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Best Games for Perseverance
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Minecraft: Education Edition
Stellar collaboration tools, controls make Minecraft classroom-ready
Bottom line: An excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking is now more accessible than ever to teachers.
Grades: K–12
Price: Paid $5 per user per year; schools may qualify for volume licensing.
The Infinite Arcade by Tinybop
Simple game-design app has endless creative potential
Bottom line: Letting students design, play, improve, and share their own games opens up opportunities for learning potential in many subject areas.
Zoombinis
Classic logic puzzler gets a beautiful new look
Bottom line: Promote powerful thinking skills, resilience, and decision making through purely fun gameplay that will keep students begging for more.
GooseChase EDU
Digital scavenger hunts provide dynamic, fresh learning experiences
Bottom line: Students and teachers will enjoy the powerful learning of a modern scavenger hunt.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Free, Paid Free version supports 1 live game and 5 teams. Plus version is $49 per year and supports unlimited live games, 10 teams, and 40 participants per game. Premium version is $199 per year and supports 40 teams and 200 participants per game and has email and phone support.
Minecraft
Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep
Bottom line: An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st-century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.
LittleBigPlanet 2
Accessible yet deep game creator will dazzle and challenge
Bottom line: A deeply charming experience for teachers and students interested in pushing boundaries, making things, and participating in a healthy community focused on boundless creativity.
Engare
Unique puzzle game's artistic geometry rewards and frustrates
Bottom line: Play for the surprising geometry and beautiful art; consult the web or just walk away for a while when stuck.
Grades: 4–12
Price: Paid $6.99
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Practice typing by exploring and defending a world made of paper
Bottom line: Great for practicing touch-typing skills, this adventure game draws players in with a slowly revealed backstory.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Paid $14.99
FTL: Faster Than Light
Failure is frequent and fun in this strategic starship sim
Bottom line: This starship simulator isn’t easy, but gritty kids will learn from failure and practice systems thinking.
Human Resource Machine
Addictive, unique way to supplement coding instruction
Bottom line: A novel way to learn programming that will require student collaboration and extra adult support.
Papo & Yo
Powerful tale of alcoholism uses puzzles and metaphor to build empathy
Bottom line: A beautiful game that's sure to build students' empathy skills and provoke deep conversations about alcoholism and abuse as well as metaphor.
Tyto Ecology
Well-developed biome sim provides cheap, endless learning
Bottom line: This affordable ecosystem balancing game teaches life science skills while keeping students engaged.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Paid $6.99 for base game (3 biomes); $3.99 for each biome expansion pack.
Antichamber
Brain buster makes you think in four dimensions
Bottom line: The non-Euclidean puzzles are sure to blow students' minds, but the trickier puzzles will definitely frustrate some students.
Grades: 7–12
Price: $19.99
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Unique cooperative adventure with lasting social and emotional impact
Bottom line: With good support, an extremely powerful game to build empathy.
Portal 2 Puzzle Maker
Mind-bending level editor for beloved physics game
Bottom line: For STEAM educators with the right tech and know-how, it'd be puzzling not to use this tool.
Grades: 7–12
Price: $19.99 Puzzle Maker is included with purchase of Portal 2.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms
Bottom line: As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.
Kerbal Space Program
Design and launch a rocket into space in realistic astrophysics sim
Bottom line: This accurate rocket sim encourages trial-and-error learning and makes for great (and often explosive) physics and engineering experiments.
Grades: 9–12
Price: Free to Try, Paid $39.99, free demo
This War of Mine
Strategy game offers superb, mature take on war and civilian survival
Bottom line: A stark portrayal of civilian life in a war-torn city that requires strategic thinking and invites repeated plays.
