Zift Advisory
Toca Lab: Elements is another educational app in the Toca Boca line made for endless scientific exploration. The app is available for both iOS and Android with a one-time purchase price of $2.99, and does not feature advertisements or in-app purchases. It is rated for ages 6-8 and is safe for kids.
What is Toca Lab: Elements?
Toca Lab: Elements is another educational app in the Toca Boca line made for endless exploration. In Toca Lab: Elements, young scientists have a lab at their disposal with 5 pieces of equipment with which to experiment.
Through exploration, children can unlock all 118 elements on the periodic table. While the placement of elements on the periodic table is accurate, the experiments to transform those elements are not so this is obviously for beginner scientists to familiarize themselves with the elements and chemistry lab equipment.
The app is available to download with a one-time purchase price of $2.99, and does not feature advertisements or in-app purchases.
Opening with a first-person view of the lab, Toca Lab: Elements features the main lab equipment on either side of the screen in the foreground: Centrifuge, Bunsen Burner, Cooling Agent, Test Tubes, Oscilloscope. When children are ready to explore, they choose an element from the periodic table to begin performing experiments in the lab.
Toca Lab: Elements will help budding scientists along by suggesting which experiments to do with each element, such as suggesting whether to put it in the centrifuge, Bunsen burner, etc., which will then unlock even more elements to experiment with.
All of the lab equipment in Toca Lab: Elements is easy to operate with simple swipes to turn equipment off and on, as well as to spin the centrifuge (tap and hold finger to stop the spinning), in addition to dragging and dropping.
While moving around the lab and performing experiments is pretty intuitive, things get a little confusing when children begin to try to decipher why and how elements are created through experimentation.
Unlocking all 118 elements takes time and some may need to be performed in repetition to create multiple different elements. In the true essence of exploration, Toca Lab: Elements gives children a taste of chemistry with the exploration and experimentation that is necessary to scientific study.
Whether a child will have all of the elements in the periodic table memorized or a thorough understanding of each element remains to be seen, but they will walk away knowing that many elements exist in different states and that experimenting with them creates reactions (and sometimes new elements).
Is Toca Lab: Elements safe for my kids?
Parents should know that Toca Lab: Elements is a fun science exploration app made for children ages six through eight years old.
While rated for kids ages 6-8, parents should be aware that Toca Lab: Elements can be confusing for children at the younger end of the spectrum, as there is minimal text and it includes no instructions in order to encourage exploration.
Toca Lab: Elements is likely best played with an adult to help guide children as it can quickly become complicated (if the child is playing for purely educational purposes). However, those children playing just to explore the elements and cause-and-effect relationships can easily navigate the Toca Lab: Elements app.
Again, Toca Lab: Elements may be a little difficult to understand for younger children, but science-minded children, ages seven and older, will be able to get an introduction to chemistry and the periodic table. This app is safe for kids.
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