By harnessing intrinsic motivation, and pairing it with attainable educational concepts, I have witnessed the natural progression of learning.
About the App
“Weather Bubbles” is an iPad app that introduces kids to the concepts of weather and seasons by way of simply popping bubbles. There are educational resources included with the app to help parents and educators guide children through the concepts while having fun.
You can download this app from the Apple App Store.
Weather is an important topic for children to learn because it affects their understanding of the physical world around them, and it is a precursor to understanding more complex topics such as climate and ecosystems. The Weather Bubbles app is a simple introduction to the basics of weather types and seasons.
Design Principles
LEARNING THROUGH PLAY
The design philosophy for the app is centered on combining a fun activity that children enjoy (popping bubbles) with educational influences of the physics and other aspects of different types of weather.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
The app’s primary use case is for children’s play while a parent or teacher provides subtle questioning and explanation to provoke critical thinking.
DISCOVERY
The interaction of the weather types with the bubbles is mostly left up to the child to discover, and the movement of the bubbles makes it easier to uncover.
GET OUTSIDE THE APP
Adults should also work to provide practical reinforcement by connecting and extending the weather concepts with the physical world around them (i.e. looking outside the app to the real world). The app provides an opportunity to do this before each play session by asking simple questions like “What is the weather like outside?” and “How are you feeling?”.
Components of the App
The Weather Bubbles app consists of two games:
- Weather Types
- In this game you can select between a number of types of weather to see how they interact with the bubbles
- A counter keeps track of how many bubbles you have popped
- Seasons
- In this game you travel through the seasons popping bubbles, and the weather changes when the seasons change.
- A counter is also present here to keep track of how many bubbles you have popped
The types of weather include:
Sunny/Hot
Cloudy/Foggy
Windy
Rainy
Snowy
Stormy
Review the Educational Guide for more information on how and why of their interactions with the bubbles.
App Origins
The app was originally called “Bubbles for Dylan”. My 1.5 year old son was so fascinated with popping bubbles that I decided to build an app for him to do just that. As he was also learning words like “sun”, “moon”, “cloud”, “rain” and “wind”, I chose to make the app more interesting and educational by combining the concepts of weather with the fun of popping bubbles.
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