What is Dig-It! Games? It’s like having “all the fun of a real archeological excavation without getting your hands dirty!” These quotes from the website will give you a little background information on this product:
“Founded by a professional archaeologist and teacher, Dig-It! Games promotes learning through active discovery and the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills in young learners. Dig-It! Games presents authentic and accurate historical information that conforms to the curriculum mandates and Standards of Learning of many states. Dig-It! Games creates “hands-on” learning games that can be played at home, used as course supplements, and adapt easily to the classroom.”
“With Roman Town, kids will learn about Roman culture, society, and history through “hands-on” discovery, analysis, and problem solving – skills that are fundamental to educational growth and development.”
“Roman Town is historically accurate, loaded with realistic artifacts, vividly illustrated and transports kids back to the Roman town of Fossura, destroyed in 79 AD by Mount Vesuvius.”
Before we get to our opinion, let’s run over to You Tube and watch the video walk through. I think that will give you the best feel for the product.
It is truly fun learning about this fascinating time period using Dig-It! Games instead of just a textbook! The games walks you through the various dig sites in true archealogical fashion by first digging and locating artifacts, learning about them as you go. Once all the items have been found, you must organize them by category and take them to the “lab” for analysis. While in the “lab”, you create mosaics, put together broken pottery or frescos, tour the completed room and play a quick game of Calculi! 
Then it’s time to test your knowledge with various word games and quizzes. Once one area of the dig site is complete, you move on to the next.
While were were not given a full copy of the Educator’s Manual for review, looking at the the sample it appears that it would be a great asset to have along with the software. The manual has lots of background information on the actual dig sites and history, as well as vocabulary, and project ideas.
While the graphics quality is not necessarily “top of the line”, I think this software/game would be a fun addition to a unit study/history lesson on the Roman Empire.
Price: $39.95 Act quickly and you can purchase Roman Town at the low price of $19.96. Use coupon code TOS2011, but you only have until February 21, 2011!
Educators Manual (Download): $19.95
System Requirements & Purchasing
Ages: 8 – 88 (targeted at 5th – 8th graders)
Disclaimer: Members of the Old School Magazine’s Homeschool Crew were given a copy of Roman Town in exchange for their honest review. No other compensation of any kind has been received. Not even so much as an ancient pot shard!
Mindful Ramblings 