Common Sense Media Review
By Mieke VanderBorght
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Simple demonstrations get under the hood but lack depth.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Zizzle Inventions
What's It About?
Tap on an unlocked invention on the home screen of ZIZZLE INVENTIONS. A narrator gives a very short explanation of the basics of how the invention works as kids watch a simple animation. Kids can replay the explanation or tap on the puzzle icon. In the puzzle game, kids tap on the invention to break it into parts. Kids must tap and drag the parts back into place. The narrator labels the parts when kids tap them.
Is It Any Good?
Short and simple explanations of how a variety of inventions work are kid-friendly, but activities lack depth. Zizzle Inventions shows kids what's going on under the hood of machines, appliances, and other inventions with straightforward explanations and animations made for young kids to grasp. Learn about toasters, cement trucks, toilets, elevators, roller coasters, bicycles, escalators, vacuum cleaners, and hot air balloons. Kids who are fascinated by how things work will love seeing it all in action. However, the explanations are so simple that they may not be entirely satisfactory, especially for older kids. The biggest disappointment of Zizzle Inventions is the activity, which is simply a standard puzzle. Even though the narrator invites kids to "tap to tinker," there's no actual tinkering going on. As kids tap on each misplaced part of the invention, they hear the part's name, which is nice, but there's no room for exploration, experimentation, or hands-on deeper learning. For example, the elevator introduces the ideas of pulleys and counterweights, and the activity could be experimenting with using different counterweights and pulleys at varying heights. Silly animations that start after completing the puzzle will make kids laugh, but they don't add anything to kids' learning. Zizzle Inventions has potential to shine, but as-is it falls a bit flat.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the inventions kids learn about in Zizzle Inventions. When you encounter them in real life, observe them in action and ask your kids to describe how they work.
If kids are interested in learning about how things work, let them explore and make simple machines with blocks, cardboard, strings, pulleys, or whatever you have lying around the house.
Discuss your policy for making in-app purchases before opening the app. Make it clear what you are and are not willing to buy.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Subjects : Science : engineering , electricity , motion , physics , Hobbies : building
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : spatial reasoning
- Pricing structure : Free to try (additional inventions of packages of three for $.99 each)
- Release date : October 27, 2019
- Genre : Education
- Topics : STEM
- Publisher : Zizzle Lab Inc.
- Version : 1.3
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 9.0 or later; Android 4.1 and up
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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