Today, you can use not only textbooks to learn. There are still a lot of resources on the Internet with high-quality and exciting materials. Video tutorials, training platforms, writing services like cheappaperwriting.com can give a lot of knowledge to the student.
Computer games are unlikely ever to become a full-fledged substitute for lessons. But do not think of them as a complete waste of time, either. Even if the game consists of running and shooting, it does not mean that it will not give the knowledge useful in school and life. We selected six computer games that will help awaken interest in physics, biology, English, and other subjects from the school curriculum.
1. Bad Piggies will give an understanding of physical laws
The famous Angry Birds is of little pedagogical use. But another, lesser-known Rovio creation can be safely recommended as a teaching aid. It turns out that the green pigs of Angry Birds can not only stand and wait until they get hit by a bird or a stone. These pigs are born inventors.
If the player’s goal is destruction in Angry Birds, then in Bad Piggies, it’s the opposite. At each level, a set of components is offered here, from which it is necessary to build a specific mechanism: a carriage or an aircraft on propellers or balloons. The car shakes and rattles, but it flies through the level to the flagged finish if designed successfully.
Bad Piggies will not teach you the formulas from the physics textbook but will give you something no less important – an intuitive understanding of the laws of kinematics. You can start playing Bad Piggies long before you’re told about them at school. If you’ve already encountered a problem, the story about its solution will be perceived much better.
2. Scribblenauts Remix will help you learn English
The choice of games that will help you improve your English is endless – you can take any, where there is at least a little text and no translation. But Scribblenauts is a rare case where the game pushes you to learn a lot of words and requires almost no knowledge of language constructions. The main thing you’ll need is a dictionary.
The idea of Scribblenauts pretends to be genius: the player writes the name of almost any object, and it materializes in the game world. And not just appears but begins to interact with the surrounding world.
Scribblenauts Remix includes many levels with tasks, the texts of which will have to be translated from English. But if there is no such a possibility, then the sandbox mode will be enough to start. Then, when it seems enough nouns, you can connect the adjectives. For example, what kid will refuse to ride the mechanical rhinoceros? But first, you have to learn how to write “mechanical” and “rhinoceros” in English.
3. Hearthstone will help with oral math
You might think that an addiction to collectible card games like Magic the Gathering is a pointless hobby that wastes a lot of time and money. It’s hard to argue with that, but there is some good in these games.
A distinctive feature of Hearthstone is a move time limit. That is, you have to make decisions quickly. To win here, you need to include logical thinking and hastily calculate all the options in your head. And, of course, the player has to constantly add, subtract and multiply the numbers written on the cards – there is no time to reach for a calculator. Perhaps Hearthstone is a little difficult for younger pupils, but even older pupils won’t mind working on their mental arithmetic.
The laws of mathematics help analysts, marketers, managers and business owners, investors. It is enough to know the simplest theories — and you can quickly solve pressing issues or overcome difficult obstacles on the way to success. Therefore, the Hearthstone game will not be superfluous on a child’s smartphone. Well, if your child is determined to enroll in business school, he will need the ability to write an MBA essay. Again, Essaysformoney.com will help with this task.
4. Human Resource Machine teaches you how to program
Most of the games on this list only provide additional knowledge on specific subjects. Human Resource Machine is different from most other games. This game teaches programming as close to reality as possible.
And Human Resource Machine is not a textbook on a particular language. Instead of memorizing commands of Basic or, say, Pascal, the authors of the game offer to master the very principles of computer operation. The conveyors on the left and right of the screen are input and output, and the area in the middle is analogous to processor registers. The player learns new commands one by one: move, copy, add and subtract, conditional and unconditional transitions. Oddly enough, Human Resource Machine, despite its seriousness, manages to remain a fascinating puzzle.
You can start mastering this game from the age when school begins to pass computer science. But there is no upper age limit – you can learn to program anytime.
5. Alchemy will ignite interest in chemistry
It all starts very simply. There are four elements drawn on the screen: fire, water, air, and earth. If you move one on top of the other, something new will appear. For example, the addition of water and air gives steam, fire and earth gives lava, lava combined with fire turns into stone.
Of course, this game is no substitute for chemistry lessons. Most of the combinations opened by the player are more connected with logic than with laws and formulas. That is why the game is called Alchemy, not Chemistry. So you’ll have to study the atomic structure and reaction equations in the old-fashioned. But Alchemy is quite capable of instilling interest in the natural sciences and experiments.
Moreover, Alchemy is not a specific game but rather a whole genre. One of its current implementations is Little Alchemy. It’s free, and you can play through a browser or by downloading the app from the App Store or Google Play.
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6. Spore tells the story of evolution
Is it possible to show the whole evolutionary history from single-celled organisms to space travel in one game? That’s the question the Maxis studio, known for its mega-popular Sims series, asked themselves and created Spore. In this game, everyone can create their organism and spend it through the history of evolution.
At first, we have just one cell at our disposal. It swims in the world’s ocean and tries to eat those that are smaller and run away from larger ones. Then it begins to divide and grow into a more complex organism. At each stage, the player determines the appearance of the future creature. In a special editor, you can add eyes, fins, barbs, and other necessary things.
At some point, life comes to land, begins to build nests, hunt in packs, gradually becomes smarter, builds dwellings, and makes tools. And there it is not long before cities appear. Finally, at the very end, the player creates a spaceship that can travel through the universe, look for habitable planets and repeat the entire journey.
The scale of Spore is breathtaking. Of course, this game will help prepare for the lessons – if not biology, then at least science. For example, you can print out screenshots from Spore and make a report for the class about the history of the race you created yourself.
To Conclude
Computer games teach children to make non-standard decisions. They develop cognitive thinking. So do not forbid a kid to play a helpful game. Perhaps thanks to this game, it will be easier for your child to cope with philosophy and nursing research topics at school.