Website to keep students sharp this summer

As summer approaches and classes near their finish, students at Nebraska Wesleyan University may be ready to let their brains rest for the summer months. To keep sharp, however, there is a website that NWU students should consider visiting. Sporcle.com, with its tagline “mentally stimulating diversions,” offers more than 1,200 quiz games visitors can choose from.

Sporcle, which according to the website’s frequently asked questions “doesn’t really mean much of anything,” began as a sports pick’em website before it received strong feedback to its first quiz: U.S. Presidents. Today with topics ranging from map quizzes to Disney songs to corporate logos and mascots, there are games fitting any interest.

Although some quizzes capitalize on entertainment obsessions (i.e. listing Will Smith movies by year of release or filling in the blanks to his 1990s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” song), there are those that could be beneficial to students in various fields:

• Scientists: Fill in the Periodic Table or Identify Amino Acids
• Historians & Political Scientists: Name the U.S. Presidents or List Modern World Leaders
• Modern Languages: Quizzes recalling French, German and Spanish basics
• Greek Community: Name the Greek Alphabet

Remember that a quiz a day will keep the professors at bay. You might even learn something along the way.