The Science Game Center: a review site for science games

The Science Game Center, abbreviated SGC, opened on April 19, 2012 as a clearing house for games that teach science. Educators use it to find games for students, and developers use it to reach teachers. The project was built by the Learning Technologies Program of the Federation of American Scientists, which studies how technology can improve teaching and learning with a focus on games that explain advanced abstract ideas.

The reviews are the core of the offer. They tell teachers how other classrooms used a game, and they give developers feedback on how accurate the science is and how much players enjoy it. A teacher who wants a game for a fifth grade unit can read what other teachers thought before spending class time on it,

Anyone can post a review after signing up for a free account. The routine has three steps. Find a game in the list or through the subject filters, play it from its own website, then return to the game's profile and use the review form.

A review has a short title and free text of any length. The reviewer also gives each game a rating from 1 to 5 in three categories: fun, learning and science. A moderator looks over each review before it appears. Teachers and scientists can email the team to be marked as experts, and their reviews then show as expert reviews on the game profile.

The Science Game Center website loads. Its about page describes a curated list of science games searchable by platform and by concept, public reviews with five-star ratings for fun, science and teaching effectiveness, and reviews that can be filtered by teachers, scientists or the age of the reviewer. Students under 13 may review games with a parent's permission.

The games page carries filters for subject, audience, platform and cost. Current entries include FathomVerse, Crack the Circuit, Morphy and Outbreak Squad, all listed as free. The site also has a game jam section, and its newest blog post is dated January 21, 2024. The program page on the Federation of American Scientists website that the project once pointed to no longer loads.