Use Georific for an in-class competition, like a geography bee. U.S. History teachers would likely find the most classroom use for the app, since there's a category for U.S. Capitals. Other categories, though interest-based, aren't specific enough to reflect a typical content area, but questions repeat frequently enough that kids can learn and retain some of the geographic information, even if it's obscure.
Continue readingIn Georific, students answer geography-related trivia by finding and pinnng a location on a world map. Scores are based on how close to the location they get. The length of each round is determined by how many miles or kilometers away each answer is from the actual location, with the beginning level allowing more range than the hard level. Students can play in single-player mode, sharing results on Facebook if they choose, or play a multiplayer game with up to five opponents. They can choose a quiz topic from Capitals of the World, General, History, Entertainment, Sports, Music, and U.S. Federal Capitals, and they can customize the challenge -- which determines how many miles off each round's answers can be before the round ends, not the actual difficulty of the questions -- from easy, intermediate, and hard. After students pin and submit the answer, the map adjusts to show the actual location, and scores are based on how close students got, offering a word (positive, like "Georific!" or negative, like "Ouch!") of feedback. Players get four Jokers to use for hints.
Even with crazy-challenging questions like "What is the capital of Andalusia?", Georific is incredibly fun. The snarky feedback for wrong answers helps kids not take the blow of being continents off too seriously, but after a bit of play, they'll actually start remembering and making sense of the geography. The questions do repeat pretty quickly, but rather than being a negative, that helps reinforce the information. Questions have lots of typos, which is distracting, and it'd be nice if players could exit a game and change the category without having to complete the whole round. It'd also be great if teachers could customize quizzes, as the information is pretty broad and beyond the scope of most high school curricula. The choices of entertainment, music, and sports add some high-interest play while still being really educational, and the history section doubles in teaching geography and history. Georific may not be perfect, but it is pretty terrific.