Educational Games for High School Students

Playing Educational Games With Your Teenager

Your high school student has a very busy social and academic life. Taking the time to play educational games together will help you bond with your busy teen and help him or her learn. Playing games together will give you opportunities to talk about school as well as what is going on in his or her social life. No one is ever too old to play educational games because students of all ages benefit by engaging in the learning process.

Tower Contest

This is a game that will help your teenager's math and physics skills. You will need:

• 25-50 dominos
• Table
• Math problems
• Timer
• Pencils
• Paper

First, give your teen a math problem to solve. If he is correct, he gets five seconds to run to the table and build a tower out of dominos as high as possible. At the end of the five seconds, he must stop building and it is the next player's turn to solve a math problem. If player two's answer is correct, she will run to the table and have five seconds to start building her own tower. Each player will get four opportunities to answer questions and to add on to their tower. If the tower falls down, he must start over.

At the end of the game, whoever has built the tallest tower is the winner. You can play individually or with teams if you have enough players. As an added challenge, you can add a time limit for solving the math problem.

Navigational Scavenger Hunt

Go to a large area, such as a park. Before playing the game, hide about five items, for example a teddy bear, a water bottle and a rubber duck. When your teen arrives at the park, review cardinal directions with her (north, south, east and west) and give her a sheet of paper that instructs her to find the five items using the cardinal directions. For example, tell her that a bear will be hidden behind a tree on the southwest corner of the park. See how many items she can find using her navigation skills. You can give her a compass if she needs it, but for a challenge, have her use her knowledge of her cardinal directions alone.

Planning a Trip

This game will help your child's research, reading and math skills. Have him pick a place that he would like to travel to that is out of state. Have him research the cost to reach his destination. He must pick at least two modes of transportation to compare whether it is by car, bus, airplane or train. He will have to research gas prices and mileage if he chooses driving by car. He will have to research on the cheapest airline, bus or train ticket fares if he chooses one of those modes. Have him create a graph of his comparisons and do a presentation for you once he is finished.