Explore 7 Columbian Exchange & Global Interaction review games designed by a teacher to engage students and reinforce curriculum. When students are having fun, they forget they are reviewing, making games a great way to practice Social Studies.

• In GRUDGEBALL, teams answer questions to fire on their opponents’ ships, then make baskets to earn even more shots.
• The BIG TERRIBLE Game keeps the whole class involved as up to eight teams answer together and watch their scores swing above and below zero.
• The TERRIBLE Game makes review wonderfully terrible as teams answer questions, uncover unpredictable scores, and use positive and negative points to get closest to zero.
• Keep students on their toes with FRAZZLED, where every answer can reveal points, help the opposing team, or uncover a bomb that resets the score to zero.
• Get students moving with SCOOT, where they travel from desk to desk answering task cards and recording their answers along the way.
• In BUMP, correct answers earn students shots at the platform, where they can score even more points by bumping off opposing teams.
• TRASHKETBALL™ mixes fast-paced question review with a classroom shooting competition where correct answers earn shots for points.

When it’s time to review, a little competition can go a long way toward getting students focused, participating, and having fun. Once the game starts, students start talking, thinking, and working together, with hands shooting up and everyone waiting to see what happens next. When games become a regular part of review, students quickly learn that knowing the material gives them an advantage, and they start showing up ready to compete.

And it isn’t just something I’ve seen in my own classroom—research has found significant learning benefits from using educational games with students. See the research.