iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

ipads in education

Quiz Dojo – Create Quizzes from Your PDFs

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quizdojo Quiz Dojo is a neat iPad app that allows you to create quizzes by highlighting sections of PDFs on your iPad. You can import PDFs from Dropbox, email, or other apps on your iPad. Once the PDF is imported you can highlight important words and phrases that you want to quiz yourself on later. The quiz is automatically created as you highlight. When you’re done highlighting a fill-in-the-blank quiz is created for you. The blanks are the words and phrases you highlighted.

As you work through quizzes in Quiz Dojo you have the option of getting immediate feedback or waiting until the end to see how you did on the entire quiz.

Quiz Dojo could be a good app for students to use to review notes that they take in class. Students can save their notes as PDFs, import them into Quiz Dojo, and then review.

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Quiz Dojo is available in two versions. The lite version is free, but it has limitations on the number of PDFs and quiz questions that you can use. The full version costs $2.99

Seven Free Science Apps for iPads

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eskimo-nebula-11125_640 I’m preparing to do a virtual presentation for a small district next month. My hosts asked for a list of some science apps that their middle school and high school students can use. This is part of the list that has free apps.

The Bill Nye The Science Guy  iPad app is a free iPad app on which students can watch Bill Nye videos, play games, and discover kitchen table science experiments to do at home with their parents. The app is beautifully designed. Students enter the app by “scanning” their thumbprints. After entering the app students select an object on Bill Nye’s desk. Each object launches a new element of the app. My only complaint about the app is that in the video section it looks like you have to buy the videos (it’s an option) even though you can watch them for free.

goREACT is a free iPad app from the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. This free iPad app allows students to virtually create chemical reactions. To create the reactions students simply drag elements from the periodic table to the “reaction area.” The app includes suggested reactions to help students get started. In all there are nearly 300 chemical reactions supported on the app. The app includes pictures and videos related to the reactions that students can virtually create on goREACT.

Powers of Minus Ten: Bone is a neat iPad app for biology students. The app takes students through ten levels of viewing the inside of human bones. Students can zoom through and explore each of the microscopic levels. The imagery starts at the level of viewing bones from the outside and ends with viewing the atoms within the bones. A neat aspect of the app is that students can select “healthy bone” or “broken bone.” By selecting “broken bone” students can view a broken bone and see how it heals.

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Virtual Heart is a free iPad app that allows users to take a closer look at how the human heart functions. The free app lets users speed up and slow down the virtual heart rate. Users have four views of the heart in the app. The views are of the electrical system, the valves, blood flow, and the interior of the heart. Each view can be experienced with or without labels. The first time each view is tapped, a short introduction to that view is displayed.

3D Brain is a free iPad app that features a model of the human brain. he app provides a three dimensional model of the human brain that students can rotate. To look at a specific part of the brain select it from the drop-down menu and it will be highlighted on the model for you to view. Click the “info” tab to read one page summaries about each part of the brain. On the app you can also find some case studies about disorders and brain damage.

Essential Skeleton is a free iPad app that students studying the human skeletal system should download. The app puts a 3D skeleton on your students’ iPads. Students can zoom-in, zoom-out, and rotate the skeleton 360 degrees. When students zoom-in and tap on a bone they will see its name in English and Latin, have the option to hear an audio pronunciation of the bone’s name, learn about the connected bones, and write their own notes about the highlighted bone.

Solve the Outbreak is a free iPad app produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The app is a game that contains three epidemics for students to research. In each investigation students have to read the background, read clues, analyze data, and answer questions. The questions put students in the role of a medical professional tasked with helping to curtail the spread of the epidemic. Points are awarded to students for correct answers.

Math Duel – One iPad, Two Players

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Screen Shot 2013-10-11 at 5.34.04 AM Math Duel is an iPad app that could be a hit in a classroom that doesn’t have enough iPads for every student. 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.

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Math Duel is currently available for free. Playing Math Duel could be a fun way for students to practice their math skills with a friend.

School Writing – An iPad App for Customized Handwriting Lessons

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Screen Shot 2013-09-30 at 8.45.55 AM School Writing is an iPad app that teachers and parents can use to create customized handwriting lessons. Like other iPad apps designed to teach handwriting, School Writing has number, letter, and word tracing activities. What makes School Writing different from other apps like it is number of ways in which teachers and parents can customize the app.

On School Writing teachers can record their own voices with instructions for students. Recordings can be made for every letter of the alphabet, every word in the app, and all of the numbers in the app. Additionally, teachers can upload custom backgrounds to match each letter. For example, a teacher can upload a picture of a turkey to match the letter “T.” Teachers can create multiple student profiles on the app. The video below provides a short overview of how to create a lesson on School Writing.

If you choose not to customize the app, there is still plenty for students to benefit from using. Students can tap the sound icons and picture icons at any time to get support for the pre-made lessons in School Writing.

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School Writing was developed by an Australian firm. I was concerned that the letter “Z” would be pronounced “zed,” but when I tried it the app had recognized my U.S. location and “Z” was pronounced “zee.” My only complaint about the app is that “practice” is spelled “practise” regardless of your location. The app costs $4.99. The cost is lower through the volume purchasing program.

Home KG – A Free iPad App for Learning to Write

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Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 7.23.25 AM Home KG is a free iPad designed to help children learn to write all of the letters of the alphabet, numbers one through nine, and ten basic shapes. Children trace the letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and shapes. Children can save their work in the app. The app has a couple of sound options that can be turned on or off. The first sound option is simple background music. The second sound option is hearing the name of the letters, numbers, and shapes read to the child using the app.

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Home KG is a nice, free app that could help pre-K and elementary school students learn to write their letters and numbers. The app also helps students learn to recognize the names of basic shapes. Unlike similar free apps that I’ve tried, Home KG gives students the complete alphabet without the need to complete an in-app upgrade purchase.