MarcoPolo Ocean is a free educational app for iPhone where kids can learn a great deal about oceans and ocean life. Kids of all age can enjoy this app, as it offers various activities like creating your own coral reef, making a aquarium, you can also make dolphins jump, etc. Its a fun activity for kids where they can learn about the ocean life and play at the same time. The app will keep the kids engaged with the cute graphics and fishes.
As you launch this app you will come across the screen given below. When you click on the play button in the center of the screen you will be taken to the ocean.
Now the ocean gives you two options, one at the top right corner and one at the bottom left corner as indicated in the screenshot below.
The top right puzzle icon is the build and play area, where you can select among 5 categories;
- Coral Reef
- Fish
- Marine mammals
- Boat
- Submersibles
The fish icon at the bottom left corner is for adding fishes and marine animals to the oceans. You can also interact with these fishes, when you tap on the fishes, they move in different directions and show their natural behavior.
The app also lets you explore the ocean from the top of the ocean all the way to the ocean floor. You can also steer you submersible and boat through the ocean waters.
The build and play games are fun and easy. When you choose one of the categories from the top right icon you are taken to your build and play area. There will be a short narration about the category you choose after which there will be a play button on screen to take you to your play area. We choose marine animals, therefore, the screenshot you see below is of the same.
As you can see in the above screenshot, there are some blank grey space, where sea mammals should have been. Now you job is to complete this puzzle, by dragging the mammal provided in the circle at the top of the screen to its appropriate place. Once you drag this mammal at its correct position, you will get another one to replace another of those grey blanks. When you drag the mammals to the blanks, the narrative voice lets you know which mammal it is. Once you are done with all of them, you will get a ocean button at the top left side of the screen. When you click on this you will be taken to your ocean and can see the mammals in action.
Similarly, you can create a coral reef, add fishes, create boats and submersibles. All of them will have that narrative prompt which will let you know what you are doing.
You can also check out phone4kids free iPhone app to teach kids about directions, weather, alphabets, paint, etc.
Final Note:
Overall, I found this app nice and fun. Kids would love to see fishes move around in water and they would also get to learn about different type of ocean life. The only minor drawback is the size of the app, it is 1.2 GB in size. Otherwise, the app is good to learn about ocean life in a playful way.
