iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

geography

Dueling iPad Apps for Students

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I was recently asked for a suggestion for a fun iPad app that students can use to practice their math skills. One of the apps that I immediately thought of was Math Duel.

Math Duel provides a split screen so that two students can compete in races to correctly answer mathematics problem as quickly as they can. Each player is presented an addition, multiplication, subtraction, or division problem to answer in the app. Both players are shown the same type of problem at the same time.

The producers of Math Duel also produce a game called Geography Duel. Geography Duel allows two students to compete head-to-head on one shared iPad. In two player mode Geography Duel features a split screen with maps facing each player. Students compete to identify U.S. states, U.S. state capitals, and countries. In the app’s settings menu you can change the base map from political map to a satellite view map.

Geography Drive Arcade – Four Fun U.S. Geography Games

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arcade Geography Drive Arcade is a great iPad app from the same people that developed Geography Drive USA. Within Geography Drive Arcade students will find four fun review games. Those games are State Shape Challenge, Flagstaff State Flag Game, State Capital Challenge, and Honolulu Spelling Bee.

In the State Shape Challenge students see the silhouette of a state then have to identify it by choosing its name from a list. State Capital Challenge requires students to choose the name of the capital for the state shown to them. Honolulu Spelling Bee shows students the outline of a state and they have to correctly spell its name. Flagstaff State Flag Game, which is the one I found the most interesting, shows students five state flags and they have to choose the one belonging to the state shown to them.

hawaii

Geography Duel – One iPad, Two Players

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Screen Shot 2014-12-01 at 8.04.20 AM From the same people who produced the popular Math Duel iPad app comes a similar app called Geography Duel. Geography Duel allows two students to compete head-to-head on one shared iPad. In two player mode Geography Duel features a split screen with maps facing each player. Students compete to identify U.S. states, U.S. state capitals, and countries. In the app’s settings menu you can change the base map from political map to a satellite view map.

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While the app is designed for two players to enjoy, Geography Duel can be used as a single player app too. Registration is not required in order to use the app.

Drawp for School – A Good App for Students to Create and Share Drawings

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Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 9.38.51 AM Last year I reviewed Drawp. Drawp is an excellent app for students to use to create and send digital artwork to family members. Drawp for School offers the same great features as Drawp while incorporating features for classroom use.

Drawp for School allows students  to create drawings, take pictures, and create audio recordings. Students can combine those elements into one final product that they share with their teachers and classmates. Teachers can use the app to create multiple class rosters. From their class rosters teachers can see all of the work that their students have shared with them. Teachers are also able to manage students’ passwords from their class rosters.

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Teachers could have students use Drawp for School to complete assignments in which they are asked to diagram concepts, highlight features on a map, or explain how to solve a mathematics problem.

Experience America HD Showcases Common Tourist Attractions

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Screen Shot 2014-07-07 at 8.36.30 PMExperience America HD Magazine is a free iPad app produced by USA Today. The app features popular tourist attractions around the United States. The app is populated with lots of “top ten places to see for X” articles which are nice even though they’re not terribly informative. The best aspect of the app is the National Parks section that contains a mix of text and image essays about U.S. National Parks. A small collection of videos about travel in the United States is also found in Experience America HD Magazine.

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Experience America HD Magazine could be a good app to have students use as part of a geography lesson about the United States. For example, one of the projects that one of my geography classes did was create a plan for traveling across the United States and stopping to see landmarks that represented human geography and physical geography in each state.