Radix Endeavor from MIT

The Radix Endeavor is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning in middle and high school. An MMO is a 2- or 3-D graphical, simulated world played online where individuals take on a digital character, or avatar, that they use to represent themselves in this virtual space. They can interact with the designed environment in which activities take place, and also with other individuals' avatars or non player avatars that are part of the narrative. IMO, it is clearly designed to meet the NGSS and then some. It's beautiful and full featured and top shelf artwork. That said, it is PAINFULLY SLOW, and does not appear to be maintained by anyone. Multiple request for tech support over the weeks I've been playing have gone unanswered.

Quandry from Games for Change

Players aged 8 and up shape the future of a new society while learning how to recognize ethical issues and deal with challenging situations in their own lives. Players lead a new human colony on a distant planet. They must make difficult decisions in which there are no clear right or wrong answers but important consequences – to themselves, to others in the colony and to the planet Braxos.

Players develop skills such as critical thinking, perspective-taking and decision-making. Quandry provides a framework for how to approach ethical decision-making without telling players what to think.



 

IME: Students are required to read, a lot. The interface for choosing topics/issues is not at all intuitive. But as a social studies RPG, it has a lot of potential. Recently, the developer is soliciting ideas for characters and scenarios. Post your feedback!

Diamante Poems

Surprisingly good activity within a literature or other content-specific unit, great for vocabulary building

Diamante Poem by readwritethink

Middle School Writing

Which Writing is Right?

sorting expository and other kinds of writing

a lot of reading, but useful training in understanding the characteristics of expository writing

creative writing games

the Everybody Writes collection

Although designed for use in the classroom or a workshop setting, they will be of interest to anyone looking for fun and stimulating creative writing exercises.

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/resources/search/?skip=0&search=games&resource_type=&activity_type_2=&activity_type=12&professional_type=&misc_list_1=&misc_list_2=&audience_type=&sort=title

BBC games: Lang Arts

State of Debate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/games/english/

interesting video based game in which the player has to navigate social situations