Explore 14 Natural Selection Mechanism 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 Science.

• BUMP combines fast-paced question review with a competitive challenge where students land shots and knock other teams off the platform.
• SCOOT gets students out of their seats and moving around the classroom as they rotate from desk to desk answering task cards.
• In FRAZZLED, teams answer questions to uncover mystery points, but one wrong answer or unlucky bomb can completely change the game.
• 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.
• In The BIG TERRIBLE Game, every team answers every question and earns unpredictable positive or negative points while trying to finish closest to zero.
• In GRUDGEBALL, teams answer questions to fire on their opponents’ ships, then make baskets to earn even more shots.
• TRASHKETBALL™ mixes fast-paced question review with a classroom shooting competition where correct answers earn shots for points.

Turning review into a game is one of my favorite ways to get students participating without making practice feel like more work. Students who normally sit back during review often jump into the action, working with their teammates and getting caught up in every question and result. 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.

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.