Explore 7 Human Origins review games designed by a teacher to engage students and reinforce curriculum. Turn Social Studies review into a game and give students a reason to get excited about showing what they know.

• TRASHKETBALL™ gets teams racing to answer correctly, then rewards them with shots at the trash can to score points.
• The BIG TERRIBLE Game gets up to eight teams answering every question while unpredictable positive and negative points keep everyone guessing until the end.
• In FRAZZLED, teams answer questions to uncover mystery points, but one wrong answer or unlucky bomb can completely change the game.
• BUMP combines fast-paced question review with a competitive challenge where students land shots and knock other teams off the platform.
• GRUDGEBALL combines question review with a battle for survival as teams fire cannons, sink opposing ships, and fight to be the last one afloat.
• 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.
• With SCOOT, students move around the room answering task cards, turning curriculum review into an active classroom game.

Turning review into a game is one of my favorite ways to get students participating without making practice feel like more work. You’ll see students lean into the questions, debate answers with their teammates, and hang on every result as the game unfolds. 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.

There’s research behind the fun too, with studies finding better academic performance and greater student engagement when games are brought into learning. See the research.