Zoo Academy

Zoo Academy is a web-based program best suited for kindergarten to first grade students learning essential social-emotional skills. The program contains 10 scenes, which equates to approximately two hours of game time. The first step for each student is to create a custom avatar to represent their character in the game. Once introduced to the principal, players learn that they must help other characters demonstrate appropriate social-emotional skills like emotion identification, emotion regulation, and social awareness.

The program offers three choices, which often have a visual component, and the prompt is read aloud to emphasize tone of voice. Players must choose the best answer. Students will help characters like an owl learn to respect others' personal space, and a baby gorilla to make new friends. While teaching the animals, students learn and practice these skills in real time. After the first six lessons, the teacher has an educator dashboard and will be able to monitor student progress while gaining insight into the skills players are mastering. Teachers obtain a proficiency report on the following skills: impulse control, emotion regulation, empathy, communication, cooperation, and social initiation.

Zoo Academy does a great job at emphasizing the foundational social-emotional learning skills like impulse control, emotion regulation, empathy, communication, cooperation, and social initiation. These concepts align well with nationally recognized standards for social-emotional learning. The content also feels age-appropriate. It's challenging without being too overwhelming or technical, and even young players will be able to navigate it. Featuring scenarios that students will recognize from their own classrooms will help them identify with the lessons, and having students "teach" the characters makes them an authority with agency.

Also, the developer has a robust community of partners and supplementary aids and lessons, with more on the way. When considering areas of improvement, it would be nice to have more options in the avatar to represent more inclusive character choices, such as students who use amplification devices or wheelchairs for mobility. Finally, there are some activities that could use some more development. When the breathing exercises appear, it would be helpful to have a more visually engaging image for students to focus on, and some of the activities (e.g., art collage) could better tie into the concept being taught. Other than those minor drawbacks, it's a great tool for helping young students practice their social skills.