"Zoombinis" Now On FableVision Games!

The little blue guys on a logical adventure have found a new home!

The award-winning relaunch of the classic, beloved ’90s game Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is now available for classroom use on FableVision Games. Created in partnership with TERC, a not-for-profit leader in K-12 math and science education, and the Learning Games Network, a not-for-profit game company, Zoombinis is an engaging and entertaining logic puzzle game designed to teach Computational Thinking (CT) for grades 3-8. 

Players must use their logical reasoning, data analysis, pattern finding, and problem-solving skills to help their Zoombini characters complete unique challenges, escape imprisonment from the evil Bloats, and reach the promised land of Zoombiniville. On this journey, they face 12 puzzles and four levels of increasing difficulty in each, including Pizza Pass, Titanic Tattooed Toads, and Mudball Wall. The Zoombinis travel in groups across multiple levels until all 400 blue creatures are saved.

Zoombinis uses implicit learning—learning that can’t be necessarily articulated on a test or in a question, but that manifests itself as behaviors or practices within a game. Throughout gameplay, players learn important life skills including algebraic thinking, data analysis, and theory formulation in a fun and engaging setting. 

The classroom version features additional educator materials and guides, as well as tracking that allows educators to collect data as their students play Zoombinis, and—through the use of detectors—identify when players demonstrate the four fundamental practices of CT: problem decomposition, pattern recognition, algorithm design, and abstraction as they appear within the puzzles.

The web game is now available to play on FableVision Games, where you can also access accompanying professional development resources.

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"Cyberchase Fractions Quest" Now Available for Purchase!

Blast your students’ fractions skills into Cyberspace with Cyberchase Fractions Quest, now available for classroom play! After a successful summer beta launch, FableVision is thrilled to invite educators to experience the world of PBS KIDS’ popular math series Cyberchase. Third and fourth-grade students embark on an immersive journey that integrates an interactive adventure with a research-based approach to fractions contexts. The game (complete with educator dashboard for student performance tracking) and corresponding Teacher Guide are available for purchase now on FableVision Games. 

The villain Hacker and his henchbots Buzz and Delete have captured the CyberSquad and it’s up to your students to save the day. In order to save the Motherboard from his dastardly plot, students step into the role of the hero and use their mathematical sequences and problem-solving skills to outsmart Hacker. As they explore Ecotopia, Castleblanca, Aquari-Yum, and Radopolis, students play through a series of minigames and make leaf parachutes for chameleons using their knowledge of fair shares, make tacos for underwater friends by practicing adding fractions, and more!

In collaboration with THIRTEEN and Education Development Center (EDC), FableVision created this game-based learning and assessment tool to offer a holistic view of fractions as parts of a whole and ensure fractions and future STEM learning success! Cyberchase Fractions Quest makes learning fun and challenges common teaching methods by using the latest research surrounding the best ways children learn fractions. The game follows the sequence and scope of fractions learning aligned with the Common Core Standards for Grade 3 and 4 mathematical structure. As they progress through the game, students explore different contexts of fractions including area, set, and number line. Combining research-based fractions teaching methods with an engaging narrative context, this game motivates students and increases their confidence in the classroom by improving their understanding of complicated math.

Cyberchase Fractions Quest is a result of a 2.5-year-long research project as part of the IES Department of Education SBIR program. The game also features additional professional development and game integration resources that are fully customizable to each classroom’s needs, allowing for maximum fractions learning fun and success. Formative assessment and cumulative review are also embedded in the game through the problem sets that students encounter. In the state-of-the-art teacher dashboard, educators can track students’ progress through the four CyberSites, how they performed in mini-games (out of three stars), and scores in the formal assessment pieces of the game.

Curious to learn more about using Cyberchase Fractions Quest in this time of blended learning? Check out our recorded edWeb webinar here.

FableVision & WNET Debut New "Born-Accessible" Cyberchase Game

Join the CyberSquad for Batty "Echo Explorers" adventure!

Hacker’s up to his usual tricks (or treats) and has created a bat-tastrophe! As you wind down from your Bat Week and Halloween celebrations, join FableVision in keeping this fall fun and fang-tastic with the launch of Echo Explorers! If you’re as batty for these winged creatures as we are, you’ll want to check out this born-accessible game, created in partnership with WNET and Bridge Multimedia and based on the popular, award-winning PBS KIDS show Cyberchase.

Digit’s cousin Brigit has a problem: the adorable bats that usually pollinate her cactus apple flowers are missing! It turns out Hacker has trapped them in caves. It’s up to the CyberSquad to rescue the bats and help Brigit’s cactus apples grow again. To free the bats, players must enter a series of dark caves and use echolocation, as well as their skills in mapping and coordinates, to locate machine parts hidden on a grid. Once they locate all the machine parts, players can smash, break, and chomp through the various cave walls and progress through the game levels. 

Echo Explorers is versatile fun for any child. Inspired by the Cyberchase episode “Missing Bats in Sensible Flats,” this online game was created for kids of diverse learning abilities and physical, social-emotional, and cognitive differences. Echo Explorers can be tailored to each child’s unique needs and sensitivities through built-in accessibility panels available at any point in the game for easy adjustments.

Accessibility is incorporated into the art and visuals of the game, with high-contrast and color-blind friendly colors as well as easily-readable text sizes and fonts. Players also have the option of decreasing in difficulty, staying at the current level, or moving up a level of difficulty after each completed excursion. To navigate the game, keyboard, mouse, or eye-tracking technology can be used as controls. As with all PBS KIDS games, captioning is included. 

Echo Explorers is ready to play now! The game is mobile and web-friendly to be used on phones, tablets, and desktops. For more information about how to set up and integrate Echo Explorers in your classroom or home, click here. So play now on the PBS KIDS website and games app—the bats are waiting, and the CyberSquad wants all kids on board!

National Manager Day Highlight: Make That Paper!

Happy National Manager Day! This year, FableVision is planting the seeds of the future with Make That Paper: Careers in Forestry, our new web game created for Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) Education and the Georgia Forestry Foundation (GFF). Whether it’s harvesting trees, landowning, or managing a mill, forestry workers—especially managers—play a huge role in maintaining sustainable forests and manufacturing the many forest and paper-based products that we use regularly.

In Make That Paper, high school students learn about the forestry industry and develop their career readiness and problem-solving skills. As they step into the role of a forestry manager, students play through a series of simulated workplace management challenges. They must alternate between job interviews, written communication through emails, and on-the-job challenges to successfully, efficiently, and sustainably manage a forest and production of forest products. Students choose from three positions—landowner, harvest manager, or mill manager—and use best practices when interviewing candidates, hiring and managing employees, and responding to workplace problems and crises. In each career path, players receive the responsibilities and requirements to succeed in their role and sort through emails, conversations, and other information to make decisions that benefit their company. 

The real-world skills that students receive through gameplay leave a lasting impact on students’ career readiness and view of their future career paths. By highlighting these lesser-known career paths, FableVision hopes to educate young minds and introduce them to the world of forestry and see if they have what it takes to “make that paper!”

So this National Manager Day, as we celebrate the managers across the country who help companies to run smoothly, check out Make That Paper: Careers in Forestry, available to play now on GPB’s website! And be sure to check out our other projects created in collaboration with GPB, such as Gasha Go, a colorful math game for grades K-3, Lights, Camera, Budget!, a financial literacy game for middle and high schoolers, and Georgia Race Through Time, a Georgia history learning game for eighth-graders. All four games are free to play and available online!

National Bullying Prevention Month Spotlight: Galaxia

Whether it’s online, on a playground, or on a planet far, far away, bullying has a serious, often long-lasting, negative impact and creates an unsafe environment, especially for children. In order to change the culture around bullying, prevention and intervention are key. In addition, we need to start conversations surrounding this issue to make a difference in communities everywhere.

This National Bullying Prevention Month, as part of FableVision’s mission to move the world to a better through positive media, we are proud to highlight a new interactive game: Galaxia. This resource, created by National Health Promotion Associates (NHPA)’s Botvin LifeSkills Training and FableVision, is aimed at middle school students and designed to help prevent bullying in all its forms.

Galaxia introduces students to a fantastical, extraterrestrial world where all the characters are aliens, but their problems are surprisingly similar to their teenage counterparts on Earth. Students select one of two customizable avatars and interact with their fellow alien students and teachers at their outer space boarding school. With the National Health Promotion Associates’ evidence-based Botvin LifeSkills Training prevention curriculum integrated seamlessly into gameplay, students encounter various conflicts centered around peer pressure, bullying, communication, social skills, and substance abuse, and learn important coping mechanisms and skills for dealing with anger, anxiety and building resilience.

An EdTech Awards 2020 Cool Tool Finalist, Galaxia allows students to learn and practice how they would react to real-life challenges and see the consequences of their actions and decisions in a safe (outer) space. The gameplay options span three years of middle school (grades 6-8), and players use their social-emotional skills and understanding of the Botvin LifeSkills Training to respond to each situation and progress through the story. Depending on how they choose to handle different situations, players get different outcomes for the storyline to creates a uniquely personal experience.

While National Bullying Prevention Month reminds us all that we have more work to do in bringing awareness to the issue and supporting those affected, educating and sharing resources that work to prevent bullying and empower people to stand up for others, are things we can all do every day of the year. 

Visit the Botvin LifeSkills Training website to purchase Galaxia and integrate it into your in-class and distance learning curriculum today.