About this app
This truly unique app is best described as an integrated synthesis between arcade-quality gameplay and scientific encyclopedia, with the intention of inspiring a fascination with insects and their relationship to a variety of life science subjects.
This teacher's version has all the levels unlocked including the learning center.
Playing the game is instant access to fun: The Isopod rolls up into ball and is then controlled by accelerometer-based "tilt-physics" that transforms the android into a game controller. As the user rolls and bumps their way through levels, new environments filled with indigenous creatures appear. Every interactive element has its own set of topic pages, and new topics open as the player succeeds in gameplay.
Explore photos, links and much more in the Isopod Learning Center, featuring 24 scientific topics, with a deep focus on the interconnected world of entomology and ecosystems. Also covered are topics such as bioluminescence, mycology, camouflage and more. The topics covered are authored by a variety of professionals, entomologists, researchers, biologists, teachers as well as Xylem and Phloem LLC staff.
Isopod: The Roly Poly Science Game features 24 photo-realistic, interactive creatures inhabiting their natural environments from other locations around the world.
GAMEPLAY TIPS:
Env1: Beetles will come to you if you can stay in one general area. Bumping the blue butterfly means you can go anywhere quickly without a problem but make sure you are not behind an ant line when the power runs out.
Env 2: Follow the yellow butterfly as much as possible, bump whenever you get a chance and free as many gladiators as you can in your enlarged and invulnerable state.
Env 3: Learning to bump twice is easy enough, but when multiple katydids are on screen a good strategy is to bump each one once, and then come back and bump again later, if you can move fast enough.
Env 4: When the millipede stops, get far away...the cyanide gas has an extended reach. Also, wait until a group of 8-10 fireflies appears all at once before bumping the female glowworm power up, that way you can free a bunch at once.
Is it a video game that kids absolutely love? Or is it a sophisticated entomology textbook covering important science topics, such as beneficial insects in agriculture, biodiversity preservation and invasive species awareness?
It’s BOTH.
At it’s heart, Isopod is a physics-controlled “roly poly” science game that feels a bit like many of the popular marble/maze apps you might have played. However, instead of a wooden box with walls, Isopod takes place in a realistic nature setting with the goal of saving important insects, not killing them. Each interactive element in the game has a topic written about it, penned by a variety of authors including biologists, teachers, researchers and entomologists. Parents will delight in the fact that Isopod is not just a game, but a carefully constructed science lesson that covers, in detail, much of the scientific data associated with each animal featured in the game. Kids will be shocked that one of their “edu-games” is actually fun and loaded with quality arcade-style gameplay. For home schoolers, it’s a fantastic plan of study in entomology designed to be enjoyed by both child and educator. Isopod aims to inspire a new generation of tech-savvy children to explore the wonders of the natural world, and to value the creative beauty of real science.
**Amazing graphics; scary build up; addictive and difficult gameplay; educational. Apps400.com
**A perfect game-cum-educational tool that is bound to attract children and adults.- AskYourAndroid.com
**5 out of 5 stars! Appsforhomeschoolers.com
**5 out of 5 stars! Smartappsforkids.com
**Teachers and parents of kids in third or fourth grade will love this app. 4 out of 5 stars. PadGadget.com
