Professor Kim – What’s Missing Here?

There are many early concept apps available to the point where we are spoilt for choice due to the sheer number of similar apps.  Still, it can be possible to search for an app for a particular skill and not find it.  What do you do?  If you are Kristin Heitmann of Apppmedia (Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums), you make your own.  Kristin wanted an app for her children that resembled Kim’s games.  Named after the character in Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel, Kim, the game involves studying items on a table or tray, then covering them and identifying what is on the tray.  In a different version, an item is taken away and you need to find what is missing.  The games promote observation and memory skills.  This is the type of activity Kirstin couldn’t find, so she designed Professor Kim – What’s Missing Here?.

 Activity

Children are presented with a number of items and then must find the item that is NOT on the screen from the picture menu in front of them.  There are several levels of difficulty.  Each level puts an extra picture on the screen and in the list.  On level 1, children look at three items on the screen and select from a list of four items.  By the time you get to level five, children are looking at seven items on the screen and selecting from a list of 8.  The 6th level doesn’t add an item, but uses silhouettes on the screen.  Correct answers result in a green light and a fish token.  If you answer incorrectly, the red light flashes and you get the fish bones instead.  There is also a time bar for each puzzle.  If you have not identified the missing item before the bar runs out, it gives you a new screen to look at.  Levels are unlocked as you progress through the app.