Last week, the ACLU of Washington's Brian Alseth shared his hands-on impressions of the iCivics games, including Do I Have a Right?, Executive Command, LawCraft and Branches of Power. The article reviews the games in depth, noting both triumphs and failings. In fact, Alseth clearly spent significant time exploring the games, subjecting each to multiple playthroughs and commenting, among other things, on their potential replay value.

Despite some undeniably well-conceived and articulated criticisms, the review emerged overwhelmingly positive, acknowledging that the materials tackled "are all very difficult and complex issues, but the iCivics games do a remarkable job of making the concepts manageable and easy to understand."

We're much obliged for the great feedback, sir, and hope others follow your lead in thoroughly and critically dissecting the games!

eSchool News has featured iCivics.org as its Site of the Week!

The educational technology portal gave an overview of each of the presently available games, including DIHAR?, Executive Command, LawCraft and Branches of Power, and pointed out that they were "free, teacher-friendly, and effective".

In October of last year, educational evaluation service the Persephone Group conducted an independent assessment of some of the Our Courts games, including Do I Have a Right?. Researchers looked at over 500 students in 22 classrooms spanning 13 states. What they found via pre- and post-testing, as well as feedback from students and teachers, was a marked improvement in kids' civics knowledge.

The student statistics are irrefutably awesome:

• Students playing DIHAR? improved 13.7% between pre- and post-test scores
• Scores of students who played the game at least twice improved 18.3% from pre- to post-test
• Students with little computer experience actually showed greater improvement upon playing the games than students who customarily used a computer for more than an hour every day
• 84% of students answered that the games were engaging and fun
• 86% of students said they'd rather learn from a game than a textboox, with 85% specifically noting they'd like to play further Our Courts games in school
• 75% of the students who played DIHAR? said they'd recommend the game to a friend 
• 57% of the students surveyed went on to play DIHAR? again at home after playing the game in class

Teachers were enthused about the Our Courts content, too: all of the surveyed educators said they would use the games and lesson plans as part of their instruction, 96% said the Our Courts lesson plans were aligned with their respective state and/or district standards, and 81% said they'd be recommending Our Courts games to colleagues and peers.

Said one 8th grade Social Studies teacher: "Do I Have a Right? reinforced students' knowledge of the amendments and put a real world spin on them. To a student, they absolutely loved playing, and from my perspective, seeing them jump out of their seats as they matched a problem with a lawyer and scream out the amendment by name...wow!"

"Why did you start a website? I mean, it was a really good idea, but why?"

This was a question put forward by a young person who attended Thursday's Wisconsin Supreme Court event spotlighting the Our Courts initiative. Retired Supreme Court Justice and Our Courts visionary Sandra Day O'Connor answered this question and more when she swung by to talk to local students and teachers about Our Courts, games, and civics education. Also in attendance were the state's First Lady and Superintendant of Schools, as well as our own Dan White.

Several Our Courts games (including Do I Have a Right?) were available for play at the event, which was organized by Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, and coordinator Marsha Varvil-Weld.