Time Explorers

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 6 claims (5 for, 1 against) · 2 studies (2 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description

A mobile augmented-reality app developed by Heather Toomey Zimmerman and colleagues for family, place-based learning about Appalachian geological history.

Components

• Time Explorers mobile augmented reality app for family geoscience learning-on-the-move: Time Explorers is a mobile augmented reality app the team developed for a 30–40 minute place-based time-travel journey through the geological history of Appalachia. It features an animated spinning time spiral orienting families to geologic periods, an illustrated GPS map with a blue-dot location marker for wayfinding, location-triggered science content and AR filters (e.g., a blue underwater scene with floating nautili), sensory and discussion prompts, and photo-taking for a travel journal. Data Collection 2 added an AR-filter family selfie, a back button, and GPS coordinate fine-tuning. (Heather Toomey Zimmerman et al. (2023))

Claims

• Sensory immersion prompted by the MAR app supported families' geoscientific talk and observation of rock features during place-based LOTM. [+W]
• All families took photographs at each microsite as evidence of their observation, with only one family personalizing photos by including children. [+W]
• Families engaged in multiple immersive processes at the same microsites, combining sense-making conversations, observational inquiry, and deep geoscience engagement. [+W]
• All families in the dataset successfully used the GPS wayfinding map for actional immersion, including a 5-year-old who took over wayfinding while his mother cared for a younger sibling. [+W]
• No substantial example of emancipatory immersion was found in the family data, despite the framework including it. [-W]
• Families' geoscience sense-making during learning-on-the-move was shaped by the immersive qualities of a mobile AR app [+W]

Related Products and Programmes

• Mad City Mystery

Key Sources

• Heather Toomey Zimmerman, Susan M. Land, Lillyanna Faimon, Yu-Chen Chiu. (2023). Mobile augmented reality supporting families’ immersive collaborative learning: Learning-on-the-move for place-based geoscience sense-making. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-023-09399-9

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	time-explorers
title	Time Explorers
description	A mobile augmented-reality app developed by Heather Toomey Zimmerman and colleagues for family, place-based learning about Appalachian geological history.
status	review
product_kind	software
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-18
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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