iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

Turn Pictures Into 3D Models on Your iPad

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Screen Shot 2012-12-12 at 1.59.19 PM 123D Catch is a free iPad app from Autodesk. The app makes it possible to turn your pictures into a 3D model that you can manipulate on your iPad. To create a model with the app select a physical object that you can photograph with your iPad. Then take a series of pictures of that object as you either walk around it or rotate it slowly as you take pictures of it. Then select the best images from those that you took (20+ images works best) to let Autodesk process and turn into a 3D model for you. Completed 3D models can be shared to the Autodesk community where others can view and use them.

123D Catch could be a great app for creating virtual manipulatives to use in a math or science lesson. The app could also be used to create 3D models of interesting landmarks that you visit during a vacation, but that your students would otherwise only see in 2D pictures.

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A few tips about using 123D Catch based on things that I messed up the first time I tried the app. First, make sure your object is stationary when you take pictures of it. I tried to make a 3D model of my dog, but he kept wiggling which made many of my images usable. Second, if you do not capture pictures from all sides of an object your 3D model will look like it was cut in half. Third, processing of images can take up to ten minutes depending on your wi-fi connection and how many images you have. Click here for Autodesk’s official tutorials.

123D Catch is a free app. Students of all ages can access and manipulate the public models. To create a model you do have to have an email address.

Play the Classic Game Oregon Trail on Your iPad

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Oregon Trail was the first game that I ever played on a computer in school. Back then we had to run it from a series of 5.25″ floppy disks. Today, students can still enjoy the Oregon Trail games just as much as I did 20+ years ago. The difference now is that students can play the games on their iPads and they wouldn’t know what to do with a floppy disk.

Oregon Trail is an iPad version of the classic game. Players move westward by overcoming obstacles like river crossings, wagon break-downs, and illnesses. To keep the journey going you need to manage your food and other supplies.

Oregon Trail American Settler picks up where Oregon Trail leaves off. In Oregon Trail American Settler you have already reached the frontier and now you need to build your settlement from scratch. As you build your settlement you need to consider which types of buildings you want to build, where to place buildings, and where to play farm plots. Of course, in order to keep yourself and your family alive you still have to deal with illnesses and other surprises.

Oregon Trail costs $0.99. Oregon Trail American Settler is free. Both games offer in-app purchases, but you can enjoy the games without making any in-app purchases. The games are appropriate for students in grade 4 (age 10) and higher.

4 Dice Helps Students Learn to Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide Fractions

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4 Dice is an iPad app designed to help students learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. The app was developed by the same people that built the popular 5 Dice app that helps students learn the order of operations.

In 4 Dice students are shown a fraction and they have to drag four dice into position to complete the arithmetic that will result in the fraction that they were shown. It’s kind of like the Jeopardy concept applied to fractions mathematics. There are five modes in 4 Dice. There are the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division modes as well as a challenge mode that randomized the problems. At any point in a series of problems students can pause and use the whiteboard to work out possible solutions to a problem.

 

4 Dice does ask for an email address, but doesn’t ask users to confirm that email address. If your students don’t have email addresses you can use the Gmail+1 trick to create dummy addresses for them that you can monitor.

4 Dice costs $0.99. This app is appropriate for elementary and middle school students.

Germ Blaster Offers a Fun Way to Learn About Germs

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Germ Blaster is a fun iPad and iPhone game developed by Rice University’s Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning. By playing Germ Blaster students learn about six types of pathogens and the “weapons” used to fight them. Before starting the game students review each pathogen and what makes it different from the others. Then they review the methods used to fight those pathogens.

In the game students fight off the pathogens by selecting the appropriate weapon to kill the approaching pathogens. If they get stuck and can’t remember which weapons fight which pathogens, students can pause the game to look up information about the pathogens.

This game is appropriate for grades 5 (age 11) and higher.

Thanks to Jen Deyenberg for suggesting Germ Blasters. 

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Welcome to my new blog iPad Apps for School. This blog, much like my other blogs Free Technology for Teachers and Android 4 Schools, is a review of the best apps for students and teachers. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to the updates through the links below.

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