Tech Thursday -- Online Brainteaser Games

I think one of the least stressful ways to learn about science and technology is to play games. Have fun playing games while increasing your knowledge base @ the Science Museum website. While they have quite a few games, the ones I've found most interesting are:

LAUNCHBALL, where you "slide, bounce, and spring your way through 30 obstacle-filled levels". The cool thing about this game is that you can build your own course and then challenge your friends (or have them challenge you). To start, you're given six levels to get warmed up and understand how the course works, and then it gets real. Bonus: you learn about physics while mastering the game!

Then there's Water Wars: DRENCH: use and maintain five technologies to capture enough water to grow food for a growing population. Can't say I'm awesome at the game, but I like the graphics.

 

 

 

See how good you are at codebreaking with the Codebreaker Challenge. Inspired by Alan Turing,  a computer science pioneer who helped decipher the German's WWII wartime communication encryption program,"Enigma", this game will test your encryption (or, in this case, de-encryption)skills. Break three coded challenges on each level to get to the Master challenge and crack the Enigma machine. It starts off okay, but it is quite the challenge. (They will give hints, but hints cost you points!)



 

 

 

What science-related games do you like playing? 

 

Space Lab

"Your experiment, 250 miles above Earth, for the world to see. What will you do?"

From Space Lab:

We're asking you to come up with a science experiment for space and upload a video explaining it to YouTube. If your idea wins, it will be performed on the International Space Station and live streamed on YouTube to the world. And we'll throw in some out-of-this-world prizes, too.

We're excited to announce YouTube Space Lab, launching with Lenovo and Space Adventures in cooperation with NASA, ESA and JAXA. Watch amazing space and science videos and, if you're 14 to 18 years old, submit a space experiment idea for your chance to win out-of-this-world prizes. Find out more at Space Lab.

From Space Lab's FAQ's:

• We'll be accepting entries from around the world from October 4th to December 7th, 2011.


• The finalist voting period on the YouTube channel will be from January 3rd to January 10th, 2012.


• All the regional winners will win a special prize trip in March 2012 to the USA at which the global winners will be announced.


• The global winners' experiments will be performed by astronauts on the International Space Station and live streamed on YouTube around the world in mid 2012.