Review by Mieke VanderBorght, Common Sense Education | Updated May 2013

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ZooWhiz

Name: ZooWhiz
Item: ZooWhiz
Rating: 3
Author: Mieke VanderBorght

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Test and review math and language skills in a fun virtual zoo

Subjects & skills

Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.

1–6

Common Sense says (See details)

Teachers say (1 Review)

Take a look inside

5 images

Home base where kids choose to complete learning activities, look at progress reports, or visit the zoo store or arcade to spend the coins they’ve earned

In “Learn and Earn,” kids choose from three main subjects

Subjects are broken down into subtopics; this graph shows progress after answering questions in the first round of questions

An example learning activity from the “words” category

Pros: The creative, fun premise plus good design draws kids in.

Cons: Learning feels separated from fun, and the reward system makes motivation for learning external.

Bottom Line: This cute, zoo-themed platform can help kids review, test, and record their progress, but the reward system may send the wrong message about learning.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

You can create class lists, assign specific activities to individual kids, and see reports on each kid’s progress. Activities can be completed in class, in a computer lab, or as homework.

Learning activities seem most relevant for review, or even testing, rather than for teaching or introducing new material. In fact, the progress reports that generate after kids complete the activities could help make ZooWhiz a fun tool to test comprehension of topics learned in class. For example, after a unit on geometry, kids can complete the geometry activities, generate a report detailing how many questions they answered correctly, and then have fun using their coins to buy and learn about animals.

What Is It?

ZooWhiz is a virtual zoo where kids complete math and language arts-themed learning activities. Kids can design their own cocktail of learning activities based on topic (math, words, reading), age level, and sub-topics (e.g., calculations, word problems, grammar, spelling), or you can make assignments for them. Kids earn coins for completing the activities and can see their progress in a table that indicates how far through a sub-topic they are and what percentage of questions they answered correctly. Coins can be used to buy animals from the zoo store or play games in the arcade. The free version offers limited animals and arcade games, a limited number of learning activities per day, and limited customization and progress report options.

Is It Good for Learning?

ZooWhiz presents itself well with nice design, an appealing premise, and a fun environment for kids. Customization options make sure that the level is right-on for each kid and that questions address relevant material. With a staggering 17,000 learning activities, ZooWhiz covers an amazingly wide variety of learning topics (from algebra and geometry, to letter recognition and punctuation, to grammar and reading comprehension) for a wide age range (they claim 5 – 15 plus).

However, with all this content, it's apparent that sometimes the developers favored quantity over quality. Not all activities have clear learning content, some have ambiguous directions, and none offer help for figuring out the correct answer. There's also a clear separation between learning and fun. The learning activities are somewhat jazzier than paper and pencil tests (colors, silly graphics, and a variety of answer modalities like drag and drop or type-in, add spice) But fun is not integrated into the learning experience; the site implies that the “real” fun happens in the zoo store or at the arcade. It would be great if the messaging and content were tweaked so that kids wouldn't need so many external rewards. Also, the constant bombardment of appeals to upgrade to premium might annoy those using the free version.

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

The zoo premise is creative, and execution is charming. Kids will have fun collecting animals and playing games, but the actual learning drills are a bit less appealing.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Games and educational activities are separate, though some arcade games do have embedded learning goals. Not all learning activities are of the highest quality, but customization options are great for targeting content at the right level.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

There are videos for learning how to use the site but no in-game help for trouble with the learning activities. Kids keep track of progress with coins and can see graphs of how well they're doing in each learning subcategory.

Common Sense Reviewer

Mieke VanderBorght Researcher

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Featured review by
missy W. , Technology coordinator

Technology coordinator

Casa View Elementary School
Dallas, United States

Math website great for the little ones!

• Overall, I thought the website was fun but a bit wordy. There are a lot of graphics and wording on each screen for every subject. I teach Special Education students who have difficulty editing information. • There website offers thousands of lessons. The music was fun but the site also provided a needed mute button which was a plus! I also liked the reward system that allows the kids to build a zoo. The site also allows home access which was great for my students with a home computer. My parents are always asking me about websites to use at home. I would however cut down on the amount of graphics and words on each page. It is a bit overwhelming when starting up the program for teachers and students. I sat with each one to start them out.

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