Planet Geo - geography games for kids & teenagers

Common Sense Media says

Colorful puzzles and games get kids to focus on the world.

Age(i)

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Quality(i)

 

Learning(i)

(i)
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Planet Geo - geography games for kids & teenagers gallery

What parents need to know

Ease of play

Generally easy to play, although some games don't have voice overs, and many country and city names can be very difficult to recognize and pronounce. The easy and hard game options make it accessible to more ages. On the map game where kids plant flags, adding labels could help kids learn the correct location, as well as the location of the incorrect flag.

Violence
Not applicable
Sex
Not applicable
Language
Not applicable
Consumerism

 The premium version includes all content, no in-app purchase needed. In the free version, you can make in-app purchases ranging from $.99 to $2.99 to unlock content. Also in the free version, the choices for paid content are co-mingled with the free content on the main screen, so much so that it may be hard for younger kids to distinguish which icons to tap for free content and which ones will take them to the App Store. There's also a huge promotional banner on the bottom of the main screen for the developer's other apps.

Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Not applicable
Privacy & safety

No personal information required to play. The Privacy Policy on the developer's website is in Spanish only.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Planet Geo - geography games for kids & teenagers combines challenging games -- including 17 countries, dozens of cities, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites -- in a global learning experience. Kids will find traditional map puzzles (fit the countries into the continents), as well as city and world heritage site locator games. The colorful maps, as well as the written information about these sites, and the cool photos enliven the geography games. There's also a Geo Book that kids can view to learn detailed information about countries, including their population, capital city, and a national song. This app grabs kids' attention by turning names and locations into places where real, interesting things have happened throughout history. With eight languages options, Planet Geo can also be a good geography app choice for multilingual kids.

What kids can learn

Subjects

Social Studies

  • global awareness
  • cultural understanding
  • geography

Skills

Thinking & Reasoning

  • thinking critically
  • memorization
  • solving puzzles

Engagement, Approach, Support

Engagement

Colorful maps, written information about UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the cool photos that accompany them enliven the basic geography games.

Learning Approach

A variety of activity types give kids multiple ways to enter the content. However, much of the content focuses on basic facts without delving very deeply.

Support

Flags and stars provide feedback, but the feedback doesn't always make sense (a thumbs-up regardless of accuracy, for example). Voice instructions would be a good addition for younger users.

What kids can learn

Subjects

Social Studies

  • global awareness
  • cultural understanding
  • geography

Skills

Thinking & Reasoning

  • thinking critically
  • memorization
  • solving puzzles

Kids can learn about geography -- continents, countries, and cities -- and also learn about UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Planet Geo -- geography games for kids & teenagers. The map activities require puzzle solving and understanding whole-part relationships. There are a lot of activities here, and a lot of content contained within the activities, but the focus is primarily on surface-level learning: identifying country flags, dragging countries to the correct continent, etc. Planet Geo promotes exploring the world through maps, games, and some interesting information, but it needs more depth to be a great geography learning app.

This Learning Rating review was written by Dana Villamagna

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What's it about?

Choose a country or continent game, or city and World Heritage Site locator games. For puzzles, choose difficult or easy then start to fill in the map. For example, choose South America, and the app will tell kids which country piece to drag into the lined puzzle in the easy level or no lines in difficult. In the locator games, kids tap on a continent and guess where the requested city or historic site is located and learn a bit of info about it, too. A flag then appears in the correct spot.

Is it any good?

QUALITY
 

Especially for kids who want a real geography challenge, PLANET GEO - GEOGRAPHY GAMES FOR KIDS & TEENAGERS features puzzles, locator games, and more from easy to really difficult. (Can you identify all of the states...in Brazil?) Made by a developer in Spain and available in eight languages, this is a world geography app for a global audience of kid players. It takes the typical geography app and pumps up the knowledge and difficulty level to new heights, especially with the addition of fascinating World Heritage Sites. Yet the easy mode keeps Planet Geo accessible for world geography novices, although maybe not as young as the developer's 6 and up recommended age range, since audio cues aren't available in every game. Planet Geo offers good geography practice, from easy to very difficult.

Families can talk about...

  • Apps are a great way to explore geography, but also consider keeping maps and globes handy for kids, and refer to them when locations come up in day-to-day conversations.

  • Learn more about the very interesting UNESCO World Heritage Sites with your kids. Ask your kid which ones they'd like to visit most and why.

App details

Devices:iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Price:Free-$2.99
Pricing structure:Free, Free to Try, Paid
Release date:June 14, 2013
Category:Education
Size:17.90 MB
Publisher:LA FACTORIA D'IMATGES
Version:1.0
Minimum software requirements:iOS 5.0 or later

This review of Planet Geo - geography games for kids & teenagers was written by

Dana Villamagna

About our rating system

  • ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
  • PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
  • OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
  • NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids of any age.

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Quality

Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Learning ratings

  • Best: Really engaging, great learning approach.
  • Very Good: Engaging, good learning approach.
  • Good: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
  • Fair: Somewhat engaging, okay learning approach.
  • Not for Learning: Not recommended for learning.
  • Not for Kids: Not age-appropriate for kids; not recommended for learning.

Find out more

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