Studies have shown that when learners are having fun they tend to retain more information and to be more interested in the topics being taught. We feel games are a great tool for education! Games can be enjoyable to play and therefore are a great tool for reinforcing educational values, principles, and concepts. Below are a variety of games geared at Middle School aged students that can be beneficial in the classroom, after school, or at home for reinforcing educational objectives.
The Aquicorn Cove Board Game
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Play as members of Lana’s village as they struggle to balance the economic needs of their people with the environmental effects of their actions. Help make decisions that are mutually beneficial and that protect The Aquicorn Cove.
Educational Focuses: Marine ecosystem, ocean ecology, marine conservation, aquatic ecosystems, environmental biology, sustainability, habitat preservation and coastal rehabilitation.
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Dragon MArket
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Can you plan your path through the pontoons to collect the merchandise to fill orders? You’ll have to think strategically to collect them all because the pontoons are shifting each turn as players move them and their characters around the Dragon Market!
Educational Focuses: Logical thinking, problem solving, spatial reasoning, flexible thinking, and planning.
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Brains Family: Castles & Dragons
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Play the Brains Family Burgen & Drachen (Castles & Dragons) with your whole family and see who thinks quickest on their feet! Compete to solve the puzzles, defeat the dragons and reach the castles! Win three rounds and you’ll be the winner!
Educational Focuses: Logic problems, deduction, memory, and problem solving.
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Taboo
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Take turns describing words to your team, but watch out! If you use a Taboo word, your opponents will buzz the buzzer and you’ll give the point for that card to them! Earn points for each card your team guesses correctly and for each card your opponents pass or use a Taboo word on! The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!
Educational Focuses: Vocabulary, creative thinking, and synonyms & antonyms.
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The Mystery at Stargazer's Manor
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Can you and your team solve The Mystery at Stargazer’s Manor and Escape the Room? You’ll have to solve puzzles, figure out secret codes and figure out why all of the strange noises and smells have started happening at the astronomer’s home!
Educational Focuses: Logic, problem solving, reasoning skills, teamwork, and good sportsmanship.
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With a bit of quick thinking and a few choice cards you may be able to out fumble your fellow ferrets. Using the cards you're dealt and the ones you may opt to buy, you will scramble to spell the highest scoring word. All while being challenged to make a word with 3 vowels, a word that starts with a vowel, three syllable words, a four letter word worth 10 or more points, double letters, and more.
Educational Focuses: Word game, spelling, vocabulary, three syllable words, adjectives, verbs, nouns, onomatopoeia, palindrome, and quick thinking.
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beez
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Plan the perfect series of flight paths for your Beez to collect the perfect nectar to complete your goals! Watch out for the other players, though, or their flight paths could jeopardize your ability to collect the right nectar! Collect the perfect combination of nectar to fulfill the common and your secret goals to score the most points and lead your Beez to victory!
Educational Focuses: Abstract thinking, planning, and strategic thinking.
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dixit
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Make up a one sentence story about a surreal image unique enough for other players to pick your card, and not your opponent’s cards, in Dixit! Earn points when your card is bet on and picked. Be the first to score thirty points, or the player with the most points at the end of the game to win!
Educational Focuses: Story Telling, guesswork, empathy, and interpretation.
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Gods Love Dinosaurs
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Gods Love Dinosaurs is a cute tile drafting and laying game about ecosystems and sustainability. Find the right balance of prey, predators, and dino’s and you’ll score a bunch of points. You will draft tile pieces that will either give you prey (bunny, rat, or frog), or a predator (eagle, tigers) and place them in your ecosystem. Prey will spawn additional prey when activated, Predators will starve if they are not able to eat or end their movement on a space with a prey, and dinos will starve if they are not able to eat (prey or predator) and end their movement on a mountain space. Will you be able to balance prey, predators, and dino’s to score big or will your ecosystem find itself undernourished and unsustainable?
Educational Focuses: Food chain cycle, predator vs prey, ecosystems, sustainability (food supply), strategic thinking, decision making, resource scarcity & management, and animal habitats.
Questions to ponder: If you exploit or under exploit a resource what happens? What happens if you don’t have predators? What happens if you don’t have enough prey? What happens if your predator eats too much or too little?
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Battleship
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Deploy your Battleships and attempt to sink your enemy’s in this classic board game that also helps players learn how to use a coordinate plane and to think critically!
Educational Focuses: Coordinate plane, axis awareness (X,Y), planning, and critical thinking.
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Brainwaves: Astute Goose
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Are you an Astute Goose or a Forgetful Flamingo? Can you help identify the suspect and their animal accomplice? Find out when you play Brainwaves: Astute Goose! Each turn, players will attempt to remember specific details about one suspect in the line-up in order to collect cards. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins!
Educational Focuses: Memory, fluid reasoning & intelligence, and working & episodic memory.
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Brains Japanischer Garten
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Lay out the perfect Japanese garden for each of the challenges included in Brains Japanischer Garten! Be careful to think through the requirements of each of the fifty challenges in order to solve it!
Educational Focuses: Logic problem, deduction, memory, and problem solving.
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Math Rush
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Work with your team to complete the challenges in Math Rush! The deck currently available is Addition and Subtraction. Releasing sometime in 2021 Genius Games will be adding 2 additional decks, Multiplication and Exponents, and Fractions, Decimals and Percent's. There are sure to be challenges aplenty for anyone trying to beef up their math skills!
Educational Focuses: Strategy, speed, mental math (addition, subtraction), sequencing, pattern recognition, cooperation, and processing speed.
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Round the world
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Be the most successful travel agent in the room as you furiously book long flights for your clients and make it impossible for your opponents to complete their flights as you attempt to fly Round the World! You’ll have to think fast and find the perfect balance between long flights and not-to-long flights! And remember to watch for those world class landmarks! They’ll either help or hurt your overall score!
Educational Focuses: Logical reasoning, world travel, and local and world geography.
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Trekking The national parks
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Race your opponents around the country while you’re Trekking the National Parks! Plan the best route and try to earn the most points by being the first player at each park! Be aware of your opponents, but remember to stop and enjoy the scenery!
Educational Focuses: Environmental biology, geography, history, plant species, animal habitats.
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Starlink
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Take turns drawing and guessing the Starlinks! On your turn as the artist, connect stars with straight-lines to make constellations. Win points by the number of other players who successfully guess your Starlink!
Educational Focuses: Differential thinking, fine motor skills, focus & attention, visual perception, creativity, art & drawing, and Astronomy.
Can be used with lessons about constellations, Star Facts, star dates and timeline, star classification, stellar structure, characteristics of stars, binary stars, evolution of stars, star formation, star naming, and history of observation.
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Superfight
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Prepare your fighters! Combine one fighter with one attribute you pick and one randomly assigned to you and get ready for the Superfight as you and your opponent debate which fighter would win in a fight! Then your fellow fighters vote on who was the most persuasive! The winner of the first round gears up to fight the next opponent!
Educational Focuses: Debate, creativity, and persuasion skills.
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Arboretum
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Arboretum is quite a strategic card game for 2 to 4 players. Whereas the mechanics seem simple (draw two cards, play one card, and discard one card), you’ll find that the decision making can be quite challenging. Create beautiful paths of trees to share with the world. Score points for the tree species you lay claim to. Ultimately the person with the most points wins. However, the tie breaker will make any person who loves nature smile!
Educational Focuses: Plant species (trees and forests), nature, environmental biology, and strategy game.
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Topiary
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You thought growing your magnificent Topiary garden would be the hardest part, but now you’re stuck trying to help all of your visitors find their perfect vantage point. Can you earn the most points by finding the best positions for each person or will your Topiary garden go under-appreciated?
Educational Focuses: Topiaries, ancient Rome, Flavian Dynasty, plant species, and history.
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Tatamokatsu
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Players in Tatamokatsu vie to be the last finger standing! Roll the dice, add the faces, and decide who loses a finger! Be the player with the last remaining finger to win the game!
Educational Focuses: Fine motor skills, dexterity, quick thinking, mental math, and good sportsmanship.
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Nerd Word
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Can you and your team give the perfect hint and guess the right Nerd Word in this fast paced trivia style game?
Educational Focuses: Biology, chemistry, physics, space, earth science, geology, laboratory, medical, and anatomy terminology.
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Dimension
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Draw three cards and pile all of the right balls on top of each other! You’ll have to be careful that only the combinations you need appear in your stack and carefully consider all of the Dimensions to win this game!
Educational Focuses: Multidimensional thinking, critical thinking, systems thinking, problem solving, effective reasoning, analyzing relationships, exploring algorithms, spatial reasoning, dexterity, 3d dimensional thinking and identify, analyze, translate, and generate patterns.
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Code Master
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Write the perfect program to get your avatar from your starting point to the portal and collect all of the crystals you need along the way! You’ll have to think carefully and troubleshoot any bugs to become the Code Master!
Educational Focuses: Programing, conditional events, logic, critical thinking, STEM, reasoning, and planning.
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Point Salad
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Amass the perfect collection of vegetables for your Point Salad! Draft the right cards to score the most points and be ready to change your strategy if a better salad comes your way!
Educational Focuses: Math, risk & reward, addition, subtraction, multiplication, set collection, decision making, good sportsmanship, and critical thinking.
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Tsuro
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Carefully place your tiles so that your path can be completed while skillfully avoiding the traps set by your opponents to force you off the gameboard! With the help of the mystical dragon, will you be the one to plot your path to enlightenment in Tsuro?
Educational Focuses: Multi step problem solving, spatial reasoning, graph theory, and patterns.
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Read and Play:
We recommend reading The Dragon and the Phoenix by Leslie Sims, The Boy Who Painted Dragons by Demi, and The Girl Who Drew a Phoenix by Demi. |
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Timeline
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Which came first, the fork or concrete? Place the items in the correct chronological order to get rid of the cards in your hand in Timeline Inventions. Be the first to correctly place all of your items to win the game!
Educational Focuses: History, historical timeline, order of events.
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Lost Cities
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Your whole life you dreamed of adventure, exploration, and treasure…. You grab your compass, a map, pocket knife, some rope, and put on your best hiking boots. You were able to obtain funding from a wealthy benefactor so you're off to see the world, discover artifacts and treasures, and possibly make it rich. The rules may seem simple, but the decisions will be tough.
Lost Cities the Card Game is a journey in mental math! Educational Focuses: Mental math, addition, subtraction, multiplication, investments, decision making skills, and strategic planning. Themes include archaeology, expedition, and exploration.
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The Alpha
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Can you lead your pack to be the most successful hunters before winter arrives? Carefully balancing the guarantees of the near forest with the big rewards (and big risks) of the far forest or even the farmer’s land will determine who is really best at being The Alpha!
Educational Focuses: Risk & reward, Alpha & Beta characteristics, leadership, survival of the fittest, food scarcity, prisoner’s dilemma, pact dominance, resource management, animal habitats, animal characteristics, and strategy.
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Before There Were Stars...
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Even Before there were Stars, there were storytellers. Join them and tell the story of your people in this constellation-based, story-telling game. Draft the constellation cards you need for your story and vote on your opponent’s stories! The player who earns the most star points at the end of the game wins.
Educational Focuses: Story telling, descriptive writing, parts of a story, character development, plot & plot twists, peer critiques, public speaking, origins of civilization stories, creation beliefs/ stories/ myths, astronomy, constellations, imagination.
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Read and Play:
We recommend reading When the World Was Young Creation and Pourquoi Tales by Margaret Mayo |
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Read and Play:
We recommend reading In the Beginning Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton |
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Downforce
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Bid on your favorite race car, and then play cards to move your car (and the other cars) to the finish-line. Place your bets at three stages in the race and tally your winnings and your surplus at the end of the race! The player who made the most money wins!
Educational Focuses: Auction & bidding, betting, strategic thinking, planning, and good sportsmanship.
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Mission X-COde
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X-Code is a fast-paced cooperative game in which players must work together and communicate to quickly crack the code by playing three matching cards on each space. But each card can only be passed in a specific fashion, so players will sometimes have to make multiple trades to get the right card to the right teammate!
Educational Focuses: Strategic thinking, planning, cooperation, teamwork, and quick thinking.
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Tuki
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In Tuki, players build their tukilik (based on the Inuit tukiliit tradition in which the Inuits built tukiliit to communicate important information) as accurately and fast as they can.
Educational Focuses: Inuit (Eskimos, American Indian) History, inukshuks, Message sending, Rock Sculptures, Communication, dexterity, quick thinking, problem solving.
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Reef
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Do your best to stack and place your corals in patterns that match cards in your hand and build your Reef! Players in this beautiful game strategically place resources to claim victory points in an effort to make the most diverse Reef and to win the game!
Educational Focuses: Oceanography, ecology, reef systems, nature, abstract strategy, pattern building, coral ecology, environmentalism, planning, strategic thinking.
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Hive
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Invade your opponent’s Hive, surround their queen and win! But remember to protect your Queen or your Hive will be the one destroyed!
Educational Focuses: Concentration, social skills, number recognition, shape recognition, grouping, counting, visual perception, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, and manual dexterity.
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Photosynthesis
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Photosynthesis is a beautiful 3D game about trees. Plant your groves, soak in the sun (energy), and watch your forest grow. During the game, you will plant trees from seedlings, grow trees to full growth, and eventually let die so new trees can grow. At the same time, the sun will be rotating causing different light patterns and shadows to form. Will your trees get the light (energy) they need? Will they be in the shadow of a giant tree, or will they be able to grow and survive?
Educational Focuses: Ecology, life science, environmentalism, canopy closure, and forest growth.
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Planet
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A whole new world is about to unfold! Do you have what it takes to create a perfect world with the ideal conditions for wildlife to flourish? Strategically position your terrain to form hospitable environments and ecosystems for animal life to develop! Win points by completing "Natural Habitat" objectives and by populating your Planet with the most animals possible. Can you create the most densely populated planet that is suitable for living?
Educational Focuses: Animal Habitats, natural habitats, origins of life, ecological territories, environmental science, matching biomes, ecosystems, problem solving, ecology, spatial reasoning, climates, and planning.
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Space Explorers
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The Space Race between the United States (USA) and the Soviet Union (USSR) was a remarkable time in history with many far-reaching achievements in science, space exploration, communication, and technology. Space Explorers is dedicated to all the folks that helped make space travel possible and honors one of the greatest achievements in the 20th century.
Educational Focuses: History of space exploration, Space Race, Cold War, and World Powers. The Space Race's effect on the world (20th century), communication, technology, and medical advancement. USA Spacecrafts: Explorer 1, Telstar 1, Apollo 11, Gemini IV, Tiros 1, Lunar Orbiter 3, Mariner 2, Pioneer Venus 2, Voyager 1, and Skylab. USSR (Soviet Union) Spacecrafts: Sputnik 1, Sputnik 3, Vostok 1, Voskhod 2, Proton 1, Luna 9, Lunokhod 1, Venera 7, Mars 3, and Soyuz 19.
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Aqualin
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In Aqualin, players vie to place schools of ocean dwellers by type or by color. In order to win, be the player that succeeds the best at their goal while carefully preventing your opponent from accomplishing theirs.
Educational Focuses: Oceanography, ecology, reef systems, nature, abstract strategy, pattern building, environmentalism, schools of sea creatures, planning, strategic thinking, and classifying organisms.
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Periodic
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"Periodic: A Game of The Elements is a strategy board game designed around the periodic table of elements, as well as some of the most fundamental principles in chemistry that can be derived from the structure and function of the periodic table.
Players maneuver across the periodic table to collect elements to score Goal Cards, and land on element groups to score points. Players either pay energy to use multiple periodic trends to move across the table, or select just one trend and collect all the energy payed to that trend!" (Description from Publisher: Genius Games) Educational Connections: Periodic table, chemistry, elements, noble gases, halogens, atomic radaii, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, metalloids, non-metals, post-transition metals, and atomic number.
Check out our lesson plan below!
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Quiddler
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Quiddler is a word game that challenges players to create words from the cards in their hand. The game lasts eight rounds, with three cards being dealt to each player in the first round, four cards in the second, five in the third, and so on. Each card has one or two letters on it as well as a point value. When a player can use all the cards in their hand (leaving one for a discard) then they can go out. You may play multiple words, but each word must contain at least two cards.
Educational Connections: Spelling, vocabulary building, word recognition, using a dictionary (in case of a word challenge), math, decision making, strategic thinking, planning, quick thinking, and problem solving.
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Bring Your Own Book
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In Bring Your Own Book, players take turns drawing prompts from the deck, then race to find the best phrase in their own book that satisfies the prompt. What's the tastiest “name for a candy bar” in that history textbook you're reading for school?
Educational Connections: Creativity & imagination, and language & vocabulary. Bring your own book can be used with any book or subject.
Check out our lesson plan below!
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Exchange
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Do you have what it takes to be a “Wolf of Wallstreet”? Will you have the highest new worth at the end? In Exchange, you will take on the role of one of the founders: Samuel Beebe, Leonard Bleecker, Peter Auspach, Alexander Zuntz, Ephraim Hart, Isaac M. Gomez, Andrew Barclay, Augustine Lawrence, Benjamin Wintrop, Giddeon McEvers, David Reedy, and Hugh Smith (signers of the Buttonwood Agreement from 1792 that would be the eventual beginning of the New York Stock Exchange). Players will have to adjust to the various market changes and forces (high demand, gain influence, stable market, national debt, housing boom, small business boom, oil bust, cure all, policy change, trade deal, natural disaster, fed intervention, and lack of interest) in hopes of buying low and selling high. The savviest of investors will win the game and the title of best trader.
Educational Connections: Stock market, market influence & forces, stocks & bonds, security exchange, insurance, net worth, banks, finance, buy & sell strategies, market predictions, market changes & effects, market bubble "pop", lobbyist, global economy, stock holding, history Of NY Stock Exchange, commodity speculation, Buttonwood Agreement, deduction, "Wolves of Wallstreet", and a great introduction to the world of Wallstreet.
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Catan
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Work on middle school economics with Catan! Trade, build, and settle with your friends. Educators can use the worksheets in the lesson plan below to show their students a first-hand look at what supply and demand is!
Educational Connections: Inventive thinking, exploration, colonization, settlement, city planning, habitat types, monopolies, resource scarcity, economic prioritization, free trade agreements, alliances, conflict, trade, civics, ratios and mathematical probability, geography, economics, and supply & demand
Check out our lesson plan below!
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Sushi Go!
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"Pass the sushi! In this fast-playing card game, the goal is to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for making the most maki rolls or for collecting a full set of sashimi. Dip your favorite nigiri in wasabi to triple its value. But be sure to leave room for dessert or else you’ll eat into your score! Gather the most points and consider yourself the sushi master!"
(Description from Publisher: Gamewright Games)
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Check out our selection of educational games for other grades: