Peer Review

EarthViewer App for iPad

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: May 15, 2017 by Teacher Education

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: EarthViewer for iPad allows users to systematically explore 4.5 billion years on Earth. Users can choose eras or eons to view. Once selected you can view continental drift, tectonic plates, and other major biological events in Earth's history. Charts, timelines, geological events, fossil discoveries, world temperatures for the past 100 years, and more are found in this app. There are tutorial videos built into the app. The app was created by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The app is free.
Type of Material:: iPad app (simulation)
Recommended Uses:: This app offers immediate visual resources for supporting science, biology, geology, and geography lessons. Within the app under the link to Teachers the develops suggest the app be used as a visualization aid and as "an inquiry tool to invite student questions and hypotheses, and prime further discussion and research." Users can also compare different data sets over time and investigate the changes of climate over time.
Technical Requirements:: Requires iOS 4.0 or later. Compatible with iPad.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: This app was specifically designed to link across multiple domains of science as called for in the Next Generation Science Standards. It is an educational tool for exploring the deep history of the Earth. It seeks to demonstrate with interactive simulations what the earth looked like millions of years before and how our climate has changed over time.
Target Student Population:: Educators of 5th grade and older could easily incorporate this app into their curriculum.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: There is a vast amount of earth data in this app that can be accessed in multiple ways. There are three main timelines that you can view: Deep History (past 4.6 billion years), Phanerozoic (past 540 million years), and Modern (past 100 years). There are pop-ups for labels such as eon, era, or period that provide descriptions. There is a slider that allows users to watch the progression of continental drift. This animation can be paused or moved forward or backward. Within the modern era the globe depicts variations in climate and temperature. Other areas to explore include fossils, meteor impacts and mass extinctions. Additional buttons address Charts, View, Teachers, In Depth, and Info. The content presents educationally significant concepts and models for students and teachers. The app allows users to explore the different ages of earth with the swipe of a finger, showing everything from the shifting of continents to the changes in elements in the earth's atmosphere.
Concerns:: None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The content in this app can be used by individual students or by teachers seeking to inform entire classes. The Teachers button in the app specifically offers a quick guide for using the app in a classroom, provides references for primary research from the app's content, and introduces information about Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) who developed this app. The learning material can be readily integrated into curriculum in a variety of ways, depending on learners and teachers. The companion website also includes classroom activities and editable data files that educators can further personalize and make available to their students.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: This app provides an overview, is systematically organized, and holds a wealth of information. Key features included: continental reconstructions and supporting data; world temperature map for last 100 years; ability to manipulate globe and zoom to any location; locations of modern cities tracked back over 500 million years; in-depth features on major geological and biological events in Earth history; clickable details on geologic eons, eras, and periods; automated play modes; extensive reference list; suggestions for classroom use; and tutorial videos. The design is intuitive and easy to learn and use. Navigation is effortless and the simulations are engaging and easy to follow.
Concerns:: None.

Other Issues and Comments:: A comment for user awareness: Not all data is directly measured. Some descriptions are cursory. However, the teaching potential and content remain very high.
Creative Commons: