App review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated October 2016

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Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues - Mystery Coding Game

Name: Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues - Mystery Coding Game
Item: Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues - Mystery Coding Game
Rating: 3
Author: Amanda Bindel

Simple coding mystery fueled by fashion, friendship, and STEM

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Learning rating

Editorial review by Common Sense Education

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Grades

1–3 This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.

Subjects & Skills

Critical Thinking

Great for

Coding

Take a look inside

5 images

Play is divided into short chapters, making it easy for students to stop and restart.

Program the robot puppy to help solve the case.

Search for hidden objects to reveal clues.

Match objects and hear their role in the story.

Dress up Nancy and her friends in disguises.

Pros: Broad appeal incorporates fashion, dogs, and a fun narrative.

Cons: The coding and logic features lack depth and challenge.

Bottom Line: This girl-targeted STEM game is ambitious but shallow.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

If teachers want to offer students a variety of options for coding practice, this is definitely a tool to consider since it appeals to kids who are fans of fashion, puppies, Nancy Drew, and mysteries in general. There aren't teacher supports such as multiple user accounts, even though progress can be reset for another player, so it would be best for a 1-to-1 environment. Teachers could easily have students practice writing skills by retelling the story, focusing on a particular writing technique.

What Is It?

In Nancy Drew: Codes and Clues, Nancy and her friends have created a robot puppy for their school's tech fair, but the neighboring exhibit has gone missing. The girls set out to collect clues, try on disguises to fit each scene, and program their robot to help along the way.

The story plays out in six chapters, with each including a hidden-picture puzzle, analysis of the clues, dressing up for the scene, and programming the puppy with sequences and loops. Players collect charms as they complete different objectives to fill up a charm bracelet at the end of the adventure. Students can stop between chapters and not lose their progress, but there are no user accounts for shared devices.

Is It Good for Learning?

While players will practice sequences, loops, and logical thinking on this adventure, they won't find much depth or challenge. It has a lot of appealing elements, such as a fun narrative, relatively diverse characters, and a girl-power focus. Another strength is that the coding element is useful within the story instead of being an isolated skill out of context. However, the overall simplicity and repetition might not be enough to entice kids to play through to the end.

Targeted for younger players, the mystery is tame and peril-free, which may work well for the target audience but disappoint true Nancy Drew fans. Also, the dress-up activity only features a few ready-made outfits, which hampers creativity a bit. It would be nice to be able to toggle the reading on and off but leave sound effects on and have a broader range of clue-finding activities beyond hidden pictures. Overall, the concept and approach are admirable and fun, and with more depth and opportunities for kids to contribute to solving the mystery, it could be a rich experience for budding tech detectives.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating

Engagement Would it motivate students and hold their interest? Is it visually appealing? Would it inspire teachers to try something new or change their instruction?

Diverse characters are designed to appeal to girls through a mystery, themes of friendship, and dressing up in disguises.

Pedagogy Does the tool help teachers promote a more student-centered experience? Will students gain conceptual understanding or think critically? Does it deepen teachers’ pedagogical thinking?

Players don't contribute much to solving the mystery, but they get a front row seat to hearing Nancy and friends reason through it. The coding section introduces the basic logic of programming.

Support Can students and teachers get assistance when they need it? Is it created with people of different abilities and backgrounds in mind? Is learning reinforced and extended beyond the digital experience?

No hints for programming the game once started, but multiple ways to solve. Progress can be reset so another player can try, but there are no user accounts for shared devices.

Common Sense reviewer

Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher

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