6 Interactive Games that Challenge Your Mind
In American classrooms, 74% of teachers have used interactive learning to augment lessons. More than half of teachers believe this learning style is essential in education.
Interactive or game-based learning can significantly affect how much a student learns in the classroom. Additionally, one can apply this type of immersive learning in the workplace – for example, team-building activities.
Interactive games challenge the players to solve problems, achieve goals, and develop skills to progress. With game-based learning, students can get real-time feedback, allowing them to keep practicing until they succeed.
Whether you’re a teacher interested in adding more to your lessons or a boss looking for team-building exercises, this article may help. Here are six types of games to consider.
1. 20 Questions
The first game in our list of interactive games is 20 Questions (also sometimes called “10 Questions” or “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral”). This game is best played with two groups, typically in an older age group.
One group thinks of something (i.e., a giraffe, daffodil, or pencil), and the other group has to guess it correctly within the question limit. If you’re playing 20 Questions, your team has twenty guesses. If you’re playing 10 Questions, you get ten guesses.
What You Learn
Playing 20 Questions is a strategy game because you have a limited number of questions to find the answer. Because of this, you need to plan the questions you ask to maximize the answer quality. If you plan strategically, your team can guess the answer within the question limit and win.
2. Trivia Quizzes
Quizzes are great interactive games you can use in the classroom or workplace. They encourage interaction and help build general knowledge by answering the quiz questions correctly. This interactive game promotes quick thinking and can be adapted to any situation.
For example, as a teacher, you can center the questions around a specific part of the syllabus, and as a boss, you can create the questions to center on the company itself or the products you sell.
What You Learn
Quizzes are fun interactive games for game-based learning because they require participants to get involved. If using interactive, online quizzes in the classroom, students can get immediate feedback on whether they answered correctly. Additionally, by adding a reward for the winning team, you can encourage healthy competition among players.
3. Escape Rooms
A relatively new craze that’s taking the workplace by storm is escape rooms. An escape room challenge can be a great way to get people working together. These rooms require good communication, problem-solving, project management, leadership skills, and handling complex challenges.
Typically, each escape room can take 5-6 team members. The exit door will be “locked” (for safety purposes, it’s not, and you can still get out in a hurry if you need to), and your team has a limited time to “escape the room” (typically an hour.) To escape, players must solve puzzles and riddles to unlock tools to help them escape.
What You Learn
Players that take part in escape room challenges can improve several skills like communication and leadership. Escape rooms require quick thinking, often critical or out-the-box. They also promote teamwork which can help players learn to get along with others.
4. The Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge
Another interactive game that doesn’t require digital equipment is the Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge. Instead, this interactive game requires a pack of spaghetti and a bag of marshmallows. Players are divided into teams of four or five players and given a stack of dry spaghetti and a limited number of marshmallows (usually 10).
The players are challenged to make the tallest structure using the food tools they’ve been given. The winner is the first team to reach the specified height. There is a twist, though! The structure must stand without human assistance for a limited time (usually 2 minutes) to be declared the winner.
What You Learn
Players in this interactive game learn include improved communication skills, quick thinking, and prototyping. Players must also consider physics and the law of gravity when building their structures.
5. Hangman
Hangman is an excellent game-based learning game suitable for players of all ages. This interactive game works in the classroom and the workplace and can get teams working together to win.
The teacher thinks of a word and writes blanks on the board. Each team is given a turn to guess a letter. The teacher fills in the corresponding blank space if they guess a correct letter.
If they guess incorrectly, a piece of the hangman is drawn. The game ends when the word is guessed correctly, or the hangman and his stand are drawn, and he’s “hanged.”
What You Learn
This game teaches spelling and encourages critical thinking. Because you can play this game in teams, it promotes teamwork, good communication, and healthy competition.
6. Scavenger Hunts
The final interactive game we’re overviewing is a scavenger hunt. You can play this immersive game in the classroom or a corporate setting. Players are given a list of items they need to find and collect. Once they have all the items on the list, they must return to the teacher or boss and present them.
The winner is the first team to find, collect, and return all the items on the list. You can get creative with the list, so have fun with it. If the players are of driving age, you can set items they must travel to find. You can even include willing participants as list items.
What You Learn
Players participating in a scavenger hunt learn good leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills. It also encourages critical and creative thinking. When played by young players, it can teach them about colors, numbers, nature, and more.
Which Interactive Games Are Your Favorites?
Interactive games are a great way to get participants engaged and working together. These immersive games help keep learners’ attention and teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills. You can successfully play games like Hangman, quizzes, and 20 Questions in the classroom or workplace, making them excellent options for teachers and bosses.
If you’ve found this article helpful, we have more in our other categories. Check out our sections, like Features and Food & Drink.
