Games for Building Critical-Thinking Skills

Stellar collaboration tools, controls make Minecraft classroom-ready

Bottom Line: An excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking is now more accessible than ever to teachers.

Gentle chess puzzle game ideal for young newbies

Bottom Line: For kids who are new to chess but want to learn how to play, this fun intro to the game provides a well-done tutorial combined with a light overarching storyline.

Influential physics game is still a draw

Bottom Line: Instantly engaging and super accessible to learners of many ages and abilities, Crayon Physics Deluxe fuses conceptual science learning with a brand of playful problem solving that demands creativity.

Solve problems, puzzles, brain teasers while creating wacky machines

Bottom Line: Hands-on problem-solving leads to great fun and independent learning with the right curricular wraparound to connect what kids are doing with what they need to know.

Classic logic puzzler gets a beautiful new look

Bottom Line: Promote powerful thinking skills, resilience, and decision-making through purely fun gameplay that will keep students begging for more.

Spiraling sandbox of adventure and creation gets kids to dig deep

Bottom Line: An irresistible and seemingly limitless incubator for 21st century skills that, with a little guidance, can chart new courses for learning.

Clever fill-in-the-blank game playfully promotes literature

Bottom Line: A different spin on reading the classics can engage students in the short term, but teachers should find ways to extend learning.

Flex alchemical muscles in amusing, discovery-based puzzler

Bottom Line: This amusing puzzle game encourages creativity, perseverance, and systems thinking, and with creative integration it can build interest in math, science, history, and literature.

Addicting gameplay jazzes up geography

Bottom Line: Game-based platform can get kids interested in world geography and expose them to different cultures on a surface level.

Slick ethics game teaches students to make tough decisions

Bottom Line: This versatile game that can teach ethics, argumentation, and civics is light on interactivity but will come alive through discussion.

Vocab-building word puzzles inspire creative problem-solving

Bottom Line: Wide-open problem solving builds creativity, vocabulary, and spelling skills, but controls can be tricky.

Ambitious science role-playing game has bright future

Bottom Line: Diverse characters, immersive experiences, and useful teacher tools make this life science RPG worth checking out.

Music producing game balances fun with critical thinking and planning

Bottom Line: Students will have a blast with the music production and band-managing theme that carries with it some useful lessons in 21st century skills.

Refinement of strategy game formula supports historical exploration

Bottom Line: Like any consumer-oriented game, this experience will absorb and delight students far more than "educational" games, but it'll require open-minded and creative teaching.

An avant-garde journey of group dynamics sparks discussion

Bottom Line: An unusual app that will confuse and entertain classrooms, generating discussion on a number of societal and philosophical topics.

Authentic space agency sim focuses on logistics, planning

Bottom Line: This sim is backed by major space agencies, so it's a neat and trustworthy way to learn about the challenges of past and future space exploration.

Social media simulation builds news literacy skills

Bottom Line: This is a great tool to kick off critical discussions about news and social media.

Brilliant, charming puzzler challenges kids' ELA and math skills

Bottom Line: It's on Nintendo DS so it's not easy to weave into a classroom, but it's worth it, bridging ELA and math in complex puzzles guaranteed to absorb students.

Deceptively gentle coding game really packs a problem-solving punch

Bottom Line: This gorgeous, immersive programming game encourages novel solutions.

Stunning visuals, thoughtful feedback bring critical decision points to life

Bottom Line: An excellent tool for studying the events and ethics that guide pivotal moments in history.

Amusing puzzler challenges kids, teaches programming principles

Bottom Line: This high-quality puzzle game is a fun way for students to learn effective and efficient programming skills.

Spot real stories, dodge fake news in cheeky media literacy sim

Bottom Line: A refreshingly modern way for students to explore how to filter and interpret info and media during breaking news events.

Modern, minimalist fake news game has players be the villains

Bottom Line: Quick, fun, and to the point, this game gets at the social mechanics behind viral falsehoods.

WWII game has layers of learning, novel voice-based controls

Bottom Line: This is a refreshingly new approach to a WWII game that offers students a more accurate simulation of battlefield chaos.

Best entry in classic strategy series might not be best for classrooms

Bottom Line: As with all games in this series, Civilization VI is a great learning experience with the right support, but older, cheaper versions may be more practical for classrooms.

Provocative, first-person look at poverty builds empathy

Bottom Line: It'll need some scaffolding, but for students ready for the subject matter it's a great -- if sobering -- way to illustrate to students the daily realities and struggles of poverty in America.

Colonizing Mars is in our future, but why wait?

Bottom Line: Lots of potential and perhaps much better in a year or so of updates; use this in a class about space exploration and the harsh realities of colonization.

Charming political campaign sim mixes data analysis and civics

Bottom Line: It's a highly entertaining and surprisingly deep way to help students see the strategy -- as well as ethical choices -- involved in elections.

Mature immigration game forces tough ethical choices

Bottom Line: It's a provocative simulation about ethics and immigration that could spark debate but might be tough to implement.

Dynamic interactive helps classrooms explore topics of bias, diversity

Bottom Line: A fascinating way to address how communities become segregated due to individual bias.

Unassuming editorial sim elegantly exposes the business of bias

Bottom Line: What this game lacks in pizzazz it makes up for in smarts, and it's certain to get students thinking and talking about bias and media politics.

Strategy game offers superb, mature take on war and civilian survival

Bottom Line: A stark portrayal of civilian life in a war-torn city that requires strategic thinking and invites repeated plays.