DIY Sun Science vs Playground Physics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DIY Sun Science
Explore the Sun through hands-on activities and real-time data. This app offers 15 engaging experiments, live solar images from NASA, and educational videos to foster understanding of solar science for families and educators.
- 15 hands-on solar activities
- Step-by-step instructions
- Live Sun images from NASA SDO
- NASA Earth and space observatory images
- NASA solar videos
- Learn about solar activity
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DIY Sun Science is designed to make it easy for families and educators to learn about the Sun anywhere, anytime! The app is developed by UC Berkeley’s The Lawrence Hall of Science, the Children's Creativity Museum, and Sciencenter; funded by NASA. HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES DIY Sun Science includes 15 easy-to-use hands-on activities to learn about the Sun and its important relationship with Earth. Learn how to cook in a solar oven, measure the size of the Sun, or explore shadows in model Moon craters! Each activity includes step-by-step instructions that have been tested by educators, kids, and families. Activity materials are easily available and inexpensive—you may already have many of them in your home! SUN OBSERVATORY Want to see the Sun right now in different wavelengths? Use DIY Sun Science to view live images of the Sun from NASA’s SDO satellite in the Sun Observatory. Afterwards, you can learn more about the solar activity you observed and test your new knowledge. IMAGES AND VIDEOS See awe-inspiring images of the Sun from NASA’s Earth and space observatories! Learn about the different features of the Sun and how scientists are studying it. You can even watch NASA videos of the Sun from the past 48 hours. Praise & Reviews: —Featured by Apple in "Best New Apps" and "Education" —Common Sense Media: “DIY Sun Science is a great way to spark interest in astronomy and inspire learning. The activities are fun and engaging, and they tie in nicely with important astronomy concepts.” —Gizmodo: “A must for budding astronomy enthusiasts.”
Playground Physics
Record videos of motion, trace paths, and analyze physics concepts like forces and energy. This tool helps educators bring Newton's Laws to life with interactive graphs and slow-motion playback. Ideal for middle and high school science.
- Record and analyze motion in videos
- Trace paths and examine movement
- Interactive scrubbable graphs
- Slow-motion playback
- Calculate forces and energy
- Save and share performance videos
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Discover and explore the physics in your own movements. Record a video of you or your friends, tap points along the way to trace a path of motion, and discover the motion, forces, and energy involved. Educators can make Newton’s Laws of motion come alive with an app that was named one of Fast Company’s Top 10 mobile apps! Join a community of educators making inspiring learning experiences with Noticing Tools. “Playground Physics is one of the most fun units that I’ve done in a long time. I’ve been teaching about 12 years, and everybody had a great time.” - Stacey, 8th grade science teacher In Playground Physics, you can: * Record a video of a performance or choose a stock video. * Tap points along the video to trace a path of motion. * Examine your performance closely with scrubbing video controls. * Enter known measurements (height of an object, mass of the object being tracked) in English or metric units to reveal accurate data of your performance. * Explore interactive, scrubbable graphs synchronized to the video playback. Graphs display the distance traveled and speed along the path in horizontal and vertical vectors. * Add stickers to mark important moments in the performance (and for a laugh!). * Play your video back in slow motion to closely examine your movements. * Explore how distance, speed, and direction changes when things move. * Understand how a person's or object's potential and kinetic energy change as they move. * Save your performance as videos with data overlays or editable scenes. * Share your performance videos or transfer editable scenes to other cloud services and apps through use of the Files app. Ideal for middle and high school school science classrooms, Playground Physics and accompanying curriculum activities are aligned to and embody the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) by integrating core ideas, scientific practices, cross-cutting concepts, and delight! The new 2023 edition of the curriculum is freely available at: https://noticing.nysci.org/apps/playground-physics/ Playground Physics is one of the Noticing Tools (TM) from the New York Hall of Science. The full suite includes Choreo Graph, Fraction Mash, Size Wise, Volumize, and Picture Dots. Noticing Tools were developed in collaboration with Local Projects, an award-winning media design firm based in New York. http://localprojects.com/
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Verdict
DIY Sun Science and Playground Physics both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 92% of DIY Sun Science's written reviews are positive against 40% of Playground Physics's. DIY Sun Science also leads on ratings volume (21 vs 5) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Playground Physics holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 92% of DIY Sun Science's written reviews are positive against 40% of Playground Physics's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
DIY Sun Science ships an update every 6 months, Playground Physics every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DIY Sun Science | Playground Physics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (21 ratings) | 4.6 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.7% of reviews — better | 40.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 134 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Lawrence Hall of Science | New York Hall of Science |
Customer experience
DIY Sun Science
Playground Physics
In-app purchases
DIY Sun Science
No in-app purchases
Playground Physics
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is DIY Sun Science free?
Is Playground Physics free?
Which has better reviews, DIY Sun Science or Playground Physics?
Do DIY Sun Science or Playground Physics have ads?
Which is updated more often, DIY Sun Science or Playground Physics?
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