Did you know that geography has its own week? To focus on the importance of geography in education, the National Geography Society has named November 14 through 20 National Geography Awareness week. And what better way to use the Internet, than to play games that integrate learning and fun. Of these five geography games, three require Java — which is included (without any additional download) in all of today's most popular browsers. [Editor's Note: An updated version of this topic can be found here: Geography Games]
Nestled among dozens of educational Java games for third to sixth graders are four geography games. On this page, you'll find Capital Field Trip, Flag Flags and Where in the World? U.S. State Detective ("Where is Illinois? No, that's Wisconsin.") is a click away on page four. Young children can play these games to learn the capitals, flags, countries and states. Older children can play timed games, racing against the clock to identify all the components of each game.
"Come on out and play in the new GeoBee Quiz! Show your geography smarts right here online. Each day we'll post five new questions from the National Geographic Bee. Some of the questions are real stumpers, but it's okay if you miss a few—you can play as often as you like." To visit the rest of National Geographic for Kids, look for the small "KIDS" button in the top left-hand corner.
Start your geography lesson by choosing a region of the world, and studying the interactive maps which name each country as your mouse passes over it. When you're ready for the games, each region has three to choose from: Find Game("Where is Finland?"), Quiz Game ("This country is famous for its clocks.") or Word Game (a hangman-like word guessing game). My favorite click? Quiz Game, but remember you must choose a region before you'll see the game choices.
"The game where your mind is your map." Choose from seven maps and five levels of difficulty. Level one starts with multiple choice questions ("Is this France, Russia or Germany?") Level five means spelling the country or state AND its capital city. But wait there's more! Hats off to Funbrain for including a two-player version, where each player can choose his own level of difficulty. And this marvelous game is Java-free, so it's compatible with older browsers and WebTV.
The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
Geo-GlobeGeoNet Game | Globe Spotter |
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