With more than 2000 science and math games and simulations, Legends of Learning has been used by hundreds of teachers from dozens of schools. This simulator game is intended for grades 3 – 8 across all Common Core and NGSS learning objectives.
As a math or science teacher, you will sometimes need to use an educational game if it’s hard for you to teach and explain about a subject to your students. Reportedly, the Legends of Learning is such a perfect choice for you that you can give to your students. But, knowing what the people say about this game is also a must for you.
What Is Legends of Learning?
We can say that Legends of Learning is a platform which provides a variety of math and science content intended for elementary and middle school students. One of the contents available at Legends of Learning is various games that claim to be aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) or the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
A variety of games available at this platform are not intended to teach new content, but to complete your instruction, since several games really introduce content, but they are often only through text.
Furthermore, the quality and the type of this game actually vary widely. It is known that some games come with catchy and colorful graphics and wacky characters, while some actually have music or robot voice-overs.
Through a series of multiple-choice questions which pop up, most games at Legends of Learning will review content before you make your next move, while others are memory games, interactive diagrams or simulations.
As a Teacher, How to Teach Legends of Learning?
Ideally, Legends of Learning can be used as a supplemental curriculum to strengthen new content or to review before tests or quizzes. As a teacher, you can also choose games and assessments and then add them to a playlist to assign your students. Well, the playlist tool is a very beneficial option that allows you to select games for your classes.
Need to know, the assessments will be limited to a bank of questions. Then, you can assign a simple assessment with questions that you choose and include free playtime on the playlist. After that, you need to track your student’s progress through the game and view what questions that they got incorrect.
At this time, the teachers are not able to make their own questions for the games. instead, they will have the choice of choosing from existing questions. The students are also allowed to create an avatar when they start out. Of course, diverse options are actually available, so that they can create an avatar which looks like them if they select.
At Legends of Learning, fill-in-blank questions are also available where each game will be labelled as Question or Instructional. However, the teachers may want to try each game first to ensure it is delivering what they expect.
It’s important to note, most Legends of Learning games are not strong enough on their own to give students a lasting learning experience. Certainly, teachers may have to wrap instruction around them. Since the game has integrated well-known PhET simulations into their gaming options, the game can be played for free at the PhET Interactive Simulations website.
How Worthy Is the Legends of Learning for Students?
According to some sources, the Legends of Learning is very worth playing, particularly for the topics that are not taught at school. With an attractive and catchy visual, the game will deliver something easy for students to understand what the games talk about.
Some teachers have found something related to what they are teaching on Legends of Learning, since all topics available include some games that allow educators to select ones they like best. However, many of the content questions are likely repeated across games for the same topics, so the students may not experience new questions just by playing another game.
The latest addition to Legends of Learning is the Awakening game, which can be played at home. The students will get cards allowing them to perform specific actions such as attacks, shields and many more once they answer a question correctly. They may get clothing for their avatar when they fight the monsters.
From some sources, we can say that the quality of Legends of Learning games are not strongly related to the Common Core Practice or NGSS. In most cases, most learning games have little application of the content with repeatable format. That means you play the game for a bit, pause to answer questions and the continue to play the game.
Pros and Cons of Legends of Learnings
Just like other learning games, the Legends of Learnings also delivers pros and cons. Here they are:
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- Pros
Legends of Learning provides a variety of games for each topic that allows the teachers to create class playlists, and the teachers will be able to track student progress. - Cons
The Legends of Learning gameplay is frequently too simplistic that is not connected to content. Some games available in this game also have misspelled words or mistakes in HTML code.
- Pros
Therefore, teachers probably find that reviewing math and science content with the game will be fun and simple. However, you do not expect many in-depth games which apply the content.
Teacher’s Reviews of Legends of Learnings
We finally found the teachers’ reviews of Legends of Learning on Commonsense.org. This review was posted by Bobby L., an Academic Technology Coach. He gave star-rating of the Legends of Learning with 5-star rating, as follow:
gave assessment of this game with 4 star-rating, as follow:
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- LEARNING SCORES ENGAGEMENT: 5-stars rating
- PEDAGOGY: 4-stars rating
- SUPPORT: 5-stars rating
Bobby L. also stated that Legends of Learning is such a great way to support learning and an excellent tool to use in the class. So far, this game really helps add gaming to your classroom. Most students are also motivated to complete each game or level.
Surprisingly! His students also improve their learning while playing Legends of Learning. The games are also interesting, as there are hundreds of different game types using a rigorous content quality testing process which includes teachers, external curriculum experts and internal academic team.
AUTHOR BIO
On my daily job, I am a software engineer, programmer & computer technician. My passion is assembling PC hardware, studying Operating System and all things related to computers technology. I also love to make short films for YouTube as a producer. More at about me…
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