Summer is a time for students, parents and teachers to get a break from the rigors of academic life and prepare themselves for the upcoming school year. Unfortunately, most students will inevitably fall victim to brain drain during this time.
Summer brain drain refers to the loss of skills, especially in reading and mathematics, during the summer months when children aren’t in school.
The National Summer Learning Association has found that students who do not participate in educational activities during the summer tend to show a decrease in scores on standardized tests taken once school resumes in the fall, compared to the same test they took at the end of the previous school year.
To combat summer brain drain, it is recommended that parents find as many educational opportunities as possible for children to participate in during the summer months. One way of accomplishing this could be through digital educational games.
Educational games have been shown to support learning, especially in the academic subjects most affected by summer brain drain.
Educational games can be found on a variety of platforms, such as desktop computers and Internet and smartphone games. For example, the iOS app store has hundreds of games in the educational category, covering such subjects as math, science, geometry, reading and language learning. A good educational game is one that is entertaining, engaging and one that you learn something by playing.
The University of Alabama’s Dr. Andre Denham offers some tips for parents looking for good educational games to combat summer brain drain.
- Read the reviews posted about the game. Many times this is a good way of determining if the game is fun and educational.
- Look to see if the game has a website that provides lessons and/or tips for parents and teachers.
- Look for games that are mapped to Common Core and/or State Standards.
- Play the game yourself! If you find the game to be challenging, entertaining and educational then your child will probably feel the same way.
Here are examples of some highly rated educational video games
- DragonBox Algebra (http://www.dragonboxapp.com) Provides an introduction to algebra. iOS and Android; Ages 5+
- The Human Body; Plants; Homes; Simple Machine; The Robot Factory (http://tinybop.com/apps): These are all games/interactive learning environments developed by Tinybop which focus on a variety of subjects. iOS; Ages 4+
- Brainpop (https://www.brainpop.com/games/) Collection of educational game broken up by subject areas. Web, iOS, Android, Chrome; Ages 6+
- The Grading Game (http://www.gradinggame.com) A game where players take on the role of a teacher and grade papers by identifying grammatical and spelling errors. iOS; Ages 6+
Additional games can be seen by visiting AppCrawlr (http://appcrawlr.com), which is an app discovery search engine; the iOS and Google Play stores; or run a simple Google search for educational games based on subject.
A few minutes of game play a day could help your child maintain their skills during the summer.
Denham is an assistant professor in instructional technology in UA’s College of Education.
