Tag: SquishLogic »

JigsawGeo Africa is a very nice universal application which teaches the geography of Africa with a good use of puzzles. This app is part of a large series of apps geared towards geographical literacy, worth checking out.

This app consists of four ways of filling up with the included map of Africa, nicely varied for different skill levels. This game opens to the easiest mode, “Traveler,” in which the players match a country’s colorful shape to its corresponding outline within the a map of Africa. This mode offers a nice hint of slowly zooming-in to the area where this country is found, allowing players with little knowledge of Africa to succeed at this game.

I really enjoy this mode as I have never been a good student of geography, and the zooming-in helps me complete this map, allowing me to learn a lot about where these countries fit within this contenent without feeling frustrated. I really do appreciate the zooming used here, especially when the country in question is quite small, something lacking in other geography apps that I have used. I also like that when a country is tapped to drag, it enlarges to show scale in comparison to other countries - a very nice touch.

The “Surveyor” and “Navigator” modes work much the same way, but without the benefit of the slow, automatic zooming-in as a clue, yet players are still able to zoom in on this map themselves to see detail and match the country in play with its matching outline. In “Surveyor” mode, the names of the countries are used, whereas in the “Navigator” mode, the countries' capitals are focused on instead.

The most difficult section within this app is “Discover,” as here, the countries' flags are used instead, removing the ability to complete this map much like a jigsaw puzzle, matching countries to their outlines.

Nice, bright colors are used within this app, adding beauty to the map of Africa as it is filled in, and this app is a nice choice for students as a clear, yet detailed map of Africa is uses, simple to look at and unadorned - but effective in teaching geography. Time is kept for each game finished, and these scores can be left locally on one’s device or added to a world-wide database of players. This is a nice feature, but I would also like to see an option for these games to be played without scorekeeping as well.

Teachers and parents of later grade school kids will be interested in this app as well as this series in general - nice resources aiding in the learning of geography around the world. If interested, please read the review of JigsawGeo USA also reviewed on GiggleApps.

JigsawGeo USA is an interesting educational universal application which teaches a great deal about the U.S.A. map, including the finding of the 50 states, as well as learning state capitals and flags.

I really like this app for learning the 50 states and their places on the U.S. map. Geography has never been my strong suit, I always thought it was more important to be able to read a map easily and quickly as a reference tool instead of committing this kind of information to memory. Because of this, I find myself sometimes challenged when I play app games that focus on knowledge of state geography.

What I like about this game is that the map as a whole can be seen, with the ability to zoom in and out to see detail. There are three different sections in this app. In “Surveyor,” you are being taught the name of each state and where it belongs in the map. In “Navigator,” you learn the capitals, and “Discover” focuses on state flags. I appreciate that for each mode of this game, you are looking at each state as a piece of a puzzle and you need to match it up with the corresponding state outline. Even if you are stuck and don’t know where a piece goes in the map, focusing long enough will always allow you succeed, much like connecting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I really enjoyed learning about U.S. geography as I played, and I think that this is an excellent resource for students.

Although time is kept and some kids may enjoy beating their personal best, I like that you can take as long as you want to finish this map. An option to remove the timer altogether would be a nice addition.

The basic look of this app is attractive. There may be more visually interesting apps that touch upon this same information, but I find this one especially good for teaching straight-up geography. Parents or teachers may enjoy the fact that although interactive, this app keeps the focus on the map without any distractions. The scale here is excellent, and “Resume Game a nice option to have in case one is called away and wants to continue the game later.

It is especially nice that although I did not print it myself, the iTunes description says that this app's web site contains a printable PDF of the U.S. map, both labeled with the states, as well as without, which could be used as coloring pages.

I highly recommend this app to anyone who wants to learn more about U.S. geography, as well as state capitals and flags. I found this a great learning experience. This would have helped me learn this information had it been available when I was in school.