App Friday: Clean Energy, Pocket Zoo, and Lorax Garden!

Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. Today we have a line up that will make Mother Earth proud. In celebration of Earth Day, April 22nd, three environmentally appealing apps are going FREE! Just writing about it makes me green: Hawaiian Islands? Exotic Zoos? Truffula Trees? Let’s not waste any time!

Clean Energy Hawaii – What is your app about? Clean Energy Hawaii is an educational iPad app for middle and high school students to learn about solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass clean energy.  Clean energy refers to creating electricity from sources that are renewable or that create little or no pollution.  The App was developed for teachers or home schooling parents to augment their existing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum or to initiate new STEM learning.  Seven unique activities are included in the App to inspire STEM exploration and inquiry. Tap into the geothermal heat of the earth.  Explore the difference between sugar cane and switchgrass biomass.  Build a custom wind farm and experiment with generators and wind speeds.  Discover how flow, height, and turbines can change hydroelectric power production.  Imagine that your iPad is a photovoltaic solar panel and position it correctly to generate 40 watts of power in locations around the world.  Quiz yourself and learn how peak sun hours vary month to month for ten world locations.  Add photovoltaic panels, clouds, and batteries to a solar farm to understand real world challenges for solar energy production.  Hawaii is used as a portal because its energy goal is one of the most ambitious in the United States: 70% Clean Energy by 2030.

Pocket Zoo – What is your app about?  Pocket Zoo™ with LIVE Animal Cams is a wonderfully wild portable zoo for kids & nature lovers. There’s a lot more than lions, tigers and bears in this new virtual zoo. Download it for your kids (or yourself), and learn fun facts, hear real animal sounds and watch LIVE Animal Cams. Pocket Zoo™ has been a #1 Education app and has been Featured in the NY Times, Wired Magazine and by Apple as a What’s Hot app and Staff Favorite! One of the coolest things about Pocket Zoo™ is that you can watch animals from all over the world. See penguins, tigers, polar bears, killer whales, and MORE in real-time using our LIVE Zoo Cam Viewer. Live Cams are monitored & updated regularly, and require cell or wifi access for live streaming.

Lorax Garden – What is your app about? Based on The Lorax, Dr. Seuss’s cautionary tale of greed and environmental destruction, the game lets players help the Lorax regrow the world’s Truffula tree forests. They can design and grow their own Truffula trees and flowers and see them grow right before their eyes. They can also create and share postcards via email with family and friends. Suitable for all ages, Lorax Garden features beautiful 3D artwork inspired by Dr. Seuss and whimsical music and sound effects. A complete description of the app and a video demonstration are available at http://www.oceanhousemedia.com/products/loraxgarden/.

What’s in it for me this App Friday, April 22nd?

• Clean Energy Hawaii – FREE (iPad only)
• Pocket Zoo – FREE
• Lorax Garden – FREE

Note: These prices are applicable on Friday April 22th until 8pm US Pacific Time. After the promotion is over, prices revert back to regular pricing on the iTunes App Store.

More App News

• Free for autism awareness month, and just in time for the Easter Bunny, is I Get Easter Egg Hunts, a photo story app made for children with autism explaining the steps in an egg hunt. Thanks Amy for letting us know!
• Have you ever heard of an app working to cure diabetes? Dan Russell Pinson, one of our developer members who made Stack the States, has an inspiring story to share about sponsoring a diabetes walk for a family in Indiana (based on how much their son enjoyed playing his app). The walk is scheduled for May 14th.  
• Oren Todoros of Apps Marketing informed me of his new project to highlight free-for-limited-time apps called App Freeway, which spans all genres and types of apps.
• If you are a family-friendly developer, I’m going to assume you know about Dust or Magic’s App Camp? If not, check it out – the gathering starts May 22nd in Monterey, CA, and has some of the best and brightest in the app industry.

App Friday Link Exchange Our goal at Moms With Apps is to spread the word about family-friendly apps. We also like to know about great deals. Do YOU have some app news to share? If so, please participate in our link exchange and post it down below. Include the app name (& details) in the Link Title, your email, and a URL to the app. Thanks for your participation.