Name of App: Plum’s Photo Hunt

Reviewed By: Ravan Magrath

Details: Plum’s Photo Hunt is only available on iOS devices, iPhone, iPad, and iPod

Cost: Free

Review:  Plum’s Photo Hunt is an application to get young children outside, and exploring nature.  Essentially, children are sent on “missions” to locate a variety of things that you would find in nature.  The missions are very simple, such as find a picture of strange weather or animal life and you are supposed to snap a photo to record it in your “field journal”.  You can then with parents approval and supervisions submit the photo to PBS and the PLUM LANDING page to have your pictures highlighted in that week’s gallery. If you navigate to the PLUM LANDING website, there is a section for Parents and Educators that will assist them in utilizing the application better and even designing lessons and programs around it.  As for the actual app, it sounded terrific, get kids out in nature, and get them excited to find new types of flora and fauna, while getting to know and understand the environment around them better. Well, in all honesty, I can’t tell you if it does that because I couldn’t get it to work. I tried both an iPad and an iPhone and I simply had no success. I could access the photo missions, photobomb and field journal, but when I went to take any photos it would either lock up or kick me out of the app.  My initial thought was that I need to allow permissions, but at no time did I get a notification asking to access my camera and I even went to see if I could enable them manually. I am pretty disappointed as I thought this could be an excellent resource to enhance environmental education and really engage children at the same time. I also liked this app would be perfect for informal learning situations and could be used in a situation as simple as a parent out for a walk with their child. Too often we miss out on educational moments and allow them to slip by and this app, if it worked, would be an easy way to harness those moments.  So, since I couldn’t get the app to work, I can’t suggest Plum’s Photo Hunt, but I will be on the hunt for something similar.

Websites:

https://pbskids.org/plumlanding/parents/index.html

Videos:

This video gives a brief overview of what the app is supposed to look like and how it should function.