Crater Lab: Learn Elements

Crater Lab is a science lab on the rim of Crater Lake, Oregon. Mazzy is a Mazama newt, the newt that lives only in Crater Lake, and Mazzy is your child's lab partner. Every lab your child finishes earns Mazzy a new piece of lab gear: goggles first, a full scientist's kit by the eighth.

Crater Lab teaches children aged 6 to 12 the periodic table, one small step at a time: all 118 elements, from hydrogen to oganesson. At every stop your child meets a few elements, each with its symbol, its number, its family and where it is found in real life. Then they play with what they learned: drag protons and electrons into place to build an atom, find an element on the full periodic table with a looking glass, drop two elements into the beaker and watch what they really make (water, rust, a bar of bronze, or nothing at all), snap atoms together into water, salt and carbon dioxide, slide a thermometer to melt and boil an element, and hunt for elements hiding in a kitchen, a phone, a bike, a car, the human body, the sky and a fireworks show. Every lab ends with a little picture book, read aloud.

REAL SCIENCE, CHECKED
- All 118 elements with the symbol, atomic number and family used in school, checked against published reference tables
- Ten element families, each with its own color, the same color everywhere in the game
- Eight labs: the first ten, salt and sand, the metal shop, silver and sparks, gold and heavy metals, the lanthanides, the superheavies and the actinides
- Over 570 facts and 8 picture books
- About 150 real mixes, each drawn as what it really makes, and 66 molecules to build in their real shapes
- Anything dangerous is "scientists only": watched from behind safety glass, with no steps and no amounts
- Nothing is asked before it has been taught

LEARNS WITH YOUR CHILD
- A spaced-practice engine keeps track of every element and fact, brings back the shaky ones and moves on from the strong ones
- The Practice button builds a lesson from exactly what your child needs
- A Daily Experiment: one short mixed lesson a day
- A wrong answer is never punished: Mazzy helps, and the question comes back a little later

A PLACE TO EXPLORE
- Every lab has its own room and its own view of Crater Lake: sunrise mist at Rim Village, the boat dock, the forge, the fire tower at sunset, the lantern-lit vault, the star deck, the snowy atom smasher hall and the moonlit dome
- Seven hand-drawn hunting scenes full of real things to tap

LOTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
- Spoken praise, streaks, stars, a sticker for every stop, medals, badges and a trophy shelf
- A collection board that fills in the whole periodic table, one element tile at a time
- A girl or boy scientist in five skin tones, so every child can pick the one that looks like them, with a matching narrator voice and a wardrobe of outfit colors
- Up to three players on one device, each with their own progress

FOR GROWN-UPS
- A grown-ups area (behind a multiplication question) shows each lab's progress and what is worth practicing next
- Sound, music and voice switches, and a reset for each player

SAFE FOR CHILDREN
- No ads, ever. No accounts, no sign-in, no chat, no links out
- No data is collected: progress and an optional first name stay on this device only
- Works fully offline

TRY IT FREE
Lab 1 (the first ten elements: 13 stops and the first picture book) is free. One single purchase, made by a grown-up inside the grown-ups area, unlocks Labs 2 to 8 for good. No subscription.