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Serious games are games with purpose beyond just providing entertainment. Examples include, but are not limited to, games for learning, games for health, and games for policy and social change. Designing effective, engaging serious games requires theoretical understanding of learning, cognition, emotion, and play.

from Free Technology for Teachers

This blog lists 77 eductional game resources.

"a group of researchers in MIT's Education Arcade are trying to harness the power of MMO games to teach high school students to think like scientists and mathematicians. Their game, The Radix Endeavor, is designed to be an educational game, and capitalizes on the interactions students can have as a way to build their knowledge and skills. Radix, as it's known, is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards for biology, focusing on topics like genetics, evolution, ecology and human body systems. In math, the game is aligned to the Common Core and has particular focuses on algebra, probability and statistics, as well as geometry. The researchers worked with Filament Games and are funded by the Gates Foundation for the three-year project."

"THE Place For Educational Games! Our research-based and standards-aligned free educational math games and language arts games will engage, motivate, and help teach students. Click a button below to play our free multi-player and single-player games! In the future we'll add features enabling you to save records, tailor content for differentiated instruction, and pinpoint student problem areas."

"Arcademic Skill Builders are free research-based and standards-aligned educational games! Engage and motivate students with our multiplayer and single-player games."

Welcome to Virtual Stock Exchange, a free stock market game from MarketWatch. With VSE you can: * Create public or private games with a cash balance you set * Choose from thousands of available games * Test your strategy with a personal portfolio * Leverage powerful news and research resources from MarketWatch

Word Games is a free online game website dedicated to showcasing the very best Word Games online!

This site is a new multimedia project featuring free interactive adventure games set throughout U.S. history. The first game, Mission 1: For Crown or Coloni? puts players in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a 14 year old printer's apprentice in 1770 Boston. As players complete tasks throughout the city, they meet everyone from merchants to soldiers, sailors to poets, Patriots to Loyalists. The game reveals rising tensions threatening to come to a head, and, ultimately, players must choose where their loyalties lie. Teachers can use the website to manage classes and track student progress.

"Mission US is a multimedia project featuring free interactive adventure games set in different eras of U.S. history. The first game, Mission 1: "For Crown or Colony?," puts the player in the shoes of Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old printer's apprentice in 1770 Boston. As Nat navigates the city and completes tasks, he encounters a spectrum of people living and working there when tensions mount before the Boston Massacre. Ultimately, the player determines Nat's fate by deciding where his loyalties lie. Mission 2, "Flight to Freedom" (working title), which focuses on resistance to slavery, will launch in spring of 2011. Other missions, as well as a broadcast special, are planned for release in 2012."

Interactive games to learn about American history - The Revolution and Underground Railroad.

Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters! Linked to both national and state mathematics standards, the game gives students a chance to actually think like mathematicians.

Kids love this game! Although can be used from 5-8 grade with problem solving. It also has a whole graphic novel/comic style story that students get in segments as they complete levels of puzzles. They can go back to the story episodes at any time. They use maps and grids to find their way through this fantasy world.

"Web Wise Kids specializes in using the latest technology to teach online safety. We offer challenging and realistic computerized games that have been specially designed to reach young people like yours with the information they need to use the Internet safely. Each of the detective-style Internet safety games is based on an actual criminal case and is acted out by a live actor. Your students will be glued to their computer screen as they navigate the game - solving a crime, investigating the consequences of the character's poor choices and reflecting on how the Internet can be abused and how they can protect themselves. "

Provides free math worksheets, free math games, grammar quizzes and free phonics worksheets and games. Worksheets and games are organized by grades and topics. These printable math and phonics worksheets are auto generated.

Here is a list of educational games that can be used to teach kids during the school year or over the summer break. An interesting and eclectic list of games from a wide variety of sources.

"PurposeGames.com is host to educational quiz and trivia games created by its members. In just a few minutes, you can create your very own game to share with your friends!."

"A guide to apps, games, and websites that inspire and enrich - Search for apps, video games, and websites within the guide -- first by age, then by subject and skill. Added "Bright Idea" tips will give you smart, concrete ideas about how to extend what kids learn from these apps, games, and websites into your home and beyond."

Checkiing out Games for Change: Real World games, Real world impact. Free. Online!

Provides games and activities for students to develop their knowledge of foreign languages. Hello World has games and activities in nine languages including Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese. Not all of the games and activities are free, but enough of them are free to warrant listing as a good place for free learning activities.

I played the Blob (Music) and Cloud-Click (Math) games and they were fun! I didn't try the Algebra or periodic table games. It will take someone smarted than me! These four games are free. Whatever else they have needs MONEY!

This site has free computer games to put a fun spinon learning about government. This site is an expanded version of an earlier site called OurCourts.org. Games on icivics include "Do I Have a Right", in which the player runs a virtual firm specializing in constitutional law; "Executive Command," which offers a chance to play president; "Supreme Decision," about the Supreme Court; "Branches of Power," which gives the player control of all three brances of government; and "Law Craft," in which the player is a member of Congress. The Icivics program is based on Georgetown University Law School. The online role-playing games on Icivis are free, teacher-friendly, and effective--and it has been found that kids like them so much that they play them at home.

"a suite of free online learning games that encourage middle school to early high school-age youth to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Unlike many efforts to get kids excited about STEM, these games connect directly to their passions, abilities, and sense of identity, exposing them to the breadth and variety of STEM-based professions and allowing them to explore the potential pathways to these interesting careers."

Kodu lets kids create games on the PC and XBox via a simple visual programming language. Kodu can be used to teach creativity, problem solving, storytelling, as well as programming. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, young children as well as adults with no design or programming skills.