Explore 7 Democratic Systems 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.

• Turn review into a team battle with BUMP, where correct answers earn shots and students can bump their opponents off the platform for extra points.
• Turn review into a team competition with TRASHKETBALL™, where students answer questions, earn shots, and try to outscore the other teams.
• In GRUDGEBALL, teams answer questions to fire on their opponents’ ships, then make baskets to earn even more shots.
• Turn review into an unpredictable whole-class competition with The BIG TERRIBLE Game, where every answer can send a team’s score in the right or wrong direction.
• 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.
• FRAZZLED turns review into an unpredictable competition where teams win points, lose points, steal points, and try to avoid the dreaded bomb.
• SCOOT combines review with movement as students rotate between desks and work their way through a set of topic-specific task cards.

I’ve always found that students are much more willing to review when they feel like they’re playing instead of studying. Before long, students are cheering, discussing answers, and asking to play again—even when their team didn’t win. The real change happens when students start looking ahead to the next game and realize that the more prepared they are, the better their chances of winning.

Want the evidence behind the games? Research comparing game-based learning with traditional approaches has found improvements in achievement, retention, and student motivation. See the research.