This page features educational games and interactives designed by Innovative Media Research and Extension and its Learning Games Lab. We work in a broad range of subject areas. The products featured here address math and science education, nutrition, food safety and provide resources for food service workers, laboratory workers, and Chinese-language speakers.
Farm Sanitizing
Minimize potential contamination on tools and equipment to reduce cross-contamination and foodborne illnesses. Cleaning and sanitizing minimize potential contamination from pathogenic microorganisms on surfaces such as tools and equipment, thereby reducing cross-contamination and the incidence of foodborne illnesses.
Learn about Farm Sanitizing.
MyPlateMyDay
Use MyPlateMyDay as a guide for the day and plan what you would like to eat! Learn how your favorite foods fit into a MyPlate guide, learn how to split combination foods into the MyPlate categories, including culturally relevant foods for New Mexico and Puerto Rico, and get help finding easy ways to eat more of what you need.
Plan your plate with MyPlateMyday.
Agrinautica
Terraform planets by adding gorgeous plants, animals, fungi and minerals, each representing a unique mathematical expression.
This game is designed for 4th and 5th graders learning mathematical expression-building and order of operations, important pre-algebra skills.
Grow your garden in Agrinautica.
Creature Caverns
Come and explore the fundamentals of graphing on the coordinate plane. There are interesting creatures lurking in the dark!
Creature Caverns is designed for middle schoolers learning about plotting ordered pairs on a coordinate plane.
Create your creature in Creature Caverns.
Curse Reverse
Curse Reverse helps players understand linear expressions and variables. In order to "reverse the curse," they create paths by manipulating blocks with defined and variable values. Understanding that variables can represent quantities is key to students' pre-algebra learning.
Return the Treasure: Curse Reverse.
Outbreak Squad
Do you have what it takes to lead the squad? Use your team of heroes to research, educate, heal, and protect people. Keep the community from getting sicker!
Play Outbreak Squad.
Virtual Insect Collection Lab
This interactive module helps learners practice pinning, pointing, and spreading insects properly, to preserve them for scientific study. Collections are important to science, and each preserved insect gives a snapshot of its population at the time it was collected. There are more than one million species of insects on the planet.
Start your insect collection: Virtual Insect Collection Lab.
Water Sampling
Water for irrigation comes from a lot of different sources, including ponds, streams, rivers and canals, or from water treatment plants. Farmers and scientists collect and test water samples from these sources to make sure they are safe for use.
Learn how to sample water for testing with Water Sampling.
Irrigation Training Modules
Explore four treatment methods for cleaning irrigation water for fruits and vegetables. Learn the ins and outs of each method so you can choose and implement treatment appropriate to your situation while continuing to validate, verify and monitor your process. Practice testing chlorinated systems using test strips.
Learn about cleaning and testing water: Water Treatment Systems for Pre-Harvest Use.
Nitrogen & Agriculture
This interactive explores the importance of nitrogen for plant, animal and soil health. Build amino acid and fertilizer molecules and calculate molecular weight in relation to nitrogen content.
Cleaning and Sanitizing Farm Tools and Equipment
These virtual labs guide users through cleaning and sanitizing procedures to minimize potential contamination from pathogenic microorganisms on surfaces such as tools and equipment, thereby reducing cross-contamination and the incidence of foodborne illnesses.
Try Cleaning and Sanitizing Farm Tools and Equipment.
Potluck Panic!
Potluck time! You are tasked with making sure food gets assembled with food safety in mind, from factory to potluck. As you advance in the game, gather knowledge and skill to prevent multiple food disasters at once.
Play Potluck Panic!.
Night of the Living Debt
Survive the zombie outbreak by managing your finances. Do you have what it takes? Use a credit card, get college loans, buy a car, rent a house: It's your decision.
Play Night of the Living Debt.
Virtual Labs
Interactive food science modules train high school and college students in laboratory skills and concepts relevant to food science, including using a microscope, testing for aflatoxin, culturing bacteria, measuring pH, and using disposable lab equipment.
Try the Virtual Labs.
Science of Agriculture
The Science of Agriculture project was created to fill the gaps in Animal Science, Soil and Environmental Science undergraduates' knowledge of key concepts in the classroom. The suite of tools includes short animations, interactives and live action videos that teach a range of mathematical, chemical, and soil concepts.
Check out ScienceofAgriculture.org.
Math Snacks
Math Snacks are short animations and mini-games designed to help learners "get it". Each snack presents a mathematical concept, particularly those addressed in grades 6, 7 and 8. Ideal for use in a classroom or on your own. The accompanying print materials can assist learners in applying their conceptual understanding to math problems.
Learn more at mathsnacks.com.
Pearl Diver
Dive for pearls in a beautiful seascape! Pearl Diver addresses number and operations standards, such as number line sense, whole numbers, decimals, mixed numbers and fractions. Part of the Math Snacks suite.
Play Pearl Diver.
Ratio Rumble
Ratio Rumble addresses equivalent ratios, as established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). It guides students in identifying ratios when used in a variety of contextual situations, providing visual representations of ratios, solving common problems or communicating by using rate, particularly unit rates, and explaining why ratios and rates naturally relate to fractions and decimals. Part of the Math Snacks suite.
Play Ratio Rumble.
Chinese Food Safety
Songs and activities that can help Chinese speaking foodservice workers learn key food safety concepts. The activities are in both English and Simplified Chinese.
Visit Chinese Food Safety.
Monster School Bus
Make sure not to divide up groups: monsters don't like that. Also, there's something odd about the neighborhood...Monster School Bus addresses number and operations standards as well as the process standard, as established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). It supports students in understanding numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number system, visualizing numbers as sets and quantities, and building new mathematical knowledge through problem solving. Part of the Math Snacks suite.
Play Monster School Bus.
Eat-&-Move-O-Matic
Learn about the foods you eat and how they help fuel your body for your favorite activities. Make new discoveries about your favorite foods and get interesting tips on how small changes can make big differences.
Try the Eat-&-Move-o-Matic (free iOS app).
Game Over Gopher
Hungry gophers are after the prized carrot. Defend the carrot by placing units on a coordinate grid. Game Over Gopher guides students in learning coordinate pairs and plotting numbers, identifying the four quadrants and differentiating negative coordinates from positive coordinates, and establishing the fundamentals of plotting functions on a grid.
Play Game Over Gopher.
Gate
Shadows are corrupting the land. Restore the balance of nature by exploring place value. Gate guides students in: Lowering intimidation about large numbers and decimals, understanding the meaning of place value, and realizing that the same mathematical concepts that apply to the "easy" integers apply to every order of magnitude. Part of the Math Snacks suite.
Play Gate.
Stay Safe Working With Horses
This interactive module builds users' understanding of horse behavior to help them learn to handle horses safely and effectively. Topics include approaching a horse in a stall, catching and haltering, leading, and turning out a horse in a group.
Visit Stay Safe Working with Horses.
Flash Content
We have removed the following Flash modules. Adobe blocked Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021, Adobe strongly recommends all users uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems.
We have been working for more than a year to transition our games and interactives from Flash to the latest platforms. Many have been updated, but some have been removed until they can be upgraded.
Please contact us at mmedia@nmsu.edu if you would like us to put your name and email address on a list and keep you updated.
Ninja Kitchen
Speed is important, but in this kitchen, safety comes first. Stop for lunch at a cafe staffed entirely by ninjas. Sophisticated gameplay reveals principles of food safety.
Play Ninja Kitchen.
Safe Preparation of Beef Jerky
Beef jerky is prepared via a variety of methods. This interactive allows users to specify the method they use and shows what key steps are necessary for a safe product in each case.
Learn about Safe Preparation of Beef Jerky.
Transpiration
This interactive scientific visualization explores how water moves through plants via the process of transpiration. Transpiration is the evaporation of water from plants through pores in their leaves. This water loss allows plants to access carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and to cool themselves.
Explore Transpiration.
Treadsylvania
In a forgotten land the minions of evil have returned once again. One by one, towns and farms have all fallen victim to these creatures. Only one stronghold remains: Tread-Sylvania. Safely ride your ATV through mysterious locations and defeat the horrible monsters to free the town from their evil grasp!
Play Treadsylvania.
Legacy Projects (No Longer Available)
The Food Detectives
Food Detectives Fight BAC! This entertaining site for kids ages 8-12 includes songs, activities and arcade-style games. Through playing to learn youth understand the importance of the 4 key messages in the Fight BAC food safety program: wash hands and utensils, chill leftovers properly, cook food to the proper temperature and separate cooked food from raw meat and juices.
Science Pirates: The Curse of Brownbeard
Science Pirates was a multi-stage game to build awareness of food safety issues through better understanding of science processes. Games, songs and scientific experiments gave youth a better understanding of the "whys" behind good food safety practices based on the national science standards. The adventure culminated in the hero (the player's character) helping the desperate crew solve and 'break' the "The Curse of Brownbeard."
Nutrition Decision
This series of games helps middle school students make better choices when selecting food by better understanding nutritional labels, serving sizes and the importance of activity. Designed for middle school age children, this website helps foster better understanding of nutrition labels found on most packaged food, and also the importance of exercise.
Choices In A Pack: Tobacco Education for Teenagers
Choices In A Pack offers middle school students decision-making situations regarding cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Topics are presented with teen issues in mind: popularity, looks and peer group interests. Designed with the multicultural audience in mind, the five curriculum components include two computer animation games and four core classroom exercises.
Crazy About Corn
With games, songs and numerous activities, Crazy About Corn introduced children to the cultural importance of corn. The collection explored history, Native American cultures, and scientific techniques related to corn. It included educational resource books to supplement classroom learning, videos and the "Hot Buttered Hits and Songbook" which allowed children (and adults) to sing along to their favorite Corn songs.
Exergames Unlocked
The Exergames Unlocked project explored specific recommendations for exergame implementation based on research, using mass-market, commercially available exergames. Exergames have been linked to weight loss and increased voluntary participation in physical exercise as well as the potential for increasing self-esteem and spending time with family.
