Are you looking for higher-order thinking apps, tools, and resources that you can use with your students? If so, we have you covered. Check out our list below. Let us know if there are any that we missed.
Water Cycle HD – Allowing children to explore the water cycle through audio clips and tons of visuals, Water Cycle HD describes the stages of the water cycle and explains each stage’s impact on Earth’s life. Each section includes “WOW” facts, and the “Read to Me” feature enables text narration. There is also a quiz section based on Bloom’s taxonomy that has three difficulty levels. All content corresponds to the Common Core State Standards.
5 Dice: Order of Operations Game– 5 Dice is a math game aimed at teaching middle and upper elementary students the order of operations. It stimulates students to use their higher-order thinking to work backward from the provided answer to find the “target” number. A worksheet in the form of a whiteboard is built into the game for students to work out their problems. Teachers receive instant email feedback about their students’ progress.
BeBlocky – Boldly proclaims that it’s not just an app; it’s a child’s future. BeBlocky provides learners with a gamified way to learn the basics of computer science. The app uses augmented reality technology to bring the friendly robot, BlockyBot, into the real world. BeBlocky is designed to be programmable by kids. BeBlocky presents code concepts in puzzle-like blocks designed to look attractive to children. It teaches children critical thinking, problem-solving, persistence, and tech skills.
Bookopolis Book Search– This is a social network for young readers with a built-in book discovery feature. Teachers can use this platform to build a society of readers and writers from their classes. Students can partake in book reviews and critical thinking to develop opinion writing. Teachers can track and critique a student’s work. The BookQuest option is useful for finding new book reading suggestions.
Breakout EDU– Find and complete digital quests such as puzzles, riddles, or games to achieve set objectives. Games aim to promote critical thinking, logic, and the inherent desire to solve problems (troubleshooting). Suitable for young children, staff members, and dinner games, the players are usually properly equipped before heading into the next level. Games address the core academic subjects. You only need to obtain a breakout kit for free to access the game.
Busy Water– Help your child develop to his full potential with some “outside the tank thinking.” The objective is to get Archie the fish back to his tank using pipes, sprays, paddle wheels, and blocks. Each level provides fresh challenges, and there is more than one solution to the puzzle, so that there are no limits to your child’s creativity. Suited for children between the ages of 6 and 10 years old.
Civilization VI– Help the humans survive from the dawn of time, through the Dark Ages, up to this moment. This game focuses on developing players’ critical thinking and creativity. Players use their imagination to help civilizations take the leap to the next stage of development.
Dreambox Learning– Help your child learn mathematics in an enabling environment. This app provides a nurturing environment using its intelligent adaptive learning technology to foster critical thinking relating to math. It also features an extensive math syllabus that leaves students with better knowledge and fluency in math.
Edmodo– While social networking has received its fair share of criticism about the bad influence it tolerates, this app is unlike all that. Edmodo is a powerful tool that can be used to pool the creative thinking of students. It helps them think critically while fostering student-teacher partnerships to create projects.
KickBox– Kickbox is a many step thinking game featuring JiJi, the penguin. It is addictive and was created by the MIND Research Institute. The game enables multistep thinking and solves problems without words. The puzzles are easy when you begin and get more challenging as you progress to the next level. The game is suitable for all ages as it only involves placing mirrors and lasers to remove the balls along the penguin’s way.
Kodable– Kodable teaches coding to kids from ages 4 through 10; it is the only complete coding program on the market. This app can be used for an individual student or for a whole school district. Kodable encourages problem-solving and critical-thinking skills while informing children of algorithms, syntax, variables, and more. These are all crucial skills that coders must acquire to succeed in computer programming. With the assistance of the app’s fuzzFamily avatars, children can learn computer science with friends.
Learn to Code with El Chavo– For ages five through eight, Learn to Code with El Chavo is an interactive game to educate young ones about the world of coding. While developing critical-thinking skills and spatial reasoning, they develop knowledge about the logic behind computer coding. Computer coding and programming can be a hard concept to teach from a book or through a presentation. When learning through a game, children become their own teacher; they become self-reliant, but they can get assistance when needed. As a parent or teacher, you can learn alongside them as well.
Learning Patterns-Pattern & Logic Game for Kids– Learning Patterns-Pattern & Logic Game for Kids uses interactive games to encourage children learning for children. By teaching patterns and logic, children will learn very crucial developmental skills. Adults can even have fun with this app by encouraging children to play and evolve critical-thinking skills and mental capacity.
Learning Curve– Learning Curve helps children learn through their mistakes. When they get a question wrong, they get immediate detailed feedback so they can learn from the error. There is no penalty for getting something wrong. Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them, which is exactly what Learning Curve aims to teach. If a textbook accompanies a quiz, it will link the child directly to the text and provide them with a second chance to answer the question. This promotes critical thinking and encourages children not to give up when learning.
Lumosity: Daily Brain Games– Lumosity is an app that uses the knowledge and learning to help train your brain daily. Your brain is constantly changing and will lose capacity with age unless you keep your brain active. There are nearly 50 games to challenge your critical thinking, memory, and problem-solving abilities to improve your mental capability. With quick and easy games that only take up a small portion of your day, Lumosity will give your brain the quick boost it needs and allow you to catch a fun break during your day.
Math Doodles– It can be hard to learn a subject when you don’t enjoy it. Math Doodles shows how fun math can be; the app includes math-based puzzles for playing, exploring, learning, and experimenting with all sorts of math topics while having fun. Every puzzle is designed to have multiple answers, which strengthens the critical-thinking skills and logic basis students learn using this app.
Math Duel– Math Duel allows for multiplayer math competition on the same device. Each player can choose his or her level and ability from levels that are challenging enough for adults to play. This game is all about who can solve the math problem faster, which will improve memory and critical-thinking skills. Friendly competition can be a great “addition” to learning math and can invigorate young ones to try harder and learn more to beat one another.
Math Rings– Math Rings is a puzzle game designed for mathematics practice. There are multiple ways to solve each math ring puzzle, and each one can be approached in multiple ways. This app is basically a large puzzle wound in on itself that requires several levels of decoding to decipher. Math Rings promotes out-of-the-box thinking and strengthens mental capability. Best of all, this game is free.
MindTools– MindTools is a hub for learning career tools and tips. While allowing for innovation in creativity and business, it will give you the capability to jumpstart your career and enhance your skills. There are 100 problem-solving and critical-thinking lessons to choose from.
Zapzapmath – Zapzapmath includes a suite of games for students in K-6 to complement a classroom mathematics curriculum. All games are tied to specific Common Core State Standards and encourage students to move beyond simply memorizing facts or formulas to thinking critically and analyzing math concepts. Teachers and parents can track student progress and learning outcomes from any device by accessing the learning analytics dashboard. All Zapzapmath games apply adaptive learning to ensure that students are appropriately challenged at their current mathematics level. To help them understand what they are learning, students are asked to take a pre- and post-assessment and reflect on their scores.
