Academics' Choice Award™ Winner
iBiome-Wetland
Ages: 8 - 11Price: $3.99
Type: Mobile App
By Springbay Studio Ltd.
Description
“iBiome-Wetland” is a three-time award-winning kids educational game. It allows players to build and interact with virtual biomes. By introducing new species and environmental factors, kids are challenged to strike a balance in the ecosystem through scientific testing. In doing so, they learn about ecology, biology and the scientific method. The game incorporates curriculum-based biology concepts taught between grades 4-to-6 and encourages kids to think critically.
“iBiome-Wetland” is designed to be used in households and classrooms where kids’ educational games are used to teach children about science. In this game, kids will be able to build 4 different virtual bio domes from scratch, based on three wetland habitats: fresh water marsh, salt water marsh and mangrove swamp. A typical game level consists of a learning task focused on one or two species, and a drag-to-match gameplay called “Crazy Web”, built upon the food web relationship around those species. Kids are challenged to slot species/element in the producer, prey, decomposer, predator, or environment category. Once they have done that, they drag the image of the organism to the category it belongs to. By dragging all the right species to its allocated category, kids “unlock” the related species and introduce them to their bio domes.
This simple and intuitive gameplay pairs well with mobile devices, and it’s proven to be very addictive, driving kids play level after level. But the educational contents are built into the core of the level design, so combined with the addictive gameplay, it helps promote the inquiry-based learning methodology.
The goal of the game is to build the optimal environment for the survival of both plants and animals. Kids are rewarded with badges as incentives, as well as another advanced function: Add Species to Dome. Like its name suggested, kids can find out what happens to their virtual dome when increasing the number of any species in the dome. Kids will see right away how species depend on one another and how easy it is for an ecosystem to become unbalanced.
The innovative design of “iBiome-Wetland “ has gained 3 awards. It is selected by the American Association of School Librarians for the Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2015, picked by Dr.Toy as its Best Green Products for 2015, and has gained the Gold Medal from Moms’ Choice Award. It is used in the schools in US and Canada, and families around the globe, including North America, Asia, Europe Middle East, and Oceania.
Review Highlights:
This app is a clever supplemental science game and simulation that introduces students to the food chain and the interdependent relationships in various ecosystems. The challenge is to build a balanced biodome using plants and animals in each of the of ecosystems.
The app is experiential in that it allows students to insert different species into the ecosystem and watch how they impact the balance - positively or negatively. The app helps students visualize producers and consumers and understand predator and prey relationships. I used it in my 6th grade classroom when we were studying fresh water wetlands to reinforce concepts and help differentiate instruction. The game was not overly interactive but it served it's purpose well and definitely engaged my tech-addicted students.
The graphics and animations are superb.
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