iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

space science

Explore the Night Sky With Star Rover

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Screen Shot 2014-03-03 at 8.22.56 AM Star Rover is an iPad app designed to help you learn the names of stars, constellations, and planets that are viewable from where you are in the world. The app uses your location to show you a map of the night sky on your iPad. Tilt your iPad and the map changes. You can turn labels and constellation outlines on and off.

After you learn the names of the stars and constellations viewable from your home, choose a new location in Star Rover to learn about the constellations viewable from other parts of the world.

Star Rover goes beyond stars and constellations by offering eclipse simulations and realistic atmosphere sunrise and sunset simulations.

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Star Rover is currently priced at $1.99.

Kibo 360 – Explore the Japanese Experiment Module On the ISS

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Screen Shot 2014-02-04 at 1.48.55 PM Kibo 360 is a free iPad app from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The app takes you on a virtual 360 degree tour of the Japanese Experiment Module on the International Space Station. You can use the app in “mission mode” or “free mode.” Mission Mode offers a guided tour of module while the free mode leaves it up to you decide what you want to explore. I preferred the free mode as it allowed me to tilt my iPad to move around the module. In either mode you will see red circles throughout the module. Tap the circle to learn about the piece of pictured equipment.

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Kibo 360 could be a fun app for elementary school or middle school students to use to learn a little bit about what astronauts are doing on the International Space Station.

3 iPad Apps Students Can Use to Explore Stars and Planets Through Augmented Reality

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Screen Shot 2013-03-03 at 10.34.01 PMGoogle Sky is one of my favorite Android apps, but unfortunately it is not available for iPads so I set out find an alternative to Google Sky to use on my iPad. I found three that I think are worth noting. All three of these apps use your location (enable location based services in your iPad’s settings) to help you identify the stars and planets viewable from where you are standing with your iPad.

The developers of Go Sky Watch Planetarium calls it an “astronomy star guide.” The app displays the stars and planets that are viewable with the naked eye from wherever you are standing at the moment. The app even tries to show the relative brightness of objects to help you identify them when you look up at the night sky. You can also use the app to search for the location of a star, planet, or constellation and see it on a map of the night sky. A demo of the app can be seen in the video below (warning, the background music borders on annoying).

Like the other apps in this list SkyView for iPad uses your location to show you the stars, planets, and satellites that are viewable from your location. Point your iPad’s camera at the sky and SkyView will lay a map of the stars over what you’re actually seeing. Outlines of the constellations are included in the overlay to help you identify the objects that you should be seeing. If you want to know what you will be able to see on a future night, just change the date and SkyView will show you what you will be able to see on that date.

Star Tracker HD is the most expensive app on this list ($3.99 USD, the other apps have free versions to try) but for me it was the easiest of the apps to navigate. The options menus are clear and easy to find and adjusting my location (my location setting was a bit off, but it always is at home) was easy to do too. Like the other apps in this list you can point your iPad to the sky to see a map of the stars and planets placed over what you’re actually looking at with your naked eyes.

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Kids Learn About Galaxies on Kids Discover for iPad

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Screen Shot 2013-02-15 at 7.29.15 PM Kids Discover publishes a series of interactive magazines for kids to use on their iPads. The Galaxies issue students learn through text, videos, and images. In the app students can take short quizzes to test their understanding of the materials they’ve seen. In the app students learn about nebulas, black holes, the Milky Way, and how telescopes work. Kids Discover Galaxies also includes some short biographies of famous astronomers.

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Kids Discover Galaxies is appropriate for elementary school students. Most of the Kids Discover issues cost $1.99 to $3.99, but the Galaxies edition is available for free. Both the free Galaxies issue and the paid issues have received high marks from reviewers.

A Nice Guide to the Solar System to Put On Your Students’ iPads

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Screen Shot 2013-01-20 at 7.40.58 PM Interactive Minds: Solar System is an iPad app designed to help students learn about the size of the solar system and to help learn a little history of space exploration.

There is a free version and a paid version of Interactive Minds: Solar System. The free version contain seventeen pages of basic information about the solar system. One of the highlights of the free version is an interactive comparison of the size of planets and moons in our solar system. Students can select the planets and moons that they want to compare. Students can also compare the size of the planets and the moons to the sun. Another nice feature of the app is the embedded video clips of both simulations and real footage from space.

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The paid version of Interactive Minds: Solar System contains forty pages of information. Included in those pages are additional simulations and more in-depth information about the topics of gravity, dwarf planets, and planetary seasons. Both apps are suitable for elementary school. They’re probably too basic for students older than about eleven or so. I recommend trying the free version of the app before buying the full version.

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