Chromville Science

A number of words and phrases that sound like they belong to science fiction are being used with increasing frequency to describe things that are, in fact, real.  At least, they’re a type of real.   Whereas the more famous virtual reality utterly displaces what we see, augmented reality adds to it, embellishes it and adjusts it.

Chromville brings this concept into the classroom.  More than just an app, Chromville Science is something of a teaching pack.  Signing up for the service lets you access the Chromville resources.  This is a set of professionally produced classroom resources.  These are in pdf format and require printing. 

These printouts are varied and include physical games as well as more traditional worksheet style resources.  Teachers will be able to save a lot of planning and preparation time by employing them.  Children will enjoy the diverse activities that they will bring to lessons.

The designers make clear their adherence to Martin Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and so try to build a whole variety of different activities into the learning experience.  This leads to the point where traditional resources and activities give way to Chromville’s unique selling point:  the employment of augmented reality.

A variety of worksheets can be printed off and decorated by children.  They then take their tablet and aim it at the picture.  This can take a little patience and a steady hand as the device locks on to the image and counts down until it is ready.  At this point, if it was kept steady enough, the flat paper image comes alive with a three-dimensional representation of the decorated worksheet.

This augmentation isn’t just a cosmetic gimmick.  Children can move the device around to examine the model from all sides.  They can toggle options to learn more.  A good example is provided by one of the human body sheets.  A tap of a button changes a human model into one where the muscles are visible and then just the bones.  These can still be manipulated to look around them.  Science categories covered are the human body, the laboratory, living beings and planet earth.

More for fun than learning, but still an interesting addition is the inclusion of a set of models ready for 3d printing.  If your school is lucky enough to have one of these new pieces of kit, these models could make interesting rewards for accomplishments in learning.

There is the occasional awkward phrase or word misuse that suggests that it has been translated from another language.  It is far from pervasive, but it happens enough to be noticeable.  

These are small criticisms of what is an original and interesting way to present learning about science.  The developers promise that there will continue to be updates and additions to the resources included in the package.  View this purchase as being for a hi-tech teaching pack rather than just an app and this becomes a good value purchase for bringing something different to science lessons.

You can download Chromville Science on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the Chromville Science app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.