All of us have found apps that are great, but don't quite fit into our curriculum. For this post, please share an app for a subject that you don't teach, but you would definitely use if you did. In your comment, please put the name of the app, the cost, a brief description, and how you think you would use it.
Reminder: summer assignments are due on August 16th.
I downloaded the free version of Graphbook by Spacetime, Scientific Computing in the palm of your hand. This app shows many cool plots of graphs that are way beyond my math skills and class needs. There are 22 different plots available. You can adjust the points, color, speed,and focus of the graphs. It is a gorgeous app. I'm not sure how useful this is. Can one of the high school math teachers tell me: Would you use this?
ReplyDeleteHistory 3D: Civil War is very cool, though I don't teach that subject any more. It has an amazing collection of visuals, all sourced from the Library of Congress, which benefits from its purchase. Pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteI found a cool app "H2O an adventure in Chemistry". That is an animated adventure of a proton and his little sister inside a water molecule. It looks fun and it would teach kids the basics of atoms and molecules in a neat way. The app costs 2.99 and would be worth it if I taught younger kids.
ReplyDeleteI played with an app called "Molecules". It has renderings of DNA, caffeine, and few others. You can enlarge the molecule to see all its bits and rotate it. It would be potentially visually useful for a higher level science class. I think it was free when I uploaded it. I also saw "Powers of Minus Ten-Cells and Genetics". You can zoom into a human hand. It reminded me of the really COOL interactive exhibits of some of the better science museums I've been to. That one was $0.99.
ReplyDelete-Elisa H.
Penguins is an app from the California Acadamy of Sciences. It is a free app. It has a live video cam in the penguin pen. You can change the view to see the penguins under water. This would be good for behavioral sciences in HS biology classes but also good for anyone/grade just to sit back and relax while watching the cute little things. The app is made for the iPhone but it works OK on the iPad. I love this app!
ReplyDeletei would use the Khan academy app if i taught math, the consepts are clear and the information is awesome. i would also use the science 360 app for science.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a specific program...I found a fantastic blog at www.ipadcreative.com/blog. It reviews apps, has Youtube demos, features new products for the ipad2 and features both musicians and artists using the ipad2 in a variety of creative ways. I thought the music department might enjoy the many different and exciting apps and demos provided in this blog...apps like: RiffMaster, Tabletop, On the Music path, TelevatorMuzak, 24 ipads + 1 Awesome Music Lesson, Interview with Mark from Msavwah about GarageBand for ipad, and a YouTube video performance of students from Frisco School of Music who used a variety of music apps, including GarageBand, Pocket Organ C3B3, iJ Bass and VoiceJam to perform three Beatles tunes with iRig Mic running VoiceJam on an the iPad to record the vocals.Oman would like this Blog as well!
ReplyDeleteI downloaded Math Ninja for my 9 yr old. He loves it. It helps kids with math facts and is fun to play. I could see it used in the elementary classes as an app that students might use in their free time. It's free!
ReplyDeleteVisual Cue $9.99 Visual Cue Lite $free - gives young children a visual schedule, timer, and/or choice of activity to keep them on track during day. I would use this as an elementary teacher/LS working with a student having difficulty following verbal directions or remembering daily schedule.
ReplyDeleteWriters wheel $6.99
Good app for elementary and jr high students needing assistance with writing structure. I would use the app as an in class intro to writing framework and then have the students work in groups or individually to draft a paper.
There is an an amazing app called "Civil War Today" that creates a newspaper for every day of the war. Each day, a a new edition is released, so your class could follow the war as it is unfolding.This would be great for 4th/5th/6th grade class studying the Civil War. Here is an article about it: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/21/the-civil-war-today-one-of-the-coolest-ipad-apps-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/
ReplyDeleteIf I taught history I would love This Day in History. It is a simple enough app, but can spark all sorts of conversations. I would either use it as students show up to get them engaged and thinking, or maybe towards the close of class to wrap things up. Kind of like Ben's app, but a little less directed.
ReplyDelete...if I had a daily group of students I would use Eclicker around midterm and at the end of the term for evaluation/feedback on effectiveness of course. Eclicker allows you to setup multiple choice questions for students to complete. I guess it could be used for online quizzes as well.
ReplyDeleteWorcle is a cool app that has you make words out of letters that get put in a circle of letters. It's fun and it is a good way to pract,ice spelling simple words. It could be practice for younger kids. For older kids, it's just fun, but still kind of problem solving and possibly vocal building. It's the game that the kids in Alaska we playing.
ReplyDeleteBecca
This not necessarily an app but I picked it up from the list of classroom uses for the ipad. It is ipod literacy.com and how to use the ipod for oral literacy. I think I would teach a course called "Ask It and Answer It" In this class I could see using this app to help students better express their ideas. I would allow them to read aloud passages from books and listen to them. I would also have them ask questions, answer questions and analyze them for complete ideas in their oral presentation of ideas. I would like to see students speak more confidently and use complete ideas in asking and responding to questions. Hopefully this would help them get away from those one-word answers that take the form of a question or the question that is a word or 2 and not a complete idea. As I write this, I think I might do a short term course on this.
ReplyDelete