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Geo Walk - World Factbook 3D
Pros: Two inviting interfaces let kids explore over 500 places, animals, plants, people, and events.
Cons: The app lacks diversity of historical figures and doesn't offer videos.
Bottom Line: Credible resource for introducing students to the world, which is likely to encourage them to research areas of interest further.
Geo Walk - World Factbook 3D is a great resource for encouraging kids to explore the world. With two different ways to access its information, the app appeals to different learning styles. Since the information included on each card is brief, this app is a great source to use as an idea generator for research topics. Categories can be deselected, too, so you could make available only the options you want your students to explore (places or events, for example). The vivid images could be used to introduce topics to the whole class or make connections to themes in history, science, or literature.
Kids spin an interactive globe that's covered with small thumbnail pictures (which turn out to be flashcards). When they tap one, they'll see an image indicating one of the game's four categories -- animals and plants, history, people, and inventions. Tap the picture and an informational paragraph gives details in a short, digestible form. The other way to view the information is by viewing the cards, which appear in a circular scrolling manner.
Each card offers a dazzling photo and a short paragraph of information. Players can turn off categories and take a quiz to see how much of the information they're retaining.
In an era where expertly researched encyclopedias are nearly extinct and crowd-sourced ones often contain faulty data, Geo Walk - World Factbook 3D is a breath of fresh air. Loaded with information in easily digestible nuggets, the app makes exploring the world truly fun. And a quiz mode helps kids review what they've learned (or test their existing knowledge) in an entertaining fashion.
Designed for kids, this is not an exhaustive resource. Rather, it presents more than 500 flashcards that cover places, animals, plants, people, and events. The People section could use more diversity, as very few women and races are represented. Important figures like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. are missing, for example.