Comparison

SPARKvue 4 vs TouchTimes

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

SPARKvue 4

Collect, visualize, and analyze real-time sensor data for STEM education. Wirelessly connect sensors, capture images for analysis, and build custom displays. Share live data and create electronic lab journals for collaborative learning.

Highlights
  • Live sensor data collection
  • Wireless Bluetooth sensor connection
  • Multiple data display options
  • Built-in statistical analysis tools
  • Interactive lab activities
  • Electronic student lab journals
  • Live data sharing
Features
Read full description

SPARKvue is a popular data collection, visualization and analysis application for STEM learning. SPARKvue enables wireless data collection and live data sharing with anyone in the world to unleash the learning experience. Capture data from the world around you: ● Graph live sensor data from the world around you in real time—pH, temperature, force, carbon dioxide and much more! ● Connect PASCO’s new wireless Bluetooth Smart sensors directly to your iPad or iPhone—just turn on the sensor and connect right in the app. Nothing could be easier! ● Connect any of 80+ PASCO sensors via our Bluetooth interfaces ● Capture images with the integrated cameras and use SPARKvue’s image analysis capabilities ● Collect and display live data using the onboard accelerometer and sound sensors Key features: ● Measure and display sensor data in real time ● Display data in a graph, bar graph, analog meter, digits or table ● Build custom displays--mix display types, images, videos, text and assessments (Build feature not available on iPhones due to screen size) ● Analyze data with built-in statistical tools (min, max, mean, standard deviation, count and area) ● Select from 8 different curve fits including linear and quadratic ● Pinch and zoom manipulation of graphs ● Capture and annotate images ● Add videos, photos and GIFs ● Includes 14 preloaded SPARKlab interactive lab activities, plus over 80 more available free online ● Create and export electronic student lab journals ● Integrated with cloud-based file sharing services such as Dropbox and more ● Add assessments including multiple choice, drop down lists, and free text response (not available on iPhones) ● Live data sharing and session sharing across devices--with each student capturing the shared data on their own device for further analysis. Share with the class or even across geographies-in real time. Designed for science learning: ● Convenient annotation, snapshot and electronic journaling are among the features supporting peer dialogue, classroom presentations, and assessment. ● With SPARKlab interactive lab activities, teachers can blend instructional content, live data collection & analysis, reflection prompts and more, all completely within the SPARKvue environment. Use PASCO free SPARKlabs or build your own! Common user experience across platforms: SPARKvue is a member of PASCO’s SPARKscience family, providing the same user experience across all technology environments: ● tablets ● phones ● computers ● interactive whiteboards No matter what the mix of technology is in the classroom or the school, teachers and students all share the same user experience--placing the learning experience in the forefront and simplifying classroom management. Where do I get sensors? PASCO offers over 80 sensors to measure almost anything in the world around you in life, earth and physical sciences plus out in the field exploring the environment. See our newest wireless sensors to measure Temperature, pH, Pressure and Force/Acceleration—all with no need for an expensive interface or wires. Just turn them on and collect data! For purchasing information, see http://pasco.com/sparkvue Languages: SPARKvue supports 28 languages. See http://pasco.com/sparkvue for details. Support: SPARKvue has an integrated help system, just a touch away with the help icon. Further assistance with SPARKvue or any PASCO product is available free from PASCO Teacher Support. About PASCO Scientific: PASCO Scientific brings a rich history of innovation and support for science education, with over 50 years of service to educators around the world.

About

TouchTimes

This app uses interactive, two-handed gestures to help children understand multiplication concepts. It offers two distinct worlds for exploring multiplicative meanings and relationships through hands-on manipulation.

Highlights
  • Two-handed gesture interaction
  • Grasplify World for unit creation
  • Zaplify World for lightning bolt multiplication
  • Focus on multiplicative meanings
  • Exploration-based learning environment
  • Visual, haptic, and tactile representations
Features
Read full description

TouchTimes lets children learn multiplication through powerful, embodied approaches. By using two-handed gestures to create and manipulate their own factors and products, children build a strong sense of multiplicative meanings and relationships. TouchTime’ hands-on approach makes abstract ideas concrete, letting students literally "grasp" mathematical concepts. TouchTimes offers two complementary experiences: In the Grasplify World, children first create, with the fingers of one hand, some form of unit, and then—through one or more taps of the other hand—create a "unit of units,"" a product. The Grasplify World enables experiences of multiplication that go beyond approaches based on additive thinking and repeated addition. In the Zaplify World, children create simultaneous bolts of lightning—horizontal from one hand, vertical from another. Orange sparks appear where these bolts cross as a product of the lightning-bolt factors. (These terms may also be displayed numerically.) This dynamic model of multiplication emphasizes the commutative property of multiplication and the symmetry of multiplicative factors, and gives learners conceptual and geometric building blocks for understanding multiplicative relationships. Neither a repetitive drill-and-practice worksheet nor a rigid "level-driven" game, TouchTimes is a mathematics exploration environment designed to allow students to discover, pose and examine their own questions and understandings. Since TouchTimes displays the product that results from any multiplicative expression, learners focus less on how to compute than on how multiplicative relationships work, and on how, with their hands, to coordinate and combine multiplicative factors into given multiplicative products. Learners also encounter and work with numbers, symbols and equations, and move back and forth between symbolic/numeric forms and more visual, haptic, and tactile representations of multiplicative relationships. As children begin to learn about multiplication, TouchTimes is the perfect environment to solidify that understanding and help them generalize patterns beyond their ability to count and compute. Based on contemporary research understandings of how children learn mathematics, and developed by the Tangible Mathematics Learning Project in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, TouchTimes is intended for use in school and at home; in small groups, or in 1:1 pairings of a learner and a parent or teacher. Website: http://www.touchcounts.ca/touchtimes Reach us anytime at: tangible.mathematics@gmail.com

Screenshots

SPARKvue 44 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: TouchTimes at 100% against SPARKvue 4's 46%. TouchTimes also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.9) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 13.0). SPARKvue 4's advantage is ratings volume (629 vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 10 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TouchTimes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SPARKvue 4 has 629 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of SPARKvue 4's written reviews are positive against 100% of TouchTimes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SPARKvue 4 ships an update every 2 months, TouchTimes every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
SPARKvue 4 versus TouchTimes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSPARKvue 4TouchTimes
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.9 (629 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews45.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings629 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS13.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size91 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPASCO scientificNathalie Sinclair

Customer experience

SPARKvue 4

All ratings638 ratings
Positive21.6%
Neutral2.0%
Negative76.3%
Written reviews301 reviews
Positive45.5%
Neutral3.0%
Negative51.5%

TouchTimes

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

SPARKvue 4

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Caused spontaneous combustion
  • Erased all my data
  • Triggered a nuclear meltdown
  • Turned my dog into a salad bowl
  • Gave me a permanent wedgie

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add free Fortnite V-Bucks
  • Integrate with Tinder
  • Allow users to summon demons
  • Provide a self-destruct button
  • Add support for teleportation

TouchTimes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SPARKvue 4

No in-app purchases

None

TouchTimes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SPARKvue 4 free?
SPARKvue 4 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TouchTimes free?
TouchTimes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SPARKvue 4 or TouchTimes?
TouchTimes is rated higher. SPARKvue 4 averages 1.9 out of 5 from 629 ratings, while TouchTimes averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do SPARKvue 4 or TouchTimes have ads?
Neither SPARKvue 4 nor TouchTimes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SPARKvue 4 or TouchTimes?
SPARKvue 4 ships an update every 2 months, and TouchTimes every 10 months. Most recently, SPARKvue 4 was updated on November 6, 2026 and TouchTimes on November 3, 2026.

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