iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

Engineering

Explain 3D for iPad – Visual Explanations of Machines and Systems

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Screen Shot 2014-10-24 at 10.48.19 AM A few years ago Explain 3D launched as a website to showcase 3D animations of simple machines. Later the site expanded to include 3D animations of elements of the universe. This week Explain 3D launched a new iPad app for the same purpose as the website.

Explain 3D’s iPad app includes the same animations that you can find on the website. The animations allow viewers to zoom-in, zoom-out, and rotate animations 360 degrees. Students can manipulate animations of simple machines like elevators and hand pumps. The app also offers models and animations of space shuttles and the International Space Station. To help students learn about electricity Explain 3D offers 3D models nuclear power plants, wind turbines, and hydro-electric dams.

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Explain 3D could be a good source of models to include as part of a larger lesson that you’re constructing for your students to view online. To get the most out of the models your students will probably need you to explain what is happening and or the connections to the larger lesson.

Simple Physics – Engineering Challenges on Your iPad

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Screen Shot 2013-06-30 at 12.52.54 PM Simple Physics is an iPad app that presents users with fun and challenging engineering problems. The app has twelve challenges that progress in difficulty as you move through the app. The premise of each challenge is the same. The challenge is to create a structure like a bridge or staircase that can support a given amount of weight. You’re given a budget for materials for each structure and you have to stay under that budget. When your structure is complete, test it to find out if it will work.

I found myself hooked on Simple Physics and wanted to work through all of the challenges in one sitting, but I couldn’t do it. Students will probably find themselves in the same situation. One of the things that makes the app good for students is that if they try to use virtual building materials that are too big, too small, or too weak they will see that immediately as they build and test their structures.

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Simple Physics currently costs $1.99