Civilisations AR
By Christy Matte,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Diverse AR collection brings the art museum home.
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Civilisations AR
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What’s It About?
CIVILISATIONS AR is a companion app to the BBC's Civilisations television show. The app includes more than 40 different artifacts from throughout time and around the world. There are sculptures, masks, paintings, and other objects. Kids scan a flat surface to view the artifacts. The menu shows a globe, and each artifact appears on its point of origin as kids scroll through the list of options. When kids make a choice, the artwork shows up in 3D view on the screen. Kids can rotate the object, make it larger or smaller, and search for hot spots that provide cutaways, activities, or more information. There's also an information page that outlines the origins of the object along with other interesting details. Kids can opt out of AR mode, in which case the objects appear in 3D mode on a plain black background.
Is It Any Good?
This lovely, info-packed artistic exploration from the BBC does AR the right way. Civilisations AR is a pretty experience that's easy and fun to use. While many AR apps today are clunky, Civilisations AR easily recognizes flat surfaces in all sorts of light. Those who don't want to use it can turn it off, which makes it more accessible to a range of users. The collection of art objects is diverse and interesting, and you can rotate on-screen to explore all sides or zoom in for the detail work. Curious kids will delight in all of the additional information provided, as well as the chance to hunt down hotspots all over each artifact. Overall, Civilisations AR from the BBC is an educational gem.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the different types of art in the collection within Civisations AR. What types of art do you see? How are they different? How are they the same? Which do you prefer?
Talk about art through the ages. How are the older pieces of art different than those that are more current? Why would the art we produce change over time?
Families can talk about learning with apps. Do you think this is a good app for learning? Why or why not? What can you learn?
Explore other free educational apps with your kids. What do they want to investigate?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Subjects: Social Studies : cultural understanding, history, Arts : painting, sculpture
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : investigation, Self-Direction : academic development
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: November 26, 2018
- Category: Education
- Topics: Arts and Dance , History
- Publisher: BBC Media Applications Technologies Limited
- Version: 2.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 11.0 or later; Android 7.0 and up
- Last updated: October 30, 2019
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