The Earth Primer iPad app ($9.99) is a fun, interactive introduction to the internal and external structure of our planet, and the processes that drive its geology and weather. The app is highly interactive: With the touch of a finger, you can, for example, make volcanoes erupt, tectonic plates crash, and glaciers advance and recede. You start with the Earth's core and finish with biomes or ecosystems, unlocking new sections along the way. At the end, you're presented with a "Sandbox" of varied biomes that you can shape, using tools that let you change sea level, temperature, rainfall, the deposition of various types of sediments, among others, and note the effect of these changes on the landscape over time. Earth Primer is an enjoyable Earth-science tool, worthy of our Editors' Choice as an educational iPad app.
Our Planet, Sliced and Diced
The app is iPad only, taking advantage of the device's large screen. I tested it with an iPad Air 2 running iOS 8.3. The introduction screen shows a photo from the Earth from space, overlaid with a passage in white text, the first sentence of which reads "This book is about the planet we live on, and how it changes over long periods of time…" However, it's not a book in any familiar sense of the word; rather, it's a series of interactive illustrations, grouped into sections and subsections that you work through sequentially, interspersed with photos.
Most of the interactive tasks are simple enough. For example, in the first illustration in the Volcanoes subsection, you can touch any spot within the Earth's interior in the cross-sectional view of our planet. This causes a stream of magma (represented by little, golden triangles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons) to rise to the surface, where it erupts and forms a volcano. Removing your finger stops the process.
Once you've completed a task in a section, a check mark will appear after the descriptive text, and you can move on to the now-unlocked next exercise or image. For instance, after you complete the Volcanoes exercise, swiping left on your iPad's screen brings up a photo of a volcanic island in formation. Swiping left again takes you to an illustration titled Lava, another cross-sectional view of the Earth that shows the mantle, the crust, and an ocean. Below the title is the question, "Can you make an island?" Using your newfound volcano-creating skills, it's easy enough to do. In this manner, you work your way through the app, absorbing the lessons in each subsection in order to advance. The app's Interior section includes eight sequentially numbered subsections, titled Welcome, Core, Mantle, Volcano, Rift, Crust, Tectonic Collisions, and Hot Spot.
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When you've completed the Interior section, you can move on to Surface, which discusses mountains, sediment, streams, dunes, and wave-weathering in its subsections. The Water section covers evaporation, precipitation, salty and fresh water, groundwater, lakes, runoff, and glaciers. Next up is Biomes, which tackles habitats or ecosystems, such as tundra, subtropical desert, savanna, and tropical rainforest. Each biome includes a description of its characteristics and climate, and where in the world it is found. Also included is an animated square of terrain representative of the biome, showing changes over time: precipitation, seasonal changes, the death and birth of trees, even glaciation.
Worldbuilding
Lastly, there is the Sandbox section, which contains about a dozen squares of terrain representing different biomes, except that, unlike in the Biomes section, tapping in the lower-right-hand corner gives you access a box full of tools—accessible through icons—that let you modify parameters and see how they affect the landscape over time. For instance, tapping a Sun icon lets you alter the temperature, from very hot (40 degrees Celsius) to very cold (-10 degrees Celsius), or anywhere in between. Other icons cause precipitation, wind, and changes in sea level. Using icons at the screen's upper left, you can add a new terrain square (+ icon), delete the existing one (garbage pail icon), cause it to revert to its original form (clock icon with a counterclockwise-pointing arrow), or roll the dice and pull up an exotic new terrain square (pair of dice icon). Although you're not building an entire world with the sandbox, it's fascinating to examine how changing parameters such as temperature or precipitation can cause large-scale changes to an ecosystem over time.
Some Considerations
Earth Primer is a bit on the expensive side, but it is money well spent. It lacks social media integration, references, and links, and the text accompanying the exercises is fairly cursory. That isn't totally a bad thing, as the app is self-contained and doesn't require you to be online. (I did most of my testing of it aboard a plane, with no Internet access.) The Earth Primer app is a fun, experiential approach to Earth science, letting students or interested laymen experiment with the processes that drive and change our planet. It's easy to recommend, for students from secondary school (and younger) to undergrads, and anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of our planet. It's an easy pick as an Editors' Choice educational iPad app.
Earth Primer is a fascinating and fun iPad app that familiarizes students with the processes that drive and shape our planet through a series of interactive exercises.
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