Cleveland Metroparks is sharing educational content online for kids stuck at home, including three interactive quiz games we created for their NatureTracks mobile classroom. The games serve as reinforcement for school-age children who are learning about wildlife habitats, adaptations, and the food chain.
We originally created this trio of interactive quiz games for use on touchscreen kiosks in the NatrureTracks Mobile Classroom. NatureTracks is designed to reach children in urban neighborhoods and help them learn about the wildlife that inhabits their own backyards. Now, we have re-tooled the games for online learning at home.
The games align with the Ohio Department of Education science standard, and won the Best Use of Social Good award at the Best Tech Awards in 2018. Try them out here!
Awesome Adaptations
What do tweezers and swimming flippers have in common with animals that inhabit Northeast Ohio's cities and suburbs? In this quiz, kids answers questions about a host of animals, from busy beavers, to rascally raccoons, to frogs with really weird noses! Game players are rewarded with full screen videos that demonstrate how these NEO animals have adapated to their environments.
Animal Memory Match
This variation of the classic Concentration card game challenges younger kids to match five sets of animals in different habitats from around Northeast Ohio. Each game focuses on a forest, meadow, city, or wetland habitat. Will you find the two Eastern Cottontails in the meadow? Or stumble across a pair of Striped Skunks in suburbia? Over 35 different species are covered in all, so children can play more than once.
Food Chain Challenge
The food chain starts with the sun and ends with decomposition. This guiz asks kids to fill in the steps of the food chain by placing a series of photos in the correct order. Oh, and to make things a little more difficult, one of the choices is, ehem, a red herring! Like the name suggests, this game is a bit more challenging, and is geared toward older grade schoolers. With over 30 plants, insects, and animals from around Northeast Ohio to arrange, it might take a couple of tries to get it right.
