a Flash-enabled browser and a credit card. No other software or downloads are required. We evaluated the service using a complimentary password provided by the publisher.
After you create a male or female character to represent yourself in the game show portion of the experience, you see a map representing 11 topics including: orchestra, rain forest, great barrier reef, American government, digestive system, Apollo 11, planet earth, kangaroos, healthy eating, the Serengeti and business adventure. By clicking on an area of the map, you launch a 20 minute or so animated adventure, in which pop-up facts appear. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
JP Dyson of the Strong Museum of Play’s National Center for the History of Electronic Games demonstrates a historic toy that raised the bar in electronic games. He starts by providing hints. How quickly can you guess which toy he’s talking about?
Presented at the Ninth Annual Dust or Magic Institute on November 3, 2009.