This educational app provides an uninspiring introduction to middle school ecology in four distinct chapters. The chapters are Hierarchy of Life (organism through biosphere), Living Together (food chain), What Goes Around Comes Around (lifecycles), and Staying Balanced (ecosystems). Each chapter is divided into four sections. Read and learn provides a one page text overview. See and learn includes 20 pictures with a one sentence caption describing the relevance of the picture but with no explanation of the concept. Watch and learn includes a set of curated videos from YouTube. Quiz and learn is a multiple choice quiz with no explanations of answers. While this app could be a good introductory starting point on some sub-topics, most students will have difficulty learning or retaining the information presented in this app. This app might be best used by adults who need ideas for an introduction to middle school ecology and can pick and choose information as appropriate, but students are unlikely to have the focus to use and learn from this app independently.

• Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
• Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
• Presents educational concepts accurately
• Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
• Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
• Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
• Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

• Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
• Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
• Visually appealing to children in the target age range
• Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
• Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
• Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
• Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

• Has a free or trial version
• Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
• Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
• Student should be able to use independently after first use
• Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
• Multiple users can save a profile
• Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
• Can play without sound and not distract others
• Students can save work between sessions
• Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
• Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
• Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
• Overall - Easy to use

• Abstract Reasoning
• Attention
• Problems or examples are not interesting for the target age range
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Auditory Memory
• Auditory Processing
• Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
• Listening Comprehension
• Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
• Organization
• Problems or examples are not interesting for the target age range
• Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Basics
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Comprehension
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Reading Fluency
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Verbal Memory
• Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Verbal Reasoning
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own
• Visual Memory
• Vocabulary
• Assumes specific knowledge or vocabulary without "look-up" options
• Working Memory
• Requires recall of spoken information without text or visual cues
• Requires recall of text information without audio or visual reinforcement
• Includes long written questions or text that students must be able to read on their own

The Ecology HD app covers the following topics in a multi-modal learning environment -

1. Hierarchy of Life - Learn about communities, ecosystems, biomes, and biosphere.
2. Living Together - Learn about food chains, producers, consumer, decomposers, and symbiosis.
3. What goes around, comes around - Learn about biotic, abiotic factors, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and phosphorous cycles.
4. Staying Balanced - Learn about ecosystem balance, impacts of invasive species and global warming.

The content of the app follows what is taught commonly in middle schools. The various learning modes are designed to facilitate easier learning and to improve attention.

Each topic is presented using multiple learning styles -
1. Read and Learn
2. See and Learn
3. Watch and Learn
4. Quiz and Learn.

Read and Learn - In this learning style, the user can read the text associated with the topic as well as browse through amazing (WOW) facts about the topic. For beginning readers, there is a "Read to Me" feature that allows the text to be narrated.

See and Learn - This learning style incorporates visual learning. High definition photographs are presented with descriptive text below each photo to reinforce the topic.

Watch and Learn - Curated educational videos are used in this learning style. These ad-free videos are curated by our editorial team to enhance the learning for the particular topic.

Quiz and Learn - This section tests the understanding of the topic. Each topic has multiple questions ordered with increasing level of difficulty based on Bloom's Taxonomy.

We certainly hope that you have fun learning with our apps! If you would like to see improvements or have feedback, email us at info@sproutlabs.net. You can also visit facebook.com/sproutlabs or Twitter @SproutLabs.