The National Center for Education Statistics hosts a collection of games and tools for students. On the NCES Kids’ Zone students will find information about public and private schools as well information designed to help them choose a college.

The Kids’ Zone’s real value lies in the games, quizzes, and learning tutorials featured on the site. Dare to Compare is a quiz section of Kids’ Zone where students can test their knowledge of civics, economics, history, geography, mathematics, and science. After taking each quiz the students are shown the correct answers. Dare to Compare also allows students to see the national and international average rate of correct answers.

I was prompted to write about Kids’ Zone by a Tweet from Larry Linebaugh about the Create a Graph tool on Kids’ Zone. Create a Graph provides students with five graphing tools and tutorials. The tutorials can be viewed online or downloaded in pdf format for printing.

Applications for Education
The NCES Kids’ Zone is a good place to find quizzes and activities that students can use for independent study and practice. Create a Graph can be used to create simple graphs for most content areas. If you’re looking for some educational time-fillers for those times when you finish your lesson plan early and have a few spare minutes, check out the Kids’ Zone Grab Bag for brain teasers.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
The Math Arcade on Fun Brain
Brain Bashers – Puzzles and Brain Teasers
Play the Cash Cab Quizzes