History
Mission US
Kids play young people living through turning points in U.S. history and make choices that steer each story.
In For Crown or Colony?, one of the Mission US role-playing history games, kids become a printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston, living through a pivotal moment as a young person of the time. Other missions follow a Northern Cheyenne boy during westward expansion, a Russian Jewish teenager arriving in New York in 1907, twins getting through the Dust Bowl, a Japanese American teen during World War II, a young person in the civil rights movement and a girl fleeing slavery toward Ohio. The latest, Spirit of a Nation, reaches back to encounters around 1500. Missions run about an hour each, the makers say, with branching choices and historical documents folded in. It seems pitched squarely at middle schoolers, and it treats history as lived experience rather than a list of dates.
- Ages
- Middle schoolers
- Works on
- Web browser; iPad app
- Topics
- History
- Languages
- English
- Listed
- 2026-10-18
What kids do
- Play a printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston
- Make choices that change the story
- Read documents from the period
- Compare the endings of different paths
Who it suits
Middle schoolers.
Notes for parents
Produced by THIRTEEN/WNET public media working with historians, and it has picked up more than 25 awards. Missions play in a browser, and a few exist as iPad apps.
What you need
- Computer, Chromebook or iPad
- Internet connection
More History
- Stack the States: Kids answer questions about U.S. states and pile the cartoon state shapes into a wobbly tower aiming for the finish line.
- iCivics: Kids run a presidential campaign, take on court cases and push bills through government in short civics games.
- Ducksters: Ducksters offers short reference articles on history, biographies, geography and science, with games alongside.
- Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government: Ben’s Guide introduces children to the U.S. government through learning adventures, a glossary and games.