Inspiring Knowledge

Since the school disruptions related to COVID 19, large gaps in education have made it harder for students to move forward. For many of them, catching up isn't easy.

Student test scores have repeatedly shown severe declines in academic achievement, according to Edweek (edweek.org).

"Interrupted learning time during the initial phase of school shutdowns has become a 'compounding debt'," said Karyn Lewis, the Director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA, in a 2023 interview with Edweek.

On average, students will need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of instruction in reading and 4.5 months in math to meet pre-pandemic levels of achievement, the report estimates.

"Falling behind can be depressing and de-motivating for kids," said Dave Dahl, Marine Watchdogs Managing Director. "We want to get the next generations get ahead, and get them excited about marine sciences and ocean ecology."

To help keep kids' brains active and prevent them from being bored during the winter break from school, Marine Watchdogs offers free online learning games from their Know Your Ocean kiosk platform, featuring marine animals that are kids-safe (don't require logging in or downloading apps, and have no cookie tracking or pop-up ads).

The games include Ocean Concentration card matching, Know Your Ocean interactive trivia game, a jackpot game that teaches marine animals, and hundreds of jigsaw puzzles that anyone can easily play on any browser or device, without signing up for anything or submitting any information.

The games support Next-Generation Science Standards, says Marine Watchdogs, and help kids improve reading skills while learning about biology and applied math skills.

"Games are the best way for kids to learn," says Marine Watchdogs Science Director Judah Sanders, who is also a high school science teacher. "These days teachers have to compete with TikTok and video games for kids' attention."

The Know Your Ocean trivia game makes it fun to learn about marine life.