Presents a model of instructional games and learning that elaborates key features of games that are of interest from an instructional perspective; the game cycle of user judgments, behavior, and feedback; and types of learning outcomes that can be achieved. Discusses implications for the design and implementation of effective instructional games.…

Outdoor lesson plan aims to stimulate student interest in animals' adaptations to winter and the various signs and clues to animal behavior. Includes questions for class discussion, tips for guiding the hike, and instructions for two games that illustrate the predator-prey relationship. Notes curriculum connections to the East York (Ontario) Board…

This article describes the German word game, Lex-Olympics, which provides students with an entertaining way to learn German vocabulary and grammar. Questions are presented in multiple choice format, and twenty different topics are available for three different levels of difficulty (beginning, intermediate, advanced). (AP)

Focuses on instructional games designed to teach about environmental topics such as wetlands, pollution, endangered species, population, energy, and individual effects on the environment. Fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students (N=295) were tested, and significant results were found between students who played four games and those who did not…

Describes Chomp, an educational strategy game for use in high school programming courses that can encourage cooperative learning. Discusses rules of the game; Chomp players; Chomp board programs; Chomp tournaments; Chomp strategies; and extensions of the activity that can involve more advanced mathematics. (LRW)

Recommends a handful of activities that have consistently proven both useful to the author and helpful to his students. Describes activities including the Thesaurus Game, Word Pairs, Signs and Notices, the Sears Roebuck Game, the Mental Symposium, and Cubing. Concludes that these six devices prod students in directions that help them concentrate…

Describes the design of an online competitive learning environment that involved three basic competitive forms and 16 competitive activities to stimulate student motivation. Explains "Joyce", a system in which users can compete with either a computer agent or via the Internet. (Author/LRW)

Poses a problem in which readers are asked to determine which pentomino pieces will form a square. (YDS)

Uses letter matrix puzzles to teach about chemical symbols. (YDS)

Describes an "eco-count" project that led to the creation of a community map and educational game being painted on an elementary school playground. The multidisciplinary project involved students, teachers, parents, and other community members and the resulting map includes sections related to the local "green environment", "built environment",…

Presents a rapid memory game that allows students of Spanish to distinguish promptly between the uses of the prepositions "por" and "para." Explains the game and various accompanying activities. (AS)

Provides a classification scheme for computer simulation, role playing, and educational games. Discusses outcomes of each when applied in business and management education and training. (Contains 52 references.) (SK)

Explores how training simulations may need to become more sophisticated and media rich in order to stimulate and engage students. Considers that one possible interface between journalism simulations and technology is the area of video games. Defines four basic characteristics of a computer game. Presents two scenarios for implementing these ideas.…

Describes a simulation card game involved with the dumping of hazardous wastes that was designed to explore the trade-off between industrial competition and social concern. Steps of play are described for the game, which is called GARBAGE, and debriefing techniques are suggested, including an affective phase and a cognitive phase. (LRW)

Describes an exercise that affords students the opportunity to articulate their ideas before a group of peers who challenge one another to clarify generalizations. (RAE)