'CivilizationEDU' takes the strategy franchise to school

Minecraft isn't the only game headed to the classroom these days. Next fall, CivilizationEDU takes the storied strategy franchise to schools, too. The game "will provide students with the opportunity to think critically and create historical events, consider and evaluate the geographical ramifications of their economic and technological decisions, and to engage in systems thinking and experiment with the causal/correlative relationships between military, technology, political and socioeconomic development," according to a press release.

More than just defeating the Huns instead of reading about them, the game will offer stat tracking and measure students' proficiency at problem solving. Teachers will have access to an online portal replete with ways of tracking student progress that equate their play with their mastery of the concepts presented. That's in addition to lesson plans "aligned to academic and 21st century standards." So no, this won't just be pillaging the fields of your enemies while you're supposed to be learning about the Ming Dynasty. That's for after the final bell rings.