Toca Lab
© 2013 Toca Boca
Can a young child build their own periodic table of the elements? Toca Boca thinks so, by giving each element a human personality, and letting children freely conduct experiments to find where the element fits on the grid. You might have to lower the temperature of a gas in order to discover a solid, or administer a strong electrical shock in order to turn something into smaller parts. The right procedures cause the element to fall into place on the grid. The content is inspired by the real table, with 118 elements and five experiments, including a Bunsen burner, centrifuge, oscilloscope, cooling agent and test tubes. So does it work? In theory; and the experimental process is interesting. However the concept of a periodic table is abstract; certainly out of range of the published age range for this app (Toca Boca lists ages 3 to 8). Just because you let a younger child play with an abstract concept doesn't build understanding. The testing process would work better if it were applied to meaningful items a child uses everyday, or if a child could understand how the elements relate to his or her life (e.g., you put salt on your french fries). Note: this app keeps track of every element; you can erase all the data and start over in the Settings panel. Created by Marten Bruggemann for Toca Boca.
$2.99, iPad, iPhone, Android
Teaches: science, scientific thinking, the elements, attributes
CTR Rating: 80%