How video games can transform education

You control the president, a congressman and a Supreme Court justice in the iCivics video game “Branches of Power.”

Without parties, lobbying and budget-setting, the game is a simplified version of reality. Still, the lesson of what each branch of government does and how it checks the others is important. And with only seven percent of eighth-graders able to fill out a table with such information, teachers need to find creative ways to get that lesson across.