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App review by Dana Villamagna, Common Sense Education | Updated March 2013
Ansel And Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs

Ansel and Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs

Kids travel back in time for a dino-size learning adventure

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Grades
1–4
Subjects & Skills
Science, Social Studies, Critical Thinking
Platforms:  iPad
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Take a look inside

5 images
Students can choose to go back in time to the Triassic period, go on a fossil dig, or make a dinosaur.
The beautiful globe provides a bit of geography in the mix of geology, history, and animal science.
Trackers clearly point to each dinosaur or item on the screen that kids can tap.
Dr. Bones takes kids on the dig.
During the dig, kids can see which period they're viewing.

Pros: No reading skills required to learn a lot about dinosaurs.

Cons: The song and music may be too distracting for some students.

Bottom Line: This well-crafted trilogy delivers solid learning for students with a wide range of reading abilities.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Employ the app's stunning visual prompts, as well as audio instructions and interactive lessons, to engage kids in an excellent social studies and science experience. Use the pronunciation hint that appears above dinosaurs to help kids learn how to say those giant-size names correctly, syllable by syllable, as well as to teach students why and how to use pronunciation keys. In addition, the in-app Travel Log (a photo album/journal) provides an opportunity to help kids learn to write using digital technology, and to combine images and words to present their ideas about what they're learning.

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Standards:

Editor's Note: Ansel & Clair: Triassic Dinosauts is no longer available for download.

Ansel & Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs is a geography, geology, and animal science app that's part of a trilogy of dinosaur apps. On this adventure, time-traveling duo Ansel and Clair visit the Triassic period, where kids learn about dinosaurs from that time, including the Plateosaurus, Ichthyosaur, and the Eodromaeus (the earliest ancestor of the T. rex). Kids can go on a dusty dinosaur dig with a friendly cartoon paleontologist, Dr. Bones, or travel back in time to the Triassic period with the unique dinosaurs that lived during this time and see Pangea, the supercontinent. As they explore, kids listen to fun facts, feed a dinosaur, take pictures, use stickers, and write in their travel logs. Up to four students can create player accounts, which will store their photos and individual travel logs. Kids can even build their own dinosaur and complete a puzzle to learn about the life cycle of ferns.

The best use of this app is in conjunction with the other two apps in this series to cover the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods of dinosaur life. Kids don't need to be able to read to play the fun games and learn a lot about dinosaurs on this interactive app. For kids who aren't reading or writing fluently yet, the Travel Log can be a place for them to record their favorite dinosaurs by taking screenshots of them on the app and placing them in the journal, increasing student's understanding of the many uses for digital and visual journals. Ansel & Clair: Triassic Dinosaurs is a very well-designed learning experience for kids that will delight and inspire them to learn even more.

Overall Rating
Engagement

Extraordinarily engaging. Kids actually dig for dinosaur bones and then time travel to the Triassic Period to interact with live dinos.

Pedagogy

Kids learn by playing activities, listening to clear verbal information, interacting with fossils and dinos, taking photos, keeping a journal, and viewing information graphics.

Support

Clear instructions and visual prompts help kids navigate this app's features. For kids with reading challenges, this app may be especially user-friendly, as it requires no reading and is visually intuitive.

Common Sense reviewer
Dana Villamagna Classroom teacher
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Key Standards Supported

Language

  • L.1.6

    Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).

  • L.2.6

    Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).

  • L.3.6

    Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships (e.g., After dinner that night we went looking for them).

  • L.4.6

    Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) and that are basic to a particular topic (e.g., wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation).

Writing

  • W.2.6

    With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

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Key Standards Supported

Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

  • 2-LS4-1

    Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

  • 3-LS4-1

    Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

Earth and Human Activity

  • K-ESS3-1

    Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • 4-LS1-1

    Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

  • K-LS1-1

    Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

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