Here at EMC², we’ve developed a sort of reputation for being pretty big geeks for all things game-inspired. Michael’s Explore Like a Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners is widely hailed as *THE* go-to book for classroom gamification 101, while John’s EDrenaline Rush: Game-changing Student Engagement Inspired by Theme Parks, Mud Runs, and Escape Rooms channels the power of play from pulse-pounding realms that live far beyond the confines gaming table.
In short: we’re both crazy about playful learning. And whether we’re talking Settlers of Catan or Spartan Races, we know the tremendous power that a well-selected theme can have on captivating an audience’s curiosity and desire to see what else lies in store for them in the journey ahead. It’s with this same spirit in mind that for those who might similarly be interested in some serious full year gamification essentials, we’ve crafted nine separate lines of fully gamified resource collections here to help get your classroom started with everything you’ll need. All in one ever-expanding bundle! So if you’re looking for colorful power-up cards and item badges, staging epic end-of-unit boss battles, or designing team against team activities full of larger than life characters that bring your selected theme to life — we’ve got everything you need inside the site to help get you started and keep your theme alive and full of surprises from the first day of school until the final showdown!
To strip back the gamified jargon and talk straight teacher for a sec: Engagement Engineers have 24/7/365 access to all of our site’s resources, including each of these nine uniquely themed product lines that you can use time and again throughout your instructional year. Pick multiple resources from a single theme to help weave in familiar elements throughout your tailor-made yearlong classroom “story,” or pick and choose resources from any one of these collections each time you’d like to inject immediate life and excitement into a stand-alone classroom activity that’s fully themed out and can be played completely on it’s own. Like a big old tub of LEGO bricks, we’ve gone ahead and built out nine different core playset lines for you — each with a bunch of smaller activities in the line that can “click” together to form a larger universe of fun. But feel free to mix those suckers up and get really creative! The combinations are literally endless.
ADVENTURE
Are you looking for fortune and glory? Dodge traps, collect legendary clues, break ancient curses, and recover priceless artifacts before they are swept away by the sands of time! The colorful resources in the EMC² Adventure line transform your students into world renowned explorers like Lara Croft and Indiana Jones. Best of all: each of these activities is designed to blend a globe-trotting adventurer’s sense of awe with a keen eye for detail. This line is packed with surprises and full of excitement around every corner. Ready to take the plunge? Kungaloosh!
HACKERS
Ready to see how deep the rabbit hole goes? Take the proverbial red pill and enter a full year of gamified learning inspired by life inside of a high tech matrix where all is not as it seems. Whether you’re cracking codes, infiltrating top-secret databases, tracking down shadowy figures, or hacking your way into closely guarded secrets — your students will have a blast playing the part of next-generation heroes with a cutting edge technical twist. With tons of organic tie-ins for STEM and business curricula, the EMC² Hacker line is an awesome choice for classes dabbling in 21st century tech skills and real-world computer science.
PIRATES
Hoist the main sails or prepare to walk the plank! Students of all ages can’t help but find themselves hungry to set sail for uncharted waters, and the EMC² Pirates line of resources captures the imaginative spirit of shoving off for distant shores, digging for buried treasure, and battling rival brigades across a series of skirmishes on the high seas. And don’t worry: while the exploits of real-life pirates can be a little rough around the edges, you won’t find any seadogs or scallywags here, making it a perfect theme for classrooms of any age.
MEDIEVAL
Prepare for a yearlong quest where only the bravest and most noble defenders of the realm can claim their rightful place atop the throne! The EMC² Medieval line is full of dragons, spells, wizards and all sorts of courtly mischief makers looking to find their way into the castle (our out of the dungeon!) — which makes it a delight for classrooms looking to take a trip back in time to a far off land of Kings and Queens. The Medieval themed activities are a great way to transport your students to a land of magic and mystery, while capturing their imagination in an epic quest. Winter is coming!
MONSTERS
Creepy and kooky (but always more spooky than scary!), the EMC² Monsters resource line is a great choice for younger grades or teachers looking up to scare up a good time by transforming their classroom into a year-long battle against all sorts of goblins, ghosts and ghoulies. Featuring colorful cartoon-like characters and spooktacular monster-hunting adventures in the playful spirit of Scooby Doo, the Monsters resources are likewise a fantastic plug-and-play seasonal favorite for Halloween inspired lesson plan activities without a full year commitment to a single theme.
NINJAS
Enter the EMC² Ninja dojo for a full year of training to hone your skills in stealth, strength, and strategy! This action-packed collection of resources kicks some serious you-know-what, and is designed to drop some immediate life into any course or content area. Using a beautifully illustrated cartoon ninja theme throughout each activity in this line, students will climb the ranks as ninja warriors in challenges that can easily be aligned to your curricular standards. If you’re looking for a high energy theme for your fully gamified classroom, the EMC² Ninjas are here to help you duck, dodge, dive and dash your way through an entire year of team against team hijinks!
SPACE
Jedi Mind Tricks. Flux Capacitors. Cloaking Devices. And interstellar warp zones are just a few of the tricks that await your students inside the EMC² Outer Space resource line. Think of this collection as a galactic grab bag of some of our favorite sci-fi elements adapted from familiar space age stories to create turbocharged lesson plans that are light years away from ho-hum lectures. And for educators looking to re-skin an entire year’s theme to fit with their own particular favorite pop culture franchise, these activities offer a fantastic jumping off point for classrooms ready to Use The Force or travel to Infinity And Beyond!
SUPER HEROES
Calling all heroes! Whether you’re a fan of the Marvel Universe or a die-hard fanatic for all things D.C., the EMC² Super Hero line of resources brings the spirit of your favorite comic legends to life as your students become real-life stars of action-packed heroics through space, time and galaxies far beyond the realm of mere mortals. One of the things we’re most excited about with each of the resources in the EMC² Super Hero line is that rather than simply rehashing the big-screen heroics of the most famous heroes in comic book history, your students get to imagine themselves in a brand new universe of adventures while enjoying all new, original artwork from paid content creators!
SURVIVAL
Survivors Ready? Get ready to compete in team-against-team challenges, scramble for fire tokens, and try not to get voted off the island in a yearlong game designed to transport your classroom to the far-flung shores of an uncharted tropical island. Do your students have a knack for secret alliances and a love for hidden immunity idols? This resource line is perfect for teachers who love reality TV and are looking to bring that same competitive spirit into their classrooms as students compete to outwit, outplay and outlast — not just their peers, but their own personal best!
We hope you’ll consider joining us as a member of our EMC² Engagement Engineer community to access each of these resource collections and so many more. Give a click to this link for details and we’ll see you inside!
