WaveWardens.net

WAVE WARDENS

A free tsunami science game for students in grade 3 and up. Forecast the wave, build defenses, spot the warning signs, and get every critter to high ground.

Play Now Teacher Guide
Wave Wardens gameplay: the sea pulls back from the beach as cartoon critters run to green safe zones on the hills

How a round works

Wave forecast showing the tsunami reaching the island with captions explaining each stage

1. Watch the forecast

See the tsunami hit the island with no defenses. Captions explain the earthquake, the sea pulling back, and the wave growing in shallow water. The result is a red inundation map.

Build mode with a flood map, sand dunes, a sea wall and a warning siren placed on the island

2. Plan and build

You have 3 minutes and a budget. Place dunes, sea walls, breakwaters, coral reefs, mangroves, sirens, escape paths, stilts and evacuation towers. Test your design, then improve it.

Warning signs quiz with cards for strong shaking, the sea pulling back, and decoys like an ice-cream truck

3. Spot the warning signs

The earthquake hits. Which signs mean "go to high ground now"? Answering fast gives you more time to evacuate.

Critters gathered safely in the green safe zones while the tsunami approaches

4. Evacuate!

The water is a real simulation. It flows around walls, washes away dunes and floods low ground. Tap homes to send everyone to safety.

What students learn

IslandScience concept
1. Shell BayHow undersea earthquakes cause tsunamis. The sea pulling back is a natural warning sign: go to high ground right away.
2. Mangrove CoveWave speed depends on water depth. Waves slow down and grow taller in shallow water. Reefs and mangroves absorb wave energy.
3. Flatfish KeyTsunamis come as a series of waves, and the first is often not the biggest. Vertical evacuation on flat islands.
4. Otter RiverTsunamis travel up rivers, much farther inland than on the beach.
5. Shelter IsleWaves bend around islands (refraction). Offshore islands shelter some of the coast.
6. Funnel BayNarrow, V-shaped bays squeeze the wave and make it taller.
7. Lagoon AtollBarrier reefs and sandbars break the wave early and absorb energy.
8. Cliffside CoveRun-up: water climbs much higher on land than the wave height at sea.
9. Faraway ShoresDistant tsunamis cross whole oceans and arrive with no shaking. Official warnings matter.
10. Megaquake CoastBigger earthquakes make bigger tsunamis. Everything learned comes together.
Final: Coral CityA huge city with 16 homes and three waves. Layered defense: combining warnings, evacuation routes, engineered and natural defenses.
Wave LabOpen sandbox for controlled experiments: change one defense at a time and compare the flooding.

Standards, grades 3-5: NGSS 4-ESS3-2 (solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes, including tsunamis), 4-PS4-1 (wave models), and 3-5-ETS1-1 to 1-3 (engineering design: define, test and improve).
Middle school: MS-ESS3-2 (natural hazards and mitigation), MS-PS4-1 (wave models), and MS-ETS1-1 to 1-4 (engineering design). See the Teacher Guide for discussion questions and extension ideas.

Made for classrooms

Wave Wardens runs in any modern browser with nothing to install. There are no accounts, ads, chat or in-app purchases, and no personal information is collected. Progress is saved only in the browser on that device. The game uses friendly cartoon animals and never shows people being harmed.

Best played in landscape on phones. On school networks, the first load downloads about 10 MB.

Play Wave Wardens