Statewise · US States and Capitals Map Game

How to Play Statewise

Statewise is a map game for learning the 50 United States and their capitals. It is not one long quiz. It is six short games, two for each of three age groups, and every round takes a few minutes. Pick a game from the menu, choose which states to play (a Quick 10, one of the four regions, or all 50), and press Start. The map fills in as you go, and a round ends when every state in it has been answered.

Younger players start with Little Explorers, for grades K to 2 (about ages 5 to 8). In Find the State a name pops up, such as Texas, and you tap that state on the map. The map is colored by region to help, and every state you find gets its name written on it (or its two-letter postal code, where the name will not fit). In Map Puzzle the map starts empty, with only dotted outlines, and you drag each state shape from the tray into its place. The piece shows the state’s name, so a child who cannot read every name yet still learns where each shape goes. A wrong drop sends the piece back and says which state’s spot it landed on; after two wrong drops the right spot glows. A piece can also be skipped and tried again later in the round.

Middle grades play Map Masters, for grades 3 to 5 (about ages 8 to 11). In Name the State one state lights up orange on a plain map and you pick its name from four answers. Two of the wrong answers come from the same region, so you have to really know the map. In Shape Detective you see only a state’s outline, with no map around it, and pick which state it is. After you answer, the state lights up on the map so you see where it lives.

Older players take on Capital Champs, for grades 6 to 8 (about ages 11 to 14). The Capital Quiz works both ways: sometimes it names a state and you pick its capital from four cities, and sometimes it names a capital, such as Columbus, and you tap its state on the map. For 21 states one of the wrong answers can be a famous city in that state that is not the capital, such as Chicago for Illinois or Los Angeles for California, because that is the most common mistake. Capital Match is against the clock: four states and four capitals appear as cards, you tap a state and then its capital to pair them, and when all four pairs are done the next four appear. A wrong pair adds three seconds to your time.

On a keyboard, the number keys 1 to 4 pick the answers in Name the State, Shape Detective and the Capital Quiz. The map games are played with a mouse, a finger or a stylus.

Missed States Come Back

Statewise is built around a light learning loop, not a long career. When you miss a state, the game tells you the right answer and that state comes back a few questions later in the same round, marked “again”, so you get a second try while it is fresh. In Capital Match a missed pair comes back in the next set of cards. In Find the State, and when tapping the state for a capital, a wrong tap names the state you touched; after two wrong taps the right state glows, and after three it is shown to you.

Every missed state also goes on the States to practice list on the menu, sorted by what you missed: where it is on the map, its name, or its capital. A Practice these button plays a round of up to ten of them. A state leaves the list when you get it right on the first try in two later rounds; the quick second try inside the round where you missed it does not count, so the list only clears when you really know it.

My Map, Stamps and Stars

The menu shows My Map, a map of the country that slowly turns gold. Each state can collect three stamps: one for where it is (from Find the State and Map Puzzle), one for its name (from Name the State and Shape Detective) and one for its capital (from the Capital Quiz and Capital Match). A state earns a stamp the first time you answer it right on the first try in that kind of game. A state with no stamps is grey, then it turns light green, darker green and finally gold when it has all three. There are 150 stamps to collect, 3 for each of the 50 states.

Tap any state on My Map, or open Explore the map, to see its name, capital, region and two-letter postal code, along with which stamps it has. Explore mode labels every state and is not a quiz, so it is a calm place for a young child to look around before playing.

Each round also earns one to three stars: three stars for getting at least 90 percent right on the first try, two stars for at least 70 percent, and one star for finishing. Your best stars, best time and best points are kept for every game and every choice of states, and the menu adds them up. With six games and six choices of states, there are 108 stars in all.

Small States, Phones and Chromebooks

Some states are tiny on a map of the whole country. Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire each have a small box out in the ocean, joined to the state by a line, and tapping the box counts the same as tapping the state. On a phone or a small tablet, a tap anywhere inside the state you are asked for counts at once. A tap on a different state right next to it, or on the sea or one of the boxes beside it, opens a zoomed-in view of that part of the map instead of counting as wrong, and you tap again there. Alaska and Hawaii are drawn in boxes in the lower left, as on most US maps.

The map is flat and drawn with simple shapes, so it stays sharp and quick on school Chromebooks and on tablets such as the Kindle Fire. Buttons are large for small fingers, and there is no typing. Your stars, stamps and practice list are saved in your browser, so they are still there next time on the same device. A round in progress is not saved, but rounds are short.

A Read aloud button in the top bar makes the game say each question, whether an answer was right, and each state’s name and capital out loud, using your browser’s built-in voice. It starts on for the Little Explorers games, Explore and My Map, for players who are still learning to read, and the button switches it between those (K-2), every game (all) and off. The speaker button next to a question repeats it. There is also a switch for calmer motion, and sound effects can be turned off.

Points and Leaderboards

A state answered right on the first try is worth 100 points, plus up to 50 more for a quick answer: the full 50 within half a second, falling a little with every moment to nothing at ten seconds, so two players rarely tie. A state you get on your second try is worth 40 points, and later tries or a state shown to you are worth 10. A missed state that comes back and is answered right first time adds 20 more. All 50 rounds have a leaderboard, one for each of the six games, so everyone on a board played the same full map. Press the Leaderboard button on the results card after an All 50 round to see the board and add your name.

Tips for Learning the States and Capitals

• Learn one region at a time. The Northeast has 9 states, the Midwest 12, the South 16 and the West 13. Play a region until it earns three stars, then move to the next, and finish with All 50.
• Start with shapes you can picture. Florida points down like a thumb, Michigan looks like a mitten, Louisiana looks like a boot and Oklahoma has a handle. Shape Detective is a good place to practice them.
• Capitals are often not the biggest city. New York’s capital is Albany, not New York City, and California’s is Sacramento, not Los Angeles. The Capital Quiz deliberately offers the big city as a wrong answer, so watch for it.
• Use memory hooks for the hard ones. Pierre is the capital of South Dakota, Montpelier of Vermont, Juneau of Alaska, Frankfort of Kentucky and Harrisburg of Pennsylvania. Say them out loud with Read aloud on.
• Clear your practice list. A few rounds of Practice these each day does more than one long session.

Geography Games, Then and Now

Children have learned the states with wooden puzzle maps, placemats, songs that list all fifty in alphabetical order, and flash cards for the capitals. On computers, Carmen Sandiego taught a generation geography in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, Seterra is a well-known free map quiz, Sheppard Software has long offered US geography games for schools, and apps such as Stack the States are popular on tablets. Statewise takes the most familiar of these ideas, the click-the-state quiz and the drag-and-drop puzzle map, and groups them by age with a gentle learning loop. There is no chat, no sign-up and no download.