This animated game educates students about the environment through a science fiction role playing game. Students play the role of teenager who is disappointed to discover the lake is no longer safe for swimming. Along the way, he meets other characters who explain the source of the pollution, how to identify the complexity of the problem, and help him go back in time and preserve the lake. Students click around to the different locations and short activities reading through the dialogue, learning about the science, and discovering ways to preserve the environment. The game is relatively slow-paced and not overloaded with scientific terminology, which makes it accessible to the target audience but also limits the learning and the excitement. For the most part, students are not making decisions and using reasoning skills, but rather they are reading and clicking which can limit how much they might learn and remember. Students can play without logging in and without much support. Students who register for free can save their place in the game and return to it later.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
• Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Has a free or trial version
• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
• Multiple users can save a profile
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can play without sound and not distract others
• Students can save work between sessions
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Requires registration before using the first time
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Abstract Reasoning
• Attention
• Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Basics
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Comprehension
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Fluency
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Working Memory
• Requires scanning in multiple places for words, objects or numbers
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own