As of the week of 3/27/2011 4525 apps have been download from our research group here at UMW. These apps include ice cream addition, short vowel mahjong and most recently Where do I live? and Numbers Under the Sea.
Where do I live just came out today and currently has only been downloaded 6 times and Numbers Under the Sea just got approved today and has no downloads yet!
“Where do I live?” is a game that allows children to identify animals and figure out what habitat/biome they live in.
Free and Fun Exciting Game with monkeys, moose, llamas, penguins, lions, bears, and much more.
The Earth has many different environments, varying in temperature, moisture, light, and many other factors. Each of these habitats has distinct life forms living in it. A complex community of plants and animals in a region and a climate is called a biome. This game reinforces habitats and biomes with animals that live in that location.
The game reviews mountains, dessert, jungle, tundra, forest and plains. Many animals in the game live in multiple biomes but only one will appear at a time.
How to play:
On a pedestal an animal stands in all it glory, but it doesn’t know where it lives. You have to drag it to the correct location. Tap on the animal to learn what the animal is, drag it to one of three biomes that are shown on the screen. Keep trying until the answer is correct.
Over the UMW break and happy holidays I did not keep the research blog active. But here I am again to spread the word on our research team and our current app being submitted. I currently have six students working on Apps, three returning Jeff, Dustin and Jacob and three new, Bryan, Heather and Stephen.
Jeff is about to submit his new Numbers Under the Sea App
Numbers Under the Sea helps children learn the numbers 1 – 100. This interactive game allows children to look, listen and identify numbers in three different modes. The app uses a starfish to help your children feel comfortable with identifying their numbers by talking them through the game. Each number is randomly generated.
If the wrong number is selected or typed the starfish tells the child to try again. After 10 correct answers, the child can choose to play on or quit.
In our first week of release, Ice Cream Addition was downloaded 238 times. Short Vowel Mahjong is still going strong. Download our apps and leave reviews. Check out our downloads.
The apps are be downloaded by people all over the world. Check out our numbers for the 27th
Ice Cream Addition is a great new app that will help children understand that you can add different numbers to get the same answer. Check it out.
Must have iPhone or iTouch with 4.0. FREE
App accepted. I am the first to announce that the Ice Cream Addition game has been accepted and can now be download from the app store. Please download check it out and have your kids test it out.
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This game lets kids explore making different combinations that add up to one number using ice cream scoops.
Game Objective:
The object of the game is to create four combinations that add up to the same number. The game focuses on creating combinations for the numbers 4 – 10. Numbers are randomly displayed each game iteration. The game is targeted for preschool – early first grade.
How to Play:
Listen and look for the number that the game is asking for you to create. Drag one of the four flavors of ice cream to the ice cream cone. Once you have the correct number of scoops on the ice cream cone you can hit the green icon to check your answer. The user can select the red icon at anytime to clear all scoops from the cone. When you have completed four correct combinations the next number will be displayed for addition combinations. The user can touch the home icon to go start back to the tutorial.
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Even though it say Jacob it is really Jeff McElhannon app. Kind of strange it kept the authors name the same even though I changed it when I submitted it.
Ice Cream Addition Uploaded and Waiting for Review. Check out the tutorial that is in the game. It gives you a good idea of how the game works.
Thanks to Jeff McElhannon for sticking with the many requested changes and demanding clients. Thank you Jacob Bowman for helping out with some of the artwork. Last time we waited for a week before hearing about the application status.
Congratulations to all. Hope to hear soon.
They know more than you think. Last Monday as I watched 20 kids get there first look and hands at using the iTouch in class it was apparent to me and Heather Howe that many of the kids knew there way around the iTouch. However, four of the kids were completely and utterly lost. 25% of the school population is eligible for free lunch and an additional 7% is eligible for reduced lunch. As I sat and watched the class, I personally knew three of the kids and knew they were part of those free and reduce lunch statistics. What impressed me the most is the willingness of the other children to help them out. At least four kids in the class needed no instructions whatsoever. One being my daughter and she has seen all these iTouches in our basement for the last 4 months.
The remaining 12 students varied in their technology skills. Many were able to do things with the iTouch I never imagined and most of it was by accident. Delete applications, move applications out of folder and onto different screens, etc. The kids started with the ABC tracer, many had a hard time. They tried to trace the letters but many had trouble getting it correct according to the app. If the letter is traced correctly it should be green, incorrectly it turns red. Many of the kids started tracing at the bottom therefore it really should be red because when writing letters they should always start at the top. But I couldn’t even get the K to draw correctly, it was very touchy. The kids loved the ABC Tracer pop, where they are to pop the letters in order. To my surprise many of the kindergarten had trouble with this, but Heather the teacher said this was normal. The first graders had no problems but decided it was a good idea to hear “uh-o” when they did not do it in the correct order. Next time they are wearing earphones.
Jacob Bowman’s app Short Vowel Mahjong is now free on iTunes. In the last three days 109 downloads have occurred. The downloads have primarily been in the United States but they included Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong, France, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Korea, UK, and Spain.
This app was made specifically at the request of Heather Howe a Kindergarten and First Grade teacher at Hartwood Elementary. Heather wanted a game that would reinforce short vowel recognition. Jacob, a junior computer science major, and his advisor, Jennifer A. Polack-Wahl, Professor of Computer Science, brainstormed a variety of ideas and decided on a Mahjong style game. The list of words we used was approved by Heather and included approximately seven different words in each vowel (a, e, i, o, and u).
The app is for anyone who wants to help their children or students to reinforce short vowel sounds or start short vowel recognition. You do need either an iTouch or iPhone with IOS 4.0 to play the game. We want to find out how to make it better so we can aid elementary education, we are in it for the kids.
Continue to check out http://hartwood.umwblogs.org/ for more games in education. Our ice cream Math game is our next to be submitted to the app store.
