New Research-Based Games Available for Elementary School Students

This press release was first published on PRWeb.com.

Legends of Learning launched more than 300 curriculum-based education games for elementary science for grades 3-5 at the National Science Teachers Association National Conference. The new games, created by more than 100 game developers, are based on rigorous academic research conducted in partnership with Vanderbilt University.

The elementary school games complement Legends of Learning’s existing middle school suite of more than 800 games and simulations. In total, Legends of Learning now offers more than 1,000 science games and simulations spanning grades 3-8. The games and platform were developed with direct input and feedback from Legends of Learning’s teacher community. The result is a platform that is easy to use and educator friendly, it has been called the “Spotify for learning games.”

The creation and development of these games is a labor of love for the game developers involved. Charcoal City Games in Baltimore, Md., has been developing games for Legends of Learning since the company was in its research phase. Charcoal City Games developer Drew Nicolo says, “The most rewarding part of this job is getting to work with teachers and their students. I love getting their feedback and insights.”

Nicolo, who has been playing video games since he was three years old and who knew he wanted to develop games when he was in high school, developed one of the early middle school games for Legends of Learning, called Little Newton. When Legends of Learning’s started building games for grades 3-5, it asked Nicolo to adapt his game for the younger grades.

Nicolo took his job one step further and created a thank-you video for one of the classes he worked with. Nicolo hopes that these students might consider getting into game development or a related field.

A teacher excited for elementary science games at the NSTA National Conference

Legends of Learning’s game-based learning platform includes: 

  • short games (5-20 minutes);
  • support for many state standards, including Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), TEKS (Texas), GSE (Georgia), and SOL (Virginia);
  • peer- and student-reviewed games that help teachers select content that engages students and helps them succeed in their studies;
  • an intuitive platform that allows teachers to easily deploy games in class via playlists and empowers advanced features, like in-class assessments and personalized learning; and
  • a dashboard to observe student comprehension in real time and assess content mastery.

“We are so excited by the response from the education community about our middle school games,” said Legends of Learning Founder and CEO Dr. Vadim Polikov. “As a child I loved games like ‘Oregon Trail.’ Using games in a school setting seemed like an idea that could work, one that is modern and meets students on their terms. We tested this hypothesis and built a unique platform with games that support students’ learning.”

Polikov, a research scientist, believes that research is the foundation for successful game-based learning and long-term education reform. He worked in partnership with Vanderbilt University to conduct the study “Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games into Extended Curricula,” which measured the performance of more than 1,000 students in seven states and in schools with differing student bodies, socioeconomic factors, and geographic locations. The study demonstrated with statistical significance that academic performance and engagement increase with curriculum-aligned game-based learning.

Differentiating Instructional Games from Question Games

Legends of Learning offers two types of science games on its platform, Instructional and Question games. To help teachers better delineate the games from each other, titles have been coded with I and Q , respectively.

Instructional Games

Each Learning Objective has a combination of instructional and quiz-based games.

These games help students master the concepts in each of our learning objectives. Game mechanics provide mechanisms for students to contemplate and understand how the scientific principles work within each lesson.

Instructional games are good for introducing subjects, for content mastery, and for enrichment. Don’t worry, no matter what lesson, subject or grade you are teaching, all 147 learning objectives have instructional games.

Question Games

These games range in difficulty, but all use questions to review the subject at hand. Question games are ideal to introduce subjects, to review, and more.

Some games can be quite engaging, using the questions as challenges for the students to successfully answer in order to continue. Of course, they want to get right through those questions so they can proceed with the game. Other games are less complex and may even be quizzes.

Which Games Are Right for Your Class?

You may still wonder what makes a good game, I or Q? In addition to type of game, each title has a description that tells you what is covered, difficulty and more.

But perhaps even more valuable are the game ratings. Almost every game has been played enough to be rated and reviewed by teachers and students.

You will find average ratings for each group. Usually teacher reviews are a good measure of educational quality, while student reviews tell you how engaging the game is. Don’t forget to read the teacher reviews to see what your peers had to say!

Play Instructional Games Today

Teach Super

We live in a society that idolizes super heroes. Everyone wants to be super, and teachers are no different: They can teach super. An elementary school teacher’s impact on a child surpasses almost anyone else in their life, other than parents and close relatives.

Do you know how important you are to your students?

By sparking curiosity and interest in a subject like science, you can build the foundation for a future career and lifelong passion. But it takes more than just an attentive teacher; it requires making STEM fun and playful.

Just last December, Getting Smart magazine noted how important it is to make science a fun activity. “Implementing a STEM curriculum during the early elementary grades which combines play with direct instruction can lead to long-term interest in these subjects,” writes Tracy Derrell. Maintaining interest from elementary and through middle school requires engagement.

That’s where teaching super comes into play.

The Need for Super Teachers

Teachers can be super by engaging students in science lessons.

The need for super teachers is real. Only 34% of 4th grade students achieved a score of “At or Above Proficient” on the science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The United States needs its youth to take on STEM careers. The country is currently reliant on foreign workers to fulfill its STEM workforce.

So how does an educator make science fun and playful?

For starters, you can make a game of it. That goes well beyond Legends of Learning’s elementary suite of games. There are many ways to make content accessible to students.

For example, consider these eight fun resources we found to help teachers preparing science students for tests. Or find a different way to make science more interesting and applicable to students’ real lives. There are hundreds of such activities across the Internet.

When You Teach Super

Two Legendary science teachers at FETC in Florida.

Experienced teachers know success often bubbles up as singular breakthrough events that occur during the long march of a school year. Teaching can become a slog, particularly in the winter months when the days are short and the work is long.

But then there’s that student who suddenly comes alive. Or that class that really gets into a lesson. Maybe a former student comes back to visit or reaches out and thanks you for providing that spark.

Consider how these two students fell in love with science as a result of witnessing the total solar eclipse last summer. The experience infused them with a new excitement for science.

So, Legend, every day is a great day to teach super.

Let us know how we can support you.

New Monthly Twitter Chat: #LegendaryChat

If you are on Twitter and you like game based learning (GBL), you’re in for a treat. Starting on Monday, April 2nd at 8pm ET, we’re launching our monthly Twitter chat, #LegendaryChat!

Taking over the Twitter account that night will be Legendary ambassador Amanda Glover (she’s also on Twitter and has her own EdTech blog). Get in on the conversation simply by using the hashtag #LegendaryChat.

For the inaugural #LegendaryChat, our topic will be Intro to Game-Based Learning. This chat is ideal for educators from all over the GBL spectrum, from classroom gaming experts to interested teachers who have never used game-based learning at all.

Participants will learn:

  • The benefits of bringing GBL to the classroom
  • Challenges faced by teachers who use GBL, and how to overcome them
  • Strategies for making GBL as effective as possible for students

In the meantime, there are tons of other education-related Twitter chats you can check out! Here are some of our favorites:

Ongoing chats:

  • #scichat: Exactly what it sounds like. Chat with other educators about all things science!
  • #elemchat: Anything and everything related to elementary education! This one is new for us, since we’ve just released our first few games for grades 3-5.

Legends of Learning participates in the #XPLAP Twitter chat.

Weekly chats:

  • #XPLAP: Stands for Explore Like a Pirate. Yep, that’s a thing. Tuesdays at 10pm ET.
  • #games4ed: A Twitter chat all about gaming in education! Thursdays at 8pm ET (though we like to check out this hashtag all week long).

Do you have another Twitter chat that you love? Let us know in the comments section.

Save the date and spread the word about #LegendaryChat on Monday, April 2nd. We can’t wait to see you online! And don’t forget to follow us at @legendlearning.

Student Player v2 Launched

As part of our grades 3-5 launch, we released a new version of our student game player. This new student player looks the same as the previous version, but offers a much more robust experience, including speedier, more reliable game performance and advanced game playing capabilities, including:

* Text to speech
* Multiple language support
* Translations
* 16:9 aspect ratio (most common aspect ratio for televisions and monitors)

In addition, the first 200 games for grades 3-5 are up on the platform in a beta release. We will be adding more games in March, completing the release.

Over the next few months, Legends of Learning’s development team will work on several new features, such as the ability to choose your own questions for gameplay, quick start playlists, and faster, stronger analytics. In addition, we will continue to improve our user interface based on feedback from teachers using the platform.

Community Is Re-Open for Business

Speaking of technical upgrades, the Legends of Learning Community just went through an expansive rebuild and restoration. When you reengage with the community, you will now be able to like and share posts and better communicate with fellow teachers.

The community is the best place to provide feedback to our developers, earn more coins, and win free swag. Log in (community.legendsoflearning.com) or sign up (https://www.legendsoflearning.com/join-us/)!

Finding the Riches in Game-Based Learning

By Caitlin Unterman, 8th Grade Science Teacher, Forest Middle School (VA)

Most in the education world believe that enrichment is the most important goal of a classroom. Teachers focus on creating opportunities that simultaneously enrich and engage students. However, many fail to recognize what is actually enrichment, and what is simply reinforcement.

Enrichment, by definition, is “the act of making someone wealthier.” I like to think this is wealth in the form of knowledge. Do a simple Google search and you find another definition of enrichment: “improving or enhancing the quality or value of something”.

Both definitions apply to our classrooms. And there is no better way to enhance the value of “something” than by adding what kids love best: games.

Another simple Google search can find you the EdTech definition of game-based learning: “Generally, game based learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.”

Put enrichment and game-based learning together by definition, and you would get “Generally, game based learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world, while improving or enhancing the quality or value of education.” As an 8th grade Earth Science teacher, that sounds pretty sweet.

Importance of Enrichment in All Content Areas

Like the majority of teachers, my enrichment efforts are based on data. Strands of weakness and complex learning concepts take priority as I work to innovate and plan creative units to convey the concepts better. Try teaching radiometric dating and half-life curves to a bunch of 8th graders who were put into a High School Credit science class… That is quite a challenge.

Game-based learning has become the Aleve to my headache in that regard. Students are far more interested in their phones than any piece of paper I hand out. So, I moved towards digital learning.

Using the game-based learning platform Legends of Learning, I created a pre-test playlist on geologic time, added an assessment pack at the end, and downloaded my students’ performance data. After highlighting the weaker strands (subcategories within the topic), I made a new playlist. I taught the concepts per usual, emphasizing the weaknesses shown in the pre-test playlist data, and then launched the playlist again after my normal teaching lessons. (For an example of how to track student performance, check out the Hall of Knowledge here.)

An enrichment playlist covering geologic time.

Much to my surprise, weak strands were no longer categorized as “weak”, moreso, “improving”. Take a look at the Vanderbilt study conducted in partnership with Legends of Learning, and it speaks for itself. Weak strands can become enhanced strands through game-based learning enrichment.

How to Implement Games to Target Weak Strands

Some may think, “All of this is great, but where do I start?” Game-based enrichment isn’t something you just wake up and decide to implement one day.

Instead, consider doing some critical data analysis, at least once, before jumping right in.

The data analysis portion of the Legends of Learning platform allows you to break down each learning objective by student performance.

Teachers can download student data to track progress during enrichment activities.

From this, identify the weak strands. Your definition of “weak” may differ from mine, but usually I emphasize those showing 50% mastery or below. Think about those weak strands in terms of what I call the 3 Vs: Volume, Value, Vocabulary. Let’s break those down:

Volume

On average, how much time do you spend emphasizing a strand? One day? One week? Strands that are only the focus of one day of class may not be as crucial as larger units you spend weeks on. Take out the strands that are “one-dayers”.

Value

Are the skills presented in this weak strand going to affect later learning objectives? Place an educational value on the learning objective. Is the concept crucial or supplementary?

Vocabulary

Is the learning objective heavy on vocab? If so, take a look at the overview and curriculum for each game. Find the key vocabulary needed, pack the playlist, schedule the playlist to run over the weekend as “homework,” and collect data on Monday. You should see improvement.

View curriculum details for each game before using it for enrichment.

The key to game-based enrichment is finding the value in the innovative learning that is taking place. Don’t just plug in games that are fun and engaging. The games need to emphasize weaknesses within the content in order for enrichment to be successful.

What are your experiences with using GBL for enrichment?

6 Resources to Add the Olympics to Your Lesson Plan

The PyeongChang Winter Olympics are halfway through, and students across the world are watching athletes stretch the limits of possibility. The games offer a great point of interest to engage students in classroom discussions. Here are several science resources on the Internet to help integrate the games into your lesson plans.

Six Lesson Ideas for the Olympics

The Science of Winter Olympic Sports: NBC Learn developed a series of science tutorial videos for the Sochi Olympics in Russia. Each video explains the scientific principles at play in various sports. There is even a video explaining the physics behind Shaun White’s dynamic half pipe skills.

Getting Physical: The New York Times Learning Network published an extensive learning plan for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. This is a very detailed lesson plan with great exercises that highlight the science behind the Olympics. Check it out.

The luge is just one of many winter Olympics sports that can be used to demonstrate physics to students.
Image by the Republic of Korea.

Olympic Engineering: What does it take to get a city ready for the Olympics? Teach Engineering encourages students to build their own event centers using design process. Students are encouraged to think out of the box as they meet some of the challenges facing them, from geography to resources. Recommended for elementary or early middle school students.

Lesson Plans for Purchase: Teachers Pay Teachers hosts a whole series of lesson plans geared around the games. If you filter down to science, there are still more than 50 lesson plans altogether! Prices range from $2 to $10.

Eight Great STEM Lesson Ideas: Pearson put together a series of math and science lessons related to the winter games, but these could easily be applied to a Summer Olympics, too. Science teachers will find weather-related exercises towards the end of the list.

Gold Medal Olympic Activities: Education World put together a series of Olympic exercises, also for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Some of these include turning your classroom into its own Olympic competition between students!

What would you add?

Is It the Device or the Media?

What’s wrong with children using electronic devices? Is it the amount of time they spend on a device or the media the choose to consume during that time?

Most coverage of electronic media use among children is damning. Citing a wide variety of negative studies, many articles are quick to point out how hard it is for students to learn and function when they are spending as much as 9 hours per day on electronic entertainment.

A great article from EdSurge disputes the notion that the amount of screen time matters. Instead, author Scott Traylor challenges readers to focus on setting limits on certain kinds of screen-based activities.

For example, is learning how to code or building a new app the same as watching Teen Titans? Hardly.

The Digital Reality of Passive and Active Media

In a Marshall Mcluhan-esque analysis of digital media, Traylor breaks down content into two categories: passive and active. McLuhan called such media “cold” and “warm,” respectively (Traylor’s chart depicts the colors opposite McLuhan’s; red for passive and blue for active).

Learning games and activities, collaborative digital projects, video conversations with friends and family, and coding are all productive uses of digital media. Of course, too much social media and movie time can be detrimental.

However, it may no longer be realistic to frame the digital media argument around screen time. Consider that we are operating in an environment where students are increasingly likely to receive Chromebooks rather than textbooks when they go to school.

Screens are becoming omnipresent in life. It’s what we let children do with them that counts. The media choice itself determines whether we create an iPad zombie or a software engineer. Just a thought.

What do you think?

by Geoff Livingston, author of Welcome to the Fifth Estate, and CMO at Legends of Learning

Call for Elementary School Ambassadors

Legends of Learning is looking for elementary school ambassadors. Grades 3-5 teachers who are willing to review our science for Life, Earth and Space, and Physical sciences. Ambassadors who sign up by February 12 will get early access to games.

This is your opportunity to shape the Legends of Learning platform and games from the ground floor. When you sign up for our community, let your voice be heard and make a difference not only in your classroom, but for educators across America!

Impact how kids learn through games and join forces with like-minded heroes to review and strengthen the Legends of Learning platform and the individual games. Your input helps improve our collective offering.

Earn Rewards

We reward teachers who are active in our network. Participation in our community garners you access to challenges where you can earn more credits to continue playing. You can also earn some crazy rewards, too. Not that a hero needs more motivation, but those whose exploits are truly legendary will receive t-shirts, Pez heads, or other Legends of Learning swag.

So what are you waiting for, Legend? Sign up today, and help make game based learning even better in our community today!

P.S. Interested teachers who are looking for a little lighter interaction with Legendary peers can join our private Facebook group, The Hall of Legends.

Game-Based Learning vs. Gamification: What’s the Difference?

A handful of game-related terms get thrown around the EdTech sphere. Two big ones are gamification and game-based learning (GBL).

But what exactly is the difference between these two? Many confuse the terms, but one is not the other.

Last Spring, just before my first day at Legends of Learning, a friend asked me what exactly we do. Ill-versed in EdTech buzzwords, I did my best to explain, and he said, “Oh, so you do gamification. We talk about it all the time in education consulting.”

To my uninitiated mind, “gamification” was a concise explanation, and I wondered why the term had never come up in previous conversations with the Legends team. It turns out, gamification isn’t what we do.

Gamification in Education: What it Looks Like

Let’s turn to our friends at Classcraft to show an example of gamified learning. I met them at ISTE 2017 in San Antonio, and they’re great — they even wrote a blog about us!

Classcraft defines the principle of gamification as “applying game principles to non-game situations.”

Basically, Classcraft is an experience, and it works like this:

Teachers deploy learning materials they’ve created—think worksheets, quizzes, and videos—as different destination points within a “Quest.”

On their side, students work through these materials to advance through the Quests at their own pace. As they complete their work, they travel across a map, from one end of an island to another.

A Classcraft quest, which employs gamification rather than game-based learning.

This is a fun way to visualize progress, and it uses the principles of an adventure game to capture students’ interest while they learn. That’s gamification.

The learning itself is done through traditional classroom assignments, not a game. That would be a different story.

Understanding Game-Based Learning (GBL)

Unlike the traditional classroom assignments that persist in a gamified classroom, game-based learning is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a method to teach and use games to introduce, enforce, or enrich learning concepts.

The idea behind this method is that learning through gameplay can be more engaging than traditional methods like lectures, textbooks, and worksheets. When students engage, they’re more likely to process new information. This makes for better subject matter retention, leading to higher test scores, as demonstrated by research.

Games are often more engaging than traditional learning tools because, of course, they’re fun. But beyond this highly unscientific assertion, how does GBL achieve higher engagement from an educational theory standpoint? Game-based learning expert, Dr. James Paul Gee, attributes it partially to the principle of “Performance Before Competence.”

In his essay “Good Video Games and Good Learning,” Dr. Gee explains that students playing a game “can perform before they are competent, supported by the design of the game, the ‘smart tools’ the game offers.”

This differs from more traditional learning methods, which often require students to read a text and become competent before they can start trying to perform tasks related to the new knowledge. For many students, these methods are far less effective than the “learn by doing” approach that GBL allows.

In short, engagement is the ticket to effective learning.

Keeping that in mind, let’s look at how gamification and GBL are similar, and why so many people tend to think they’re interchangeable.

A Key Similarity

Game-based ñearning and gamification are guided by the same overarching principle: morphing a traditional classroom task into a more engaging, competitive activity.

Take for example the Interactions in Ecosystems learning objective on our site. It is home to ten mini-games, ranging in length from 5-25 minutes. Each game interweaves specific science concepts — in this case, how ecosystems work, as delineated by the NGSS — into the gameplay.

Deep Sea Adventure, a game-based learning tool in the Interactions in Ecosystems learning objective.

In “Deep Sea Adventure,” you start as a tiny shrimp, eating plankton and avoiding predators, ultimately growing into a fish, a jellyfish, a turtle, and a shark. In “EcoKingdoms: Interactions,” your role is park manager, making decisions to balance the flora, fauna, and finances that are crucial to the park’s operation.

Other GBL experiences feature competition amongst students. They compete with one another and motivate each other to perform at a higher level in the game. Some learning games even have leaderboards so students can compete against players all over the world.

Have you ever tried to get small children to help clean up their toys after making a mess? One effective strategy is to say “I bet I can clean up more toys than you… ready, go!” Nine times out of ten, the child will go whizzing around their bedroom trying to beat you in the new “clean-up game” you just created. That is gamification at work.

Competition is a motivator, and can make any task — whether cleaning the playroom or learning science — a lot more fun. So if GBL and gamification share this core similarity, why is the distinction so important?

gamification vs game based learning

Gamification alters significant structural aspects of the learning experience, breaking from the norms of lectures and worksheets. Teachers gamify their classrooms for a fresh new approach to a complex concept.

Game-based learning resources can be flexibly plugged into a traditional classroom, and interchanged for other tasks like worksheets, without altering how the classroom runs overall.

Next time you talk tech in the teacher’s lounge, see if your colleagues know the difference. Let them know you’re not playing around!

Try out Awakening, our uniquely engaging, award-winning, solution for game-based learning.


Are you new to Legends of Learning and eager to try these games? Sign up now and embark on an educational adventure!


Have questions? Reach out to us at support@legendsoflearning.com


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