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Games-Curriculum, Resources, and Materials for Teachers     

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Games-Curriculum, Resources, and Materials for Teachers     

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Games support children's learning across the curriculum in many ways. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) support game-based learning and allow children to apply their knowledge.

Science and engineering practices

Disciplinary core ideas

Crosscutting concepts

Games support children's learning by emphasizing building, creating, and experimenting, with games in the classroom, it creates an enticing and engaging classroom with technology.

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There's been a push lately to develop academic standards and assessment that emphasize doing things with knowledge rather than just knowledge for knowledge's sake. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) do a good job of this and, I would argue, are well suited to game-based learning.

This can be tough to gather from looking at the NGSS, however. Each standard has a dizzying amount of detail that's intimidating and can be off-putting. So let me break down the basics for you.

There are three building blocks to each standard:
(1) Science and Engineering Practices: think of these as the technical and scientific skills students should know, e.g. graphing data, diorama making
(2) Disciplinary Core Ideas: factual knowledge, e.g. the states of matter
(3) Crosscutting Concepts: key concepts that unite multiple standards, e.g. there are basic laws governing the universe

These three building blocks compose the Performance Expectation (PE), the core of the NGSS. PEs explain what students must do to show they have the necessary skills, core ideas, and conceptual knowledge.
MS-PS3-1 Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object. MS-PS3-2 Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
The Science of Knowing

As far as one can get excited about standards, PEs are sorta exciting. They have the potential to reorient learning from finding and cataloging answers to developing methods for knowing -- a necessary critical perspective in a world in which answers are a few clicks away. If used to their potential, PEs can get students to not just show they've learned something but to understand why something's worth knowing, ask better questions, and figure out how science knows what it knows. Pardon the academic-speak, but PEs can get students to think epistemologically -- or to think about the science of knowledge itself.

NGSS and Games: A Good Match

Ok, but why does this mean the NGSS and game-based learning are good partners? Well, traditional content-focused standards haven't melded well with games. Games aren't at their best when delivering rote content. Sure, there are some games -- , for instance -- that do it well. But these kinds of games are few and far between. On the other hand, there are endless great games that model systems. It's what games are really good at.

This means that games are also well suited to the kind of conceptual, hands-on, and experimental science at the core of the NGSS. Consider MinecraftEDU, for instance. Its content-agnostic design could be a huge benefit rather than a liability. Sure teachers could build lessons that teach specific topics in MinecraftEDU. But, more importantly for the NGSS, with MinecraftEDU students could build their own persistent experiential science museums, designing an array of experiments and experiences that hit on a bunch of PEs. They'd be content creators rather than consumers.

might not stick out as a game to use to teach the two physical science PEs listed above. After all, it doesn't explicitly teach students the definitions of kinetic and potential energy. Yet it can be used to build 2D games or interactives that show how mass and distance impact potential energy, or how potential energy translates into kinetic energy. Similarly, in Portal 2 Puzzle Maker kids can build levels that require players to use of potential energy to solve puzzles; students can then have their peers play their levels so that the level is teaching other students about the concept of potential energy.

Less a Textbook more a Laboratory

By focusing on building, modeling, creating, and experimenting, the NGSS make the prospect of using these games in the classroom more enticing, relevant, and valuable. However, to form these connections, teachers need to see games less as content delivery systems, like textbooks, and more platforms for experimentation and expression, like laboratories or artists studios. This is the real potential of games and learning, and the NGSS offer opportunities to make this happen.

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Game-Based Learning and the NGSS | Common Sense Education

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Games are the perfect platform for NGSS-style building, modeling, and experimenting.

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Outdoor Experiences-Curriculum, Resources, and Materials for Teachers 

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Outdoor Experiences-Curriculum, Resources, and Materials for Teachers 

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Playing outside brings children to life.

Outdoor classrooms bring many opportunities to explore, learn, move their bodies, build, and be free

Nature is important to expose children to

Supports the children's learning through play and exploration

Teachers can create an outdoor environment for learning and playing to become a nature-rich learning environment.

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Maintaining a Safe and Accessible Environment (Inclusive Play

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Maintaining a Safe and Accessible Environment (Inclusive Play

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Inclusive play areas or playgrounds are somewhere for everyone of all ages and abilities with no one left out.

The area should be designed to meet the needs of all

Incorporate the voices of the community

Inclusive play areas support children's development through play by giving all children the opportunity to play

Play is crucial to the development of all children so it is important to create playgrounds inclusive and safe for all children. The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law released by the Department of Justice prohibiting discrimination based on disability that creates minimum requirements for playgrounds. This helps to ensure that there is something for everyone to play and enrich their learning.

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Explore Inclusion

We know through extensive research that the key to effectively nurturing the potential of all people in play is dependent on inclusion. An inclusive recreation space is one of the best things a community can do for people. Inclusive play and recreation simply means no one is left out, and everyone-of all ages and abilities- can play to the greatest extent possible. A great inclusive space is more than just choosing products-the design should be based on validated, scholarly research, carefully considered products, and ultimately celebrate the voice of the community. At PlayCore, we've conducted more inclusive research, designed more inclusive products, and helped create more happy, successful inclusive community stories. Be one of them.
Request our Inclusion Programs

Research: Evidence-based design, programming, and products

No play and recreation company is as deeply invested in the study and development of inclusive play. Our unique inclusive play programs provide scholarly, evidence-based design and programming considerations for creating outdoor play environments and experiences that address the physical and social inclusion for people of all ages and abilities. These educational resources help communities move playgrounds beyond minimum accessibility guidelines to provide inclusive, multigenerational play destinations that encourage active, independent, and meaningful play for everyone. Inclusive play is our passion and purpose.

Programs: Our scholarly approach

Luckily, our partnerships with scholars and experts in inclusive play can help make this easy. Start with 7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design®, our inclusive planning guidebook created in partnership with Dr. Keith Christensen at Utah State University's Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice, which utilizes the 7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design to provide accurate considerations for an inclusive play space.

This best practice design guidebook contains supportive research, community engagement strategies, advocacy resources, and model inclusive play case examples for upgrading or designing outdoor inclusive play environments. Whole communities start with inclusively designed whole environments which carefully meet the needs of the whole child. Children want to 'Be' and feel fair, included, smart, independent, safe, active, and comfortable during play. The 7 Principles of Inclusive Playground Design focus on the usage of individual play activities as well as the context of the overall environmental design. By aligning these design principles and the specific guidelines and considerations, communities can create whole environments that support the active participation of all people, of all ages, and all abilities.

Check out 2 Play Together ®, an activity book filled with playground activities and programming tips designed to create awareness, break down barriers, and foster friendships between children of all abilities. The book contains supportive research and disability awareness tools and fun playground activities aligned to character education.

"The Me2 program is founded on the understanding that beyond disability, there are abilities; beyond accessibility, there is inclusion."

- Keith Christensen, Ph.D.
Faculty Fellow, Utah State University's Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice

ADA Playground Compliance Checklist

No play and recreation company is as deeply invested in the study and development of inclusive play. The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a comprehensive civil rights law released by the Department of Justice prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability. It addresses the accessibility of public playgrounds and provides information on minimum accessibility requirements for new playgrounds and/or retrofitting current play areas. In addition, our unique inclusive play programs provide scholarly, evidence-based design and programming considerations for creating outdoor play environments and experiences that address the physical and social inclusion for people of all ages and abilities. These educational resources help communities move playgrounds beyond minimum accessibility guidelines to provide inclusive, multigenerational play destinations that encourage active, independent, and meaningful play for everyone. Inclusive play is our passion and purpose.

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We know through extensive research that the key to effectively nurturing the potential of all people in play is dependent on inclusion. An inclusive recreation space is one of the best things a community can do for people. Inclusive play and recreation simply means no one is left out, and everyone-of all ages and abilities- can play to the greatest extent possible.