Meet Science: Magnetism and Electricity

Meet Science: Magnetism and Electricity is organized into four main areas: Learn, Experiment, Glossary, and Mini Games. In Learn, kids can choose from seven different lessons that cover topics with both text and voice-over. Each page of a lesson includes a cheerful animation that supports learning, a brief quiz to assess learning, and links to the experiment videos that relate to the lesson. In Experiment, kids can directly access the experiments that appear at the end of the lessons. The experiments are fairly simple, but some require materials that kids may not be able to get their hands on. Nonetheless, seeing the concepts from the lessons in action is a good learning experience. In Glossary, kids can tap to read and hear definitions. There's also a section called "Aha," which contains a four-chapter dictionary that connects science with everyday phenomena. In Mini Games, three different games challenge kids to use their knowledge about magnetism and electricity to score big and win. Top scores are tracked and can be displayed with the tap of a finger.

By reading, watching experiments, and playing games, kids can learn about important topics related to magnetism and electricity. The lessons are packed with great information, and they include on-screen text as well as audio. This is particularly useful for kids who have different learning styles. Some of the lessons are text-heavy, but simple and colorful animations help break up the text and keep kids engaged -- something that traditional textbooks cannot do. Lessons are followed by brief quizzes, which help assess understanding. However, each quiz only has three questions, so you'll need to develop more elaborate quizzes or exams in order to fully assess understanding. The lessons also end with videos of experiments, which reinforce what kids learned in the lessons. With a little planning, most of the experiments could quickly be done in the classroom. An illustrated glossary helps kids build vocabulary related to the lessons and experiments. Kids can play the mini-games to apply what they learned about conductors, circuits, and electromagnets. It can be hard to find games that truly apply science concepts while keeping kids engaged, but these do it quite nicely.