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.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, praises, 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.
#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.
Distributed-narrative cast
Meet the cast
TerraWatch's distributed-narrative cast embodies the 5 primitives of citizen-science practice — observation/noticing, structured recording, geolocation, biodiversity counting, and change-over-time tracking — as 5 animal-field-scientist characters Scout introduces across the 16 question kits. Eco-anxiety gate is foregrounded; Trend's 'today is one dot; many dots make a line; lines can bend; your dot helps the line' is load-bearing, with hopeful-trend data structurally present (fish populations recovering, ozone hole shrinking) alongside worrying trends. NO doom-only framing; NO 'real scientist' hierarchy; agency-positive throughout.
Spot
Observation + noticing — the chickadee-tween 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')
Note
Structured recording — the beaver-tween 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')
Pin
Geolocation + spatial-data discipline — the hummingbird-tween 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')
Census
Biodiversity counting + sampling — the raccoon-tween 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')
Trend
Change-over-time + agency-positive climate framing — the tortoise-elder with tree-ring shell and folding-graph showing both worrying AND hopeful trends; carries the eco-anxiety-gate anchor ('today is one dot; many dots make a line; lines can bend; your dot helps the line')
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 kits × 25 questions = 400 questions per app, 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
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
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