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Social Studies
Places, moments, documents, markets and towns. 54 apps you can play in your browser, by age.
Little Learners · Ages 3–5 Pre-K & K
- TrailTots A cozy “map your own walk” toy for ages 3–5: tap places to build a trail in order, say how you got to each one (straight, left, right, over, under), then Compass the fox walks it and calls every step out loud. Press “walk home” and discover that going back, left becomes right! Your map is a little code to print or share. No GPS, no camera; nothing leaves your device.
- BeanTots Which story tonight? Everyone drops one bean in a cup, then count the cups: the most beans wins. Practise with the animals, then hold your family's own vote on this phone. A tie is a tie, with fair ways to settle it. Ages 3–5.
- IsleTots The very first building game, for ages 3–5: Coral the little coral is making a cozy island! Tap a glowing spot next to a tile to add a new one — every tile has to TOUCH the island. When a tile ends up with all SIX friends around it, it goes cozy. No reading needed (tap to hear it), no score, no losing — just a cozier cove.
- OldNewTots Candle or lamp: which came first? Five pairs of things from long ago and today. Then put three of your own family photos in order, first, next and last. The photos stay on this screen and are never saved or sent. Ages 3–5, with a grown-up.
- PerchTots A map shows your room from up high, like a bird looking down — can you find where things go? PerchTots gives your littlest learner a bird’s-eye map and a handful of stickers: tap the spot on the map where the teddy, the boots, or the ball belongs. It says everything out loud (no reading needed), the spots are big to tap, and there is no way to lose. Matching the map to the real room is the very first step in map reading. No camera, on-device, no account. Ages 3–5.
- SwapTots The very first swap game, for ages 3–5: Pebble the little crab loves to swap shells! GIVE a friend the shell they want, and GET a shell you love — one friend at a time. Listen when a friend kindly says “no thank you,” and take turns. No reading needed (tap to hear it), no score, no losing — just happy swaps.
Growing Learners · Ages 6–8 Grades 1–3
- AgoPals Long ago, people wrote on clay tablets and rode horses. A while ago, your grandparents wrote letters. Now, you video-call a cousin. AgoPals is a first, gentle idea of history: everyday things change over time, and events have an order. Sort them long ago / a while ago / now — then build the timeline. A tiny, deterministic history game, no internet. Ages 6–8.
- VotePals The class votes on a recess game. Football wins the most votes — but the friends who use wheelchairs can’t play it. The parachute game got the fewest votes, and everyone can join. Which one is the fair rule? Counting hands is easy; the big idea is one step further — a fair rule looks after the kids who’d be left out. A tiny, deterministic voting game, no internet. Ages 6–8.
- GlobePals A globe you can spin. Which is farther from home — Paris or Tokyo? Guess first, then the globe draws the path and tells you about how far. Every city you visit gets a stamp in your printable passport. A grown-up picks “home” from a list — no location is ever used. Ages 6–8.
- PassportPals A visit passport for ages 6–8: earn a stamp for every quest you DO — find something older than the oldest person you know, ask a staff member a question, find the quietest room. Works at any museum, zoo, park, or right at home. On-device.
- TradePals A first deal-making game for ages 6–8: build a FAIR swap from chips — give a good you have to spare, get the good you're missing, and say what it's for. Barter the badger's Fair-o-meter shows if it helps BOTH islanders. Make all 5 deals! On-device, no accounts, no clock — the game rewards fair, not greedy.
- CompassQuest Explore social studies with Cardi the cardinal — read a map with a compass, sort wants from needs, put events in time order, and check if a source is fact or opinion. C3, non-partisan, everything read aloud. Made for grade 3.
Older Kids · Ages 9–14 Grades 4–8
- TerraVoyage Become a Clue Compass explorer — read a place’s environmental and cultural clues, name the continent, then track down the exact spot (the compass tells you how far and which way to look) — plus 16 world-geography kits.
- MapForge Build worlds that obey real geography — predict which mountain slope becomes a desert, where a river flows downhill, and which biome a climate grows; see why a Mercator map fools your eyes; and practice geography, ecology, and economics across 16 kits. On-device, no accounts.
- ChronoQuest Set the Chrono Device and step into history — visit seven eras, build the timeline of the past, and practice world history from ancient rivers to the Moon landing across 16 kits.
- DigQuest Excavate a stratified dig site and read the layers to date what you find, analyze artifacts by their features to reason out who made them and why, and explore ancient civilizations across 16 kits — with respect for the cultures who built them.
- OriginForge Explore knowledge traditions from cultures worldwide — how Aboriginal Australians read the land with fire, how Pacific navigators crossed open ocean by the stars, how the Maya tracked Venus without a telescope. Browse the Traditions Explorer by region, match a real practice to the culture that developed it and the principle it encodes in the Knowledge-Match Challenge, and practice across 16 kits. Every culture holds wisdom — credited, respectful, and on-device.
- EraForge Read history through what people wore and made. Date an era from a silhouette, trace a dye back to the plant that made it, decode what a woven pattern MEANT, follow a fabric down a trade route — then read a real portrait as evidence. 16 material-culture history & geography missions, respectful and source-first.
- CityForge Design buildings that stand and plan fair, green city blocks — choose materials and columns so a building carries its load, and zone a neighborhood so families, shops, and parks make good neighbors. Plus 16 kits of architecture & urban-planning questions. On-device, no accounts.
- RootsForge A family history you gather yourself, for ages 9–14. Pick an interview question, ask a grandparent or a parent out loud, and write down what you learn — no recording, nothing leaves your device. Willow the storykeeper helps you build a family timeline and a printable family book that YOUR family owns. Diaspora-identity + a homeschool capstone; on-device, no accounts.
- CharterForge Write the rules for a shared world so it actually lasts — cover the eight things every strong community needs, set fair step-by-step consequences, and learn to spot an unsafe approach. Ages 9–14.
- LobbyQuest Be the safety designer of a shared game room. Set the rules — how players talk, who can message whom, what the report button does — then run a synthetic crowd and see what your room lets through. Discover why the safest rooms drop open chat. Nothing here is real: no real players, no real chat, and nothing leaves your device.
- CivicForge Run your town council — deliberate and vote on petitions, balance the budget, and learn how government works across 16 civics kits.
- MarketQuest Set a price and watch supply, demand, and equilibrium respond; run market experiments to predict how events move prices; and practice economics, money, and business across 16 kits.
- TycoonForge Build a money-making machine, tune three dials, and watch it snowball — the same compounding maths behind savings and every idle game. Then step behind the counter with Cog the beaver: add a “pay to skip” button or a paid crate and watch fun fall as money rises. Discover why the best games don’t sell shortcuts. Deterministic and on-device; nothing leaves your device.
- VentureQuest Run your first business: set a price and discover why charging more can mean fewer customers but bigger profit per sale, find your break-even point, and predict how a business decision will play out before you make it. Plus 16 kits of entrepreneurship, money, and economics questions. On-device, no accounts.
- PastForge History as a deck of causes. Why did books suddenly get cheap after 1450? Why did wages rise after the plague? Build the chain of causes — but a cause only links when an Evidence card supports it. Tempting myths have no evidence, so they stay on the table. Then answer Hindsight Hal, who thinks it was all obvious. Ages 9–14.
- CauseQuest Take on a real issue at your school or park with Kwesi & friends — frame it fairly, check your facts, plan a real first step, and report honestly. Non-partisan action research for tweens.
- ThreadForge Nothing has one cause. Pick a tangled event — the Dust Bowl, the Titanic, a school garden that died, a lake full of fish that didn’t survive the summer — pull the five threads behind it (the Spark, the Slow cause, the Hidden cause, Chance, and the part People played), spot the one detail that isn’t a cause at all, weigh them on a balance, and decide which thread mattered MOST. Then compare a second event. On-device, nothing saved.
- LifeQuest A consumer-literacy practice desk: compare the real price per unit, budget a first apartment, work out a tax refund, spot a scam’s red flags before you click, and rehearse a job interview — plus predict-before-you-calculate money labs and 16 concept rounds. On-device, no accounts.
- SafetyForge Join the Digital Citizenship Academy: predict-and-learn online-safety missions, spot phishing red flags, guard your digital footprint, and practice 16 safety kits — every scenario made-up, nothing shaming.
- LaunchQuest Made something? Give it a launch: a name, a one-line pitch (five to seven words), and a "what it is" — then keep it on your launch shelf. No upvotes, no rank, no streak. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
- SignalForge Run a channel from the operator's chair: read the retention curve, A/B-test a thumbnail, and chase a learnable algorithm — while you see (safely) what rage-bait and misinformation really do — and cost. 16 statistics & media-literacy missions.
- RelicForge Be the archaeologist. A real Roman game stone, from the late Roman period (roughly AD 250–476), survived — but nobody wrote down how it was played. Build a rule set from bricks, run the wear simulation, and see how plausibly your reconstruction fits the real worn lines. On-device — no account, no AI, no data leaves your device. Ages 9–14.
- HaggleQuest The negotiation coach for ages 9–14: read the board, then predict the smartest deal — take a neighbour, use the cove (your safe fallback), or walk away. Zara grades every move on Gains, Fairness, and Their side, you choose how to ask (Manner), and teaches the two traps: never take a deal worse than the cove, and don't feed the player who's winning. On-device, no accounts, no clock.
- HeritageQuest Become your family’s storykeeper. Interview a grandparent or elder with good questions, keep their answers as notes on your device — and assemble a printable family book. Together-primary, multilingual (more languages coming), nothing uploaded.
- AtlasTales An atlas of world board games for ages 9–14: play twelve living classics from around the world — Alquerque (the ancestor of checkers), Brandubh (a Celtic siege game), Oware & Congkak (mancala sowing games from West Africa and Southeast Asia), Fanorona (Madagascar), the Royal Game of Ur and Senet (ancient dice-races), four Vietnamese folk games (Cờ Gánh, Cờ Chân Chó, Ô Ăn Quan and Cờ Cá Ngựa — a horse-race cousin of ludo) and Makruk (Thai chess) — against a level-pickable study bot or a friend, then learn where and when each one comes from. One engine, many boards; on-device, nothing leaves your device.
Teens · Ages 15–18 Grades 9–12
- ShipDojo Get your project ready to ship: build a launch checklist from real steps (and your own), check them off, and reach a calm "ready to ship." No score, no streak. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
- BetaDojo Someone tried your project? Capture it in three buckets — what worked, what confused, one thing to fix — so reactions become an action list. No score, no streak. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
- PlatformForge Build a two-sided platform economy and follow the dollar (ages 15–18): set the take-rate, payout rate, and cash-out floor; a million simulated makers on a popularity curve run for a year; predict, then read the honest ledger — creator share, the median maker, the top 1,000, and how few ever reach the floor. Deterministic; on-device; nothing leaves your device.
- DistrictForge The same votes, redrawn, can hand one side twice the seats. DistrictForge shows how winner-take-all districts turn a 55% vote into all 5 seats — or just 2 — depending on who draws the lines, through packing and cracking. Predict the seats, then measure the gerrymander with the efficiency gap argued before the Supreme Court. Non-partisan (Violet vs Orange), all exact, all on your device. Ages 15–18.
- TideForge A cap-and-trade climate trade game for ages 15–18: rebuild the coast of Gullwick, but every kiln you fire raises the shared Tide — cross the flood line and the outer coast washes out for everyone. Trade the capped kiln permits, weigh fast rebuilding against the rising water, and decide for yourself. Play three islanders or pass-and-play; a game about a dilemma, not a lesson with an answer. On-device, no accounts.
- ProvenanceQuest Who owns the past? For ages 15–18: trace a museum object’s chain of custody through real documents — a repatriation claim, a colonial-era return request, an object with a missing decade — and decide what a museum should do. Arguments on every side; you weigh the evidence. On-device; nothing leaves your device.
- ExhibitForge Plan an exhibition, ages 15–18: pick a theme and objects within a budget, say the whole show in a 60-word big idea, light the fragile pieces so they survive the run — then defend your plan under questioning. The numbers must add up; the interpretation is yours. On-device.
- PremiseBench Take the lids off four famous models: a growing city, neighbours who move, a shared pasture, an outbreak. Each opens as a diagram of stocks, flows and premises you can change. Change one premise, watch the conclusion move, and write a model card: what is in, what is left out, who would disagree, and what evidence would change your mind.
- ActionQuest Take on a real issue in your community — frame it, research it fairly, map who’s affected, design a feasible plan, then defend it to a panel. Honest, non-partisan action research. For teens.
- AidForge Decode a college award letter like an accountant — loans are not aid. Read the real price. For teens.
- ArchiveQuest Read a primary source, predict what it can (and can’t) tell us, then the bench reveals the historian’s sourcing analysis. HIPP, corroboration, causation & DBQ skills for teens.
- BallotQuest Get ready for your first vote by reading the ballot itself: mark a synthetic sample ballot, decode each measure’s plain-language summary against its fiscal note, practise lateral reading on a made-up claim, and learn your state’s registration rules. Non-partisan by construction — no real candidates or measures. Ages 15–18. On-device, no data leaves your device.
- CapstoneForge Run a real capstone from driving question to oral defence — scope it, source it, build it, document how you worked, then defend it. Honest, AI-resilient inquiry. For teens.
- CommonForge Who owns knowledge? Read a licence, weigh open vs closed, and ask whether a claim can be checked. The civics of the commons that built modern science. For teens.
- CommonsForge Design the rules of a shared-resource community — then watch them work or break. For teens: give a village hidden appetites, set a quota, enforcement, penalties and a stewardship reward, run a season, and see the commons sustain or collapse (and a proxy metric beat the real goal). Computed on-device; nothing leaves your device.
- FirstJobQuest The paperwork of your first job, made clear: predict your take-home pay then reveal the real stub, fill a W-4 and watch your paycheck move, and practice spotting a rental red flag, a good interview answer, and a job scam. Illustrative, on-device — nothing leaves your device.
- LedgerQuest Make real money decisions in a risk-free sim — then check what you know with 16 kits. For teens.