12 educational apps and services with game mechanics – Routine memorizing words, repeating chords, or practising math skills can all seem boring and get boring quickly. We found several applications that use game mechanics to help you stay motivated and not give up halfway through your passion.
1. Duolingo
The application has many thematic lessons for both beginners and those with a more advanced level. At the same time, Duolingo suggests not going through the topic at a time but setting small goals daily.
When you practice for several days in a row, shock mode is activated. It allows you to save bonuses – due to them, the cost of an error made during the task is written off. And the longer you can practice in this mode, the less you want to lose progress.
Imagine 30 days without stopping to study English and suddenly forgetting to devote at least 5-10 minutes to it. The shock mode will be reset, and the countdown will start again.
Among other things, Duolingo has experience points, a map of levels (thematic lessons), leaderboards, in-game currency, and much more to keep learning interesting.
2. Drops
Drops is different from many language tutorials. Memorization in it occurs through a series of mini-games. For example, connect the beginning and end of a word, combine it with the correct picture, or find the right option among random letter chains.
These game mechanics make Drops a kind of puzzle, which makes the learning process fun and interesting. Moreover, you can spend only 5 minutes a day on classes!
When the time is up, the application will notify you about it. And you can safely close it, go to rest and not feel that you have done “not enough.”
3. Beaker
Application for future chemists. It does not contain elements of points, scores, or ratings. The feature of the Beaker is different: the process of the chemical experiment here is as close as possible to the real one.
In the application, you can heat, mix, and shake substances with different compositions. It will even turn out to team up with a friend and pour liquids from test tube to test tube (from phone to phone).
This application will interest not only teenagers who are starting to study chemistry but also adults who, for some reason, neglected it at school, at least because it is very beautiful!
4. StudyGe
In StudyGe, you can take quizzes and tests on the knowledge of countries’ names, capitals, and flags. The more correct answers you give, the more coins you get, which are converted into levels.
Gradually, different game modes will become available to you: from individual to multiplayer, from easy to difficult.
5. Frog Dissection
It does not matter if you really want to feel like a biology student, but ethical guidelines do not allow you to conduct experiments on real animals because the dissection of this 3D frog looks like a real dissection!
The program has a guide to the experiment, as well as a description of the anatomical structure of the animal. In addition, the application allows you to study each of its organs in detail.
Unfortunately, it’s only available on iOS. You can find an analogue for Android, but, for our taste, the graphics in it are not so beautiful.
6. Plants by Tinybop
Plants will help you learn more about the ecosystems of our planet. The app looks like an interactive map where the player can control the weather, start forest fires, and watch animals in their natural habitat.
The game will be interesting for children and adults. With the help of various eco-experiments, users will be able to understand better how everything in nature is interconnected.
7. Operation Math
This is a real story game for kids. The main goal is to stop the machinations of Dr. Odd, who has been hiding from the protagonist throughout the whole time. Each mission here consists of performing mathematical operations.
For example, in order to prevent an explosion in the subway, you need to solve an equation. And to unlock the safe – find the answer to the arithmetic puzzle. All tasks are designed to train quick counting in mind.
8. Arrow Fest
This application will help you master the art of mental arithmetic and gain the ability to operate quickly with numbers. Its essence is as follows: in one move, the user must increase the number of arrows in the virtual quiver so as to reach the end with them and pierce all enemies.
At first, only one arrow is issued, but then there will be pairs of mathematical operations along the game path that will determine how the final number will change. For example, if you have “-15” or “x3” in front of you, then the second option, of course, will be the best option: it will triple the number of projectiles.
You need to act with lightning speed so as not to lose all the arrows during subtraction and division.
9. CodinGame
You need to write code here not just for the sake of virtual points but in order for the main character to perform some actions and move on. For example, to find the nearest enemy and destroy it, you will have to edit the loop.
The game has hints with ready-made code. It can be copied and pasted into the answer box, but do you really want to pass for a cheater?
However, this game is more suitable for experienced programmers – here, you need to know the basics of syntax in order to write at least something. Plus, it supports more than 25 programming languages: from simple Pascal to exotic Haskell.
10. Flexbox Froggy
This is a simulator with a charming frog. It needs to be moved around the field using the Flexbox CSS module, which is responsible for the arrangement of elements on the screen. As soon as the user puts the frog in the right place, the next level with new tasks will become available.
The application simply and clearly explains the main commands and tells you if you make a mistake in the code.
The same studio has developed another similar Grid Garden simulator that you need to water the carrots using CSS-grid commands in it.
11. Yousician
This service will help you learn how to play the guitar, piano, or ukulele. Many users praise the gaming component of Yousician: as students complete tasks, they level up and gain new skills that are recorded in their profile.
There are exercise recordings, ear testers, and chords for many popular songs. The moderators are very helpful: they suggest what needs to be corrected if you make a mistake.
The creators of the app say their mission is to make musicality feel as natural as literacy. And it seems that they have succeeded: the service already has more than 20,000,000 users!
12. Art Quiz
This is an application for those who have long wanted to understand the history of art.
There are many different sections here: “World Masterpieces,” “XX Century,” and even “Painting in Cinema.” Each of them consists of a series of tests in which you need to correlate the work with the artist who created it or the art object with the style to which it belongs.
Also, each painting, sculpture, and architectural structure is accompanied by a brief reference.
A particularly interesting section is “Art or not?”. Here you need to guess whether the presented object is a creative work. Sometimes it’s hard! You will come across photographs of cut wallpaper, seeds, and paintings “that a child could draw.”
Also, a feature has been added to the application – art puzzles, where you need to make a picture of a famous artist from disparate fragments. Some sections are available only in the paid version – for example, Surrealism.
