Special Interest
TerraWatch
Gamified citizen science where players contribute real data to scientific databases (iNaturalist, Globe Observer) while earning XP and completing curriculum-aligned quests.
▶ Play it nowBuilt for sittings of about 20 minutes on the screen. That is our design budget, not a measurement.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, asks, and patiently scaffolds learning. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Scout
#FFA726 TerraWatch is a gamified citizen science platform for ages 9-14 where students contribute to real scientific projects by collecting field observations with their device's built-in sensors, earning XP and badges while building authentic scientific skills used by professional researchers.
Characters who teach
Meet the cast
TerraWatch's animal field scientists each teach one part of citizen science. Spot notices slowly, Note records facts apart from guesses, Pin marks exactly where something was seen, Census counts species, and Trend tracks change over time and shows that each observation helps. Almanac, Attest, Fledge, Spoor, and Verge cover seasonal timing, checking evidence, life stages, tracks and signs, and where species live. Scout is the mentor, and the app shares hopeful data alongside hard news.
Spot
Observation + noticing — the chickadee perched on a branch who teaches slow-noticing as the first scientific skill ('look once, then look again, slower; the second look usually finds more')
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Note
Structured recording — the beaver in notebook-pocket vest who teaches fact-vs-inference discipline ('write what you saw; then write what you think it means; don't mix them')
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Pin
Geolocation + spatial-data discipline — the hummingbird with pin-tail-feather who teaches that location-stamps + time-stamps make observations useful to other scientists ('where matters; when matters; the same plant in two places is two stories')
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Census
Biodiversity counting + sampling — the raccoon with tally-pattern vest who treats unglamorous repeated counting as the actual magic of science ('one bird seen is a moment; ten birds seen over ten days is a pattern; counting is the magic')
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Trend
Change-over-time + agency-positive climate framing — the old tortoise with tree-ring shell and folding-graph showing both worrying AND hopeful trends ('today is one dot; many dots make a line; lines can bend; your dot helps the line')
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Almanac
Phenology / the timing of natural events
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Attest
Evidence and verification
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Fledge
Life stages / recording what stage of life something is in
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Spoor
Reading tracks and signs
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Verge
Range and distribution / where a species lives and where its edges are
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Browse all chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Learning goal
Gamified citizen science where players contribute real data to scientific databases (iNaturalist, Globe Observer) while earning XP and completing curriculum-aligned quests.
Question kits
16 curriculum-aligned question kits, 400 questions in all, mapped to recognized standards.
On-device AI mentor
FoundationModels-powered hints, feedback, and adaptive difficulty — all running locally.
Mentored by Scout — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How TerraWatch handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ Free — no ads, no in-app purchases
- ✅ No personal information collected from children — in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments)
- ✅ No chat with strangers — play-together rooms use a short code and preset emotes, never typed messages
TerraWatch runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
TerraWatch is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch
