iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

social studies

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.

PBS Students – Discover Educational Resources on Your iPad

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pbs students 1 Parts of this post originally appeared on my other blog, FreeTech4Teachers.com.

PBS Students is a new iPad app designed to showcase some of the best educational content for students. Through the app students and teachers can search for educational videos, articles, and diagrams. Some of the the video content can be downloaded directly to an iPad. The app was initially launched two weeks ago and it was updated this week. The update fixed an issue with some content shown in the app not being accessible when selected. The other update is the inclusion of a Puzzle Builder tool.

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The Puzzle Builder is an addition to PBS Learning Media’s Storyboard tool which allows you to create a collection of videos, text, and images organized around almost any topic of your choosing. The collections that you or your students create appear in a collage-like format. The storyboards function is nice for students who are over the age of 13 as they can save their collections in the app and online. Unfortunately, students who are under the age of 13 cannot save their storyboards.

Ripped Apart – An iPad App About the Civil War

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ripped apart Ripped Apart is a free iPad app from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The app is a game in which students play the role of a Smithsonian intern tasked with examining documents and photographs in order to determine where they came from and what they say about the Civil War. Through the game students will learn learn about significant people in the Antebellum and Civil War eras. Students will learn about leading abolitionists, secessionists, and officers on both sides of the Civil War. As they move through the game students will add notes in the app. Those notes should help them solve the mysteries in the game.

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I installed Ripped Apart this evening and played it for a while. There are a couple of things that you should note about the app before using it with your students. First, the app does not have a log-in so if your students are sharing iPads they will have to complete the activity before passing off the iPad to another student. Second, students need to complete an activity before moving onto the next one in the app. In other words, they cannot skip around in the app. Finally, an online supplement to the app is available on the Smithsonian website.

iDinoBook – A Nice iPad App About Dinosaurs

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idinobook Dinosaur Hook HD: iDinoBook is a nice iPad app all about dinosaurs. The app features a map depicting many of the places that dinosaur fossils have been found around the world. Tap on the placemarks on the map to see an index of the dinosaurs found in that location. After opening the index you can select a dinosaur and read more about it. Images of fossils and artistic renderings of each dinosaur are included throughout the app.

After studying the dinosaurs in the app you can test your knowledge by taking a quiz. There are two quiz modes; continuous and limited. In the continuous mode you try to answer as many questions as possible without getting any wrong. A wrong answer kicks you out of the continuous mode. The limited mode presents fifteen questions. In the limited mode if you answer incorrectly you can tap the “WWW” icon to search the web for the correct answer and try the question again.

I downloaded iDinoBook a couple of weeks ago. At that time it was free. It is now listed at $2.99. As a free app it’s good, but I’m not sure that I’d pay $2.99 for it. If you’re interested in trying the app, bookmark it and keep an eye out for a price drop.

JFK Challenge Teaches Students About the Space Race and Peace Corps

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jfk JFK Challenge is a new iPad app designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about the Apollo missions and the Peace Corps. The free app features a series of games for learning about each program. I played the first couple of games about the Peace Corps and the first couple of games about the Apollo missions. The games are nice, but I think that the real value of the app is found in the introductory materials that appear before the games.

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To get the full value out of the JFK Challenge students should not skip the introduction to the app or the introductory materials that appear before the games. The introductory text, images, and audio provide the historical context and significance of each program.

To The Brink is a related app that teaches students about President Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.