Originally published in TEACH Magazine, March/April 2017 Issue
With Earth Day quickly approaching, encourage kids to learn more about the environment and nature with these science-based apps. They explore animals, biomes, water, plants, animals, and the seasons in a fun and interactive way.
Gro Memo
(Paid – iOS, Android)
Gro Memo is an eco-educational app that teaches young children basic environmental knowledge and awareness of sustainability issues. Children pair up animated cards that display animals in nature, avoid the pollution cards, and remove the trash cards from the collection. As the environment is cleaned up, the animals become happy in the forest and the sea.
iBiome-Wetland
(Paid – iOS, Website)
iBiome Wetland is a five-time award-winning iPad app on biodiversity. Kids can explore three different wetland habitats—freshwater marsh, saltwater marsh, and mangrove swamp. They have tasks in each habitat or “biome,” such as identifying consumers, producers, and environmental factors. Once a task is complete, a new species is unlocked. The species gets placed in a virtual journal, where kids can tap to learn more. Kids can also experiment with their biomes by adding species to see how it affects the biome. The iBiomeWetland: School Edition includes extra features for teachers, including mapped game levels for measuring progress, along with access to lesson plans, activities, videos, and more.
Journey North
(Free – iOS, Website)
Journey North is a free app suitable for elementary or middle-school students that teaches ecosystems, life cycles, and the seasons. The app allows users to record and share field observations about seasonal change with users across North America. Recorded observations may include a variety of indicators, from the length of a day, to a flower blooming, or the presence of a butterfly. It also connects to the website where there are migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities, and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context.
Water Cycle HD
(Paid – iOS)
Water Cycle HD is an audiovisual exploration of the water cycle. Photos, videos, and descriptive text show how clouds form, how water travels from ocean to land and land to ocean, and how the water cycle impacts life on Earth. The app includes a visual quiz, based on Bloom’s taxonomy to test knowledge on the various topics, including easy, intermediate, and advanced questions.
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