These are some places that have games appropriate for middle school students. The first site to explore is math playground. Although math playground is focused more on the lower grades, it does have some really awesome games and activities one can use in the middle school and high school levels. The first thing to know is that all games on this site are free and do not need students to log in.
One thing they offer is called Thinking Blocks. Thinking Blocks provide visualization of what is happening for certain operations (addition, subtraction, and multiplication), fractions, and ratios. In addition, they have a tool which allows students to create a visual for any word problem in the same way the practice thinking blocks are set up. When you click on the Thinking Blocks you want, you are shown several different choices where you can start and work your way through or you can choose the one facet to work on specifically.
I played with the Thinking Blocks fractions. I had to play around with it to determine how to use it but once I did it, it was easy to do. It provides a simple word problem and coaches students to work their way through to the end. It does work on both the computer and the iPad. It does not appear that one can get it in app form for the iPad but access via the browser works fine. In addition, you can print out worksheets of word problems.
There is also a section on pre-algebra filled with games students can play. Many of the games involve signed numbers, factor trees, pemdas, etc. I tried a couple games and what I found is that some of the games were easy to figure out, others did not have enough direction to determine how to play the game so I'd advise you to try the games out to see if they are easy to play. The other nice thing about this site is that you can assign the game via google classroom. The game also gives you information on what the topic the game reinforces.
Another site that has a couple of games that might be interesting is Jlabs. Although it is primarily a science site, it does have a game that is rather fun but again it does have issues. It is Looking for the top quark. It is similar to battleship in that place your 6 quarks on a grid that is either a small, medium, or large grid but the grids are really not that large. After placing your quarks you can play the computer or a friend. It worked on the computer but not on the iPad. I think it might be old enough that it doesn't work with the iPads.
The last site I'm discussing today is math nook. This is another site filled with math games that you can choose by grade or topic which makes it really nice. I went for math games dealing with exponents since middle school usually focuses on it to help students become better grounded in it. I decided to try math racing exponents game since many students like this type of game. The interface looks quite retro but as soon as I clicked on play, it provided the rules so I understood how the game works.
I had to use the left, right, up, and down arrows to operate it since I couldn't swipe per say. The way it works is that I have to avoid other cars and choose the problem that gives the answer that matches the number assigned to my car. It was a bit long between problems and cars but it wasn't bad. I suspect students need the time as they are not fluent. The version 2 of this game uses negative bases while the first version only uses positive bases. The racing games do work on the iPad with the finger.
On Monday, I'll look at free digital games for use at the high school level. In the meantime have fun exploring these sites. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great weekend.
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