Fun and Games

While I studiously work on my own mysterious MindTweaking project, (you’ll get a sneak peak soon) here’s a mix of mind tweakish links to keep you busy.

1. ReactionEffect: Addictive, strange and pointless, what could be a better waste of time on a thursday than bleeping rotating squiggles? (Other than endless bubble wrap, of course)

2.50 Fun Ways to Maximize Your Brain Fitness Pointed out to me by Kelly at the Nursing School Search site, this list is a good reminder of just how many easy and effective ways there are to kick our brains into gear. How can you *not* like a list that says “eat blueberry pancakes” and “play with a pet”? [click to continue...]

If Zombie Kitteh didn’t finish off your brain, this will!

With thanks to
Free Sudoku
Puzzles for the script

MindTweak: “Math class is HARD!” - Teen Talk Barbie

What’s that you say? The Weekly Tweaks are supposed to be a MONDAY feature, and this is Wednesday night?? Oh dear. Um. Right. Would you believe me if I told you that in some isolated cultures, Monday falls on random weekdays?

Never mind all that, we have neurons to workout. For your brain-boosting pleasure, we proudly point you towards:

Questionaut!
(popup blockers off, please)

Produced for the BBC by the talented folks at Amanita Designs, Questionaut is a gorgeous point-and-click Flash game that is definitely time well spent. The quiz is aimed the Tweener age group, but unless you’ve recently been through refresher courses on fifth grade writing, math, and science, you may find yourself having to think about some of the answers.

(I actually missed one…. erm… Ok, I missed five. But I was busy admiring the animation and interactivity, dang it. I wasn’t paying attention… It doesn’t count! I demand a do-over!)

(Ahem. Ok, I’m better now)

But it’s not the quiz itself that I wanted to draw attention to - more important to note is how the game designers cleverly engage several learning styles, as well as different parts of the brain.

The story line, music, visuals, and motion each bring different areas of the brain into play. The point-and-click puzzle aspects bring action into the process. And the “quiz” (which includes language, math, and science questions) is only part of the brain workout. To get to each mini-quiz, you have to solve interactive puzzles, with no guidance or help — and many of them require (and teach) practical knowledge of applied science. And there is no obvious, familiar or simple means of navigation - you have to work it out on your own, with no hints or instructions.

It’s a serious step forward for educational games.

Links?

For more beautiful games & graphics: Amanita Designs
To launch the game from the BBC web site: BBC Questionaut
For more educational games from the BBC: BiteSize Games

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MindTweak: Originality: It does a brain good.

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Remember this Week’s Tweak?
You only *thought* the exercise was silly.
… you hadn’t yet seen my results!

<Clears throat for dramatic reading>

AHEM.

There was a little mouse,
Who had a little house
He ate a lot of corn,
And watched a lot of porn.

But then he tired of rhyme
And quite forgot the time
Ran up the famous clock,
Hickory Dickory Dock

He still did not go blind!
(though the porn was on his mind)
The old wives tale was false
And he remained the boss.
‘Cause rolling mice gather no moss!

Cute Ears.
No Tears.
More Cheese,
Please.

(are we amused?)

I’ve been so busy *not* writing about enlightenment, that I nearly forgot this week’s tweak. So I quickly whipped together a rather fun exercise, if I say so myself.

See the cute little mousie over there in the corner? Quiet little thing. Doesn’t have much to say, apparently. But everyone has a story to tell, so we’re going to help him tell his, by giving him words.

Ok, now… stop looking at me like I’m crazy. It’s just a simple word association game for gawd’s sake!

Now that we’ve settled the question of my sanity, you’ll need to print a copy of our victim’s little mousie self. There’s a full size version here (or you can just click on the image, that’ll work too). [click to continue...]