15 places with fun and engaging social studies games

National Archives Games
The British National Archives website has a nice selection of history themed games that you won't likely find elsewhere. One game is based on trench warfare while another centers around turning off your lights during a German air raid. What was it like to gather food during war? There's a game for that too.

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History Hunt
This engaging game from the St. Albans Museum challenges the player to find items that were stolen from the museum by the Norse god Loki. The player travels through time to find the items and also has to answer history questions. The St. Albans Museum also has a small selection of other history themes games and activities.

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Washington Crossing the Delaware
This simple game from the New Jersey State website challenges the player to guide George Washington across the icy Delaware River. The game is reminiscent of the 80's game Frogger where instead of avoiding cars, you dodge chunks of ice. The site has additional games that can be found here.

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BBC History Games
This selection of games comes from the BBC and focuses on British History. Each of the seven categories offers a variety of kids activities including a nice selection of history themed online games.

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Mission U.S.
The Mission U.S. games are top notch and generally well known by educators. Each of the sites three missions are based on major historical events and help make history fun for kids.

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Mr. Nussbaum's Social Studies Games
Mr. Nussbaum's website has a nice selection of social studies related games for grades K-5. The site's 14 games help to strengthen geography, economics and history knowledge.

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National Geographic's Geography Games
National Geographic has over 120 games based around geography, history, science and nature. One of their many excellent games is Go on a Family Adventure which challenges players to solve clues and show off their geography skills.

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H.I.P. Pocket Change Games
This game collection comes from the U.S. Mint and features 33 games, most with a social studies theme. There are games based on the three branches of government, Lewis and Clark and Jamestown just to name a few.

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iCivics
This highly recommended website has a terrific collection of games based on law and the U.S. Constitution. The site has 9 games and is a great ways to learn about the Constitution.

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Texas Law Focused Education Games
Many of the games here are based around the U.S. Constitution. There are games based on the Preamble, the three branches, and the Bill of Rights. There are law based games and even one about the Declaration of Independence.

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Sunnylands Civics Games
Here is another site with a nice collection of Constitution based games. The Bill of Rights, the Constitutional Convention and the 1st Amendment are all topics of some of the games you can find here.

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Road to Revolution
This game from PBS challengers the player to test their knowledge about the American Revolution while navigating their way toward independence. It is a fun and engaging way for students to demonstrate thier knowledge of America's War for Independence.

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History Globe's Jamestown Adventure
This game challenges the player to take on the role of the leader of the Jamestown Colony. The player has to make decisions to help the colony to survive while maintaining the position of leader. It is a great way to show the challenges that the settlers of the colony faced.

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Class Brain Social Studies Games
Class Brain is an educational game site with a large selection for students of all ages. Their social studies area has eight games that challenge players to run for president, test their geography knowledge, and even join the Peace Corps.

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This Day in History Game

Want to test your history knowledge, then why not try out this game from Shockwave games. You are given 8 events that took place on this date and you need to arrange them in chronological order.

27 websites that make learning science fun

Over the past month my most popular posts have consistently been science websites. Below, I have combined all the science websites that I have shared so far and have added six new ones. Whether you have been following my blog, or if this is your first time, I promise you will find many great resources for your students.

Science Kids

Science Kids is one of the best science websites for kids that I have seen so far. It is rich with content that students will find interesting, fun, and engaging. Science Kids offers experiments, quizzes, games, fun facts, pictures, videos, and more. I cannot possible do this site justice is a few sentences. Science Kids is a fantastic website to learn about science.

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Science Sparks

Science Sparks wants kids of all ages to love science. The site is full of simple experiments that can be done at home or in the classroom whether it's physics, biology, or chemistry. There is a section for preschool kids and one for students 5 years old and up. They also have an area just for kitchen experiments.

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Optics 4 Kids
Optics 4 Kids is a website from the Optical Society to help kids learn about the science of light. Students can learn about terms such as refraction and reflection or watch videos in their media library. There is an area for optical illusions and another with fun hands on activities. There are classroom materials available by going to the "About" section or you can find them here.

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Funology
Funology is a website that shares great ways that parents can interact with their children in a fun and educational way. Their science section contains dozens of fun, hands-on experiments that can be done at home or in school. There is also a section with fun facts and trivia about animals, bugs and insects.

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Make Me Genius
Make Me Genius primarily features science videos for students grades 1 - 7 on a wide range of topics. The site also has science based quizzes, tests and cool facts. The site also shares PowerPoint presentations and worksheets for teachers.

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Hey! LHS Kids
Hey! LHS Kids is a fun science website from Lawrence Hall of Science which features many opportunities for kids to have fun with science. Their "Explore your world" area at the top part of the page features 10 science experiments kids can do at home. As you scroll down the page there are games, quizzes and pictures from the Lawrence Hall of Science.

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Jefferson Lab
Jefferson Lab is a site with a collection of teacher and student resources. Look around and you'll discover hands on activities, science based games and puzzles, cool videos and a teacher's section. This site is a joint project between the  U.S. Department of Energy and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

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NOAA Education Resources
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (or NOAA) offers this portal to NOAA sponsored educational materials for teaching concepts and processes related to ocean, coastal, climate, weather, and Great Lake resources. Here you can find hundreds of educational resources centered around weather, ocean life, and climate.

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Exploratorium

Exploratorium Online is a digital library collection for lifelong learning from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The site contains hundreds of interactive learning activities and even more educational videos. You can browse their extensive collection by topic or activity. There is so much to see and do, be sure you block a chunk of time before you begin exploring.

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NASA Space Place

The NASA Space Place has been around for 15 years but it is still one of the best educational science websites around. There are hundreds of learning activities and educational games all centered around space and technology. You will find hands-on projects that kids can do with ordinary materials. Activities include interactive games, puzzles, animations and interactive demonstrations of science and technology concepts. Even though this site may not be new to you, it is likely new to your students.

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Seriously Amazing

Seriously Amazing not only inspired the title of my blog post, it is the name of an incredible website by the Smithsonian. It is an interactive learning web page where anyone can learn more about art, science, history and other cultures. The page is a mosaic of questions and pictures and you can explore the page by simply clicking one of the many choices. Seriously Amazing is a terrific website and it will engage curious learners for long periods of time.

Science and Innovation
Energy.gov, the website for the U.S. Department of Energy, contains multiple layers of educational material for students and teachers. Their science and innovation section provides links to articles and videos on physics, biology, chemistry and environmental science. These resources could prove useful for high school and college level instruction.

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Energy Kids
Next you'll find the science education section which when you first view it seem rather plain. There are a number of videos but looking deeper you'll find the Energy Kids area which is full of  energy-related kid's resources including games, riddles, field trips, and classroom activities. The site also contains a teacher's guide with lessons for students of all ages. 

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Energy Star Kids
Finally there is the Energy Star Kids section which explores energy conservation and is targeted for elementary level learners. This page does include information, games and a parent/teacher area with lesson plans.

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Everyday Mysteries
The Library of Congress website has a very cool science area called Everyday Mysteries where students explore science based questions and mysteries. There dozens of "mysteries" for students to examine from ten science based categories. Each "mystery" comes with a detailed explanation and pictures to help the student learn more about the topic. There are also additional resources given for those who are doing a research project.

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The Why Files

The Why Files is a website that helps students understand science through current events or maybe it helps kids understand current events through science. Either way, the site provides a variety of opportunities for students to learn about science in interesting ways. The home page looks like a newspaper and contains a few news stories from around the world. Each story explores is explored from a science perspective and includes pictures, diagrams, and charts to help students understand the topic. In addition to news, the site contains a classroom activities pages with discussion questions and quizzes from stories found on the web page. There is also an interactive section where students can learn about science based concepts through games and activities. Due to its focus on current events, the Why Files is just as useful to social studies teachers who may want to use it for current events and infuse some cross curricular science content.

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Science (and More) to Music

Science (and More) to Music is a very neat website where you can find songs about a wide variety of topics from science, to social studies and even math. The songs are all written and performed by the sites creator Dr. Lodge McCammon. Some of the songs contain lesson support material, some have videos, and all songs have lyrics that accompany the music. Science (an more) to Music is a fantastic resource for teacher to utilize.

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Science Bob

Science Bob (AKA Bob Pflugfelder) is a website that wants to make science more fun and interesting for kids. The site offers a variety of learning opportunities for visitors including a science questions and answers section, and research section with a huge collection of links to websites, and science fair ideas. The parts that kids might find most interesting are the three areas set aside for science experiments. There is the experiments page which lists materials and instructions for simple experiments that can be done at home or in the classroom. There is the experiments blog which is another page that shares simple experiment ideas only this page has pictures. Finally, there is the video page where you can watch Science Bob perform even more amazing science experiments. Science Bob is a fun and educational website that teachers and parents should take the time to explore. Teachers can integrate ideas from the website into their lessons while parents can use the website to help support their children's education.

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Symphony of Science

Symphony of Science is a project that combines science videos with music to create new and novel ways to learn science concepts. The videos are from well known scientists like Carl Sagan and Bill Nye and the content shared ranges from dinosaurs, to astronomy, to global warming. Symphony of Science videos are an excellent resource to support science curriculum in the classroom of from home. Science teachers and students should take the time to watch these videos and bookmark this site because their library continues to grow.

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Succeeding with Science

Sellafield Ltd.'s science education section is built around fun and interactive educational games, activities, and videos to help students learn and love science. The student activities are sorted by age range from 4-7 years up to 16+ and there is also a teachers section. Each activity come with PDF lesson plans and support materials as well. Science teachers at all levels should find this site to be useful way to support their curriculum.

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Periodic Videos

Periodic videos is a science based website that features videos about all the elements on the periodic table. The site is the creation of video journalist Brady Haran, featuring real working chemists from the University of Nottingham. The site also contains other science based videos based on molecules, science based road trips, the symbols of physics and astronomy and more. Science teachers and students will likely find the site both fun and educational.

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Understanding Science

Understanding Science is a site with a variety of resources to help increase student understanding of nature and process of science. The site offers options that will help both the science student and the science teacher. The site's Understanding Science 101 section and their resource library are places where students can explore to increase their content knowledge. Teachers can visit the sites various Teacher's Lounges to help with lesson plans, teaching tips and educational strategies.

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Science Made Fun
Science Made Fun wants kids to love science by showing how fun science can be. The site is colorful and makes silly sounds as you move your mouse around the page. Kids can read science trivia, science jokes, and play science games. The site also has just over a dozen experiments that kids can perform in school or at home under the supervision of their parents.

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BBC's KS2 Bite Size

This site from the BBC offers information, games, and quizzes on a wide variety of scientific topics. The site is very simple to navigate with only three categories: Living Things, Materials, and Physical Process. Each category contains the specific topics such as food chains, microorganisms, changing states, and  friction just to name a few. Each topic has opportunities to learn, play games, and take a quiz on the topic. 

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EurekAlert

EurekAlert is a science based site that offers a large collection of kid friendly, science based new articles. Their collections of news stories is extensive and would work well with the new Common Core State Standards. In addition to their news articles, they do have science trivia as well as a collection of science videos. 

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Love My Science

Love my Science offers a large selection of fun science experiments that can be performed safely at home or in school with everyday objects. There are well over one hundred experiments that cover biology, chemistry, and even physics.  The site also has fun science games and trivia for kids to enjoy.

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Cells Alive

Cells Alive is the place for students to go when learning about cells. They cover cell biology, microbiology, immunology, and microscopy while offering the type of features that keep kids engaged.Using animation, games, and puzzles, this site will help kids learn about cells. The site also has quizzes, worksheets, and a cell cam for kids to watch. 

10 Fantastic mapping websites!

The days of foldable paper maps are numbered but the world wide web is opening up the potential of maps by offering an amazing variety of cool websites that teachers should take the time to explore. Below are ten great mapping sites for you to use in the classroom.

1- History Pin

History Pin is an online collection of photographs, videos, audio files, and text that have been shared by people from around the world. Their tag line is "a global community collaborating around history." Users can post their documents or search a map to find things in their area or search by collection, channel, and project. One of my favorite features is their tours and collections section which contains documents all centered around specific topics or events.History Pin is a great resource for educators as well as anyone who loves history.

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2- Overlap Maps 

Overlap Maps is a website by Sunflower Education that allows you to compare the sizes of nations, states, bodies of water, man made features and objects from nature with each other. You simply select from two columns, click the green arrow, and presto, you get a picture with the two selections overlapped. Below you can see an overlap I did between Texas and Australia. It is easy to to, it is fun, and it is educational for everyone. Overlap Maps is useful for doing research on various topics and places.

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3-  Mapping History

Mapping History contains hundreds animated and interactive maps from key events in the history's of the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. The U.S. maps are sorted chronologically and by event or era. The European maps section is categorized more by topic and appears to be still under construction. The Latin America section is sorted into three regions (Caribbean, Central America, South America) and there are four African maps, each one shows the continent's division and political borders at various points of history. Mapping History is an excellent resource for the social studies classroom. 

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4-  Free Map Tools

Free Map Tools is an online resource that allows you to utilize maps in really cool and interesting ways. With this site you can find the distance between two points, by land and air. You are able to calculate the area of a region on a map. It allows you to determine how far you can travel while walking, riding a bike, or driving a car for a designated amount of travel time. It will even tell you where you would end up if you tunneled through the earth. Free Map Tools is a very cool website that has applications for social studies, science , and math teachers.

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5- Zip Skinny

Zip Skinny is a really cool site that provides quick and easy access to the census data for any community simply by typing in a zip code. The site also compares the data for the zip code you entered with neighboring communities, it provides a map and it has a section dedicated to schools. Zip Skinny could be handy if you are planning on moving or are looking for a college for your child. Zip Skinny could also be useful for learning about the U.S. Census or for school projects comparing communities, regions, or states.

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6- Maps of the World

If you think that the website Maps of the World offers a huge collection of maps, you would be correct. If you guessed that the maps were of continents, nations, states, and cities then you would be right about that as well. What I discovered about Maps of World that I didn't expect was the amount of facts and information that accompanied their maps. Included with each map is the history, the demographics, the economic data and other useful facts of the continent/nation/state you looked up. They also feature road maps, printable maps, route planners, railroad maps, physical maps, and "Top Ten" themed maps. Maps of the World is a great site for maps but it is so much more, it is a useful tool for learning about nations and their history.

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7-Google Sightseeing

Who wouldn't love to travel around the world and go to all the amazing places there is to see. Well Google Sightseeing is a website that that allows you to do just that from the comfort of your own home. The site utilizes Google Earth and Google Maps to create a world tour of places you have always wanted to see and many you didn't know existed. The sight allows you to search by country you wish to see or by category and there is also a section dedicated to street view. The site could be utilized in the classroom or as a way to plan a vacation. Google Sightseeing is not affiliated with Google in any way.

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8- The Redistricting Game

The Redistricting Game is a website by the Annenberg Center that was created to teach students about the issue of political redistricting also known as gerrymandering. The game provides a basic introduction to the redistricting system and players get to explore the ways in which gerrymandering can undermine the political system. The Redistricting Game also provides information about redistricting in every state as well as providing hands-on opportunities for civic engagement and political action. This site is an engaging way for students to explore this important part of the American political system.

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9- Knoemea World Data Atlas Maps

This website's collection of data maps is quite extensive with over 160 maps that provide a wide range of data. Here you can find world data maps about GDP, poverty rates, land usage, energy production, internet usage and crime statistics. Knomea's site also provides a wide array of data and statistics for every nation in the world. You can search by nation, statistical category, or specific data type. You can also compare data between various nations. This site is a powerful tool for anyone doing international research.

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10- Tour Builder

Tour Builder is a website that allows you to show people the places you've visited and the experiences you had by using Google Earth. It lets you choose the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your experience. The site can be used by foreign language students doing a presentation on a country or a social studies teacher teaching about events in history. Check out the amazing tours that have already been posted and you’ll see why the potential of this powerful website is limited to your imagination.