Give Geography a Boost With The Oregon Scientific AR Globe – Day & Night

Since we were sent the Oregon Scientific AR Globe – Day & Night to review, learning about the world’s continents, oceans, countries and their capital cities has become much more interesting!

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The Basic Oregon Scientific AR Globe (Day & Night – 2in1)

The globe itself is well made with good strong colours used to mark out the different countries. The text is clear and easy to read which is important as some of it is quite small. And the globe moves freely when turned.

• Continents are labelled with well spaced outlined capital letters.
• Country names are in solid capital letters.
• Capital cities are tagged with a white star inside a black dot
• Cities are tagged with a black dot
• a few major rivers are labelled (italics) but not many as are a few lakes, mountain ranges etc

The main support spindle is made of strong solid plastic.  This could make it vulnerable to any major dropage, but I suspect a drop of that magnitude would break a lot of things

The globe needs 2AA batteries or via a usb cable (not included) in order to switch on (via a button in the base) the gorgeous starry constellation map that also acts as a nightlight.

The constellations cover the whole of the globe and have been beautifully illustrated to show how you get the structure of the star constellation matches its name. There are 88 constellations to find.

Using the Oregan Scientific AR (augmented reality) Globe App

It’s easy to download the AR app for the globe and it’s the app that makes this globe truly amazing! You can see more detail, plus the app in action, in the video below.

The main console gives you access to setting, a quiz, and the AR functionality.

By holding a tablet or phone over the globe you can see 3D images of different animals, dinosaurs, landmarks and weather that can be found (or could in the case of dinosaurs) around the world, depending on what you have selected.

You can then tap on one of the objects and this will open up another screen that enables you to read and listen to facts about that object. You can even rotate and enlarge the image. It is magical to play with.

Don’t be put off by the wikepedia button. That takes you into an amazing AR world that you can rotate and turn whilst discovering more about each continent and the countries it holds. Clicking on a flag takes you to a page where you can a bit more about each country and you even learn how to say hello!

What Did We Think Of The Day And Night Globe?

My girls all love the globe, and thankfully we can load the app on up to 5 phones or tablets, which massively cuts down on arguing! For me, as a home educator, this is going to become an invaluable educational toy to use with the girls for many years to come.

We were a little disappointed at the lack of sea life in the app but put that down to AR limitations with big blocks of the same colour. The lack of a UK landmark or animal was also disappointing but they are little niggles as the rest of the package is simply stunning and very exciting to use. Plus I expect things to change in the future as the app gets upgrades.

A globe really helps brings our world together, in a much needed visual context, but a globe with AR included there’s an extra dose of fun, and I know they will be learning so much more than just the political boundaries and borders.

With an RRP of around £29.99  geography lessons have never been so exciting!