PBS Kids' Teaches Biology in an Online Game

Lifeboat to Mars is a simulation game that kids play while connected to the Internet. The game was produced by Red Hill Studios for PBS Kids Go with support by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Once you register by creating an online persona (which is not your real name) and a password, you join Ort, a robot on a spaceship mission to Mars. Unfortunately, an explosion has wiped out part of your cargo of microbes, plants and animals. Your mission is to help rebuild the on-board ecosystems before you reach Mars.

To accomplish this mission, you will need to play two kinds of simulations: one set in a microscopic world called Microbe Games and the other in an ecosystem with animals and plants called Ecoland Games. To familiarize you with how to play both of these simulations, the game has you go through two sets of starter games, which act as the game's tutorials.

Once you finish each set of starter games, other more difficult games become available. In this manner, Lifeboat to Mars very cleverly leads kids through progressively more difficult material, which builds on the lessons learned in the starter games.

From: USATODAY.com