So this time, I couldn't just pick one!
It's nice to have some "easy" apps available to students just to review information and reinforce vocabulary. Nth Fusion creates several apps that are engaging and "to-the-point," and my three favorite ones for science have become Landforms, Body Organs, and Life Cycle. They are science, pure and simple - no frills, no super cool interactive features, but for $0.99 each they are great ways to incorporate science and reading skills. Each of these three apps resembles an "e-book" with the way students turn the "page" to the next section. All of these apps have a voice (which sounds like your average teacher, not a computerized person) that reads and explains the information to the student. I love the idea of using my iPad as an e-reader, but not the cost of some of the books on iTunes. So the fact that these apps "read" to the student is a real plus.
Landforms covers every square inch of the earth, both land and water. It is excellent review for a geography and/or geology unit. The students learn definitions and different variations of landforms - I didn't even know there were that many variations of a waterfall (but I do now!). Each section has a quiz, or a "Think and Verify" part where the students can quiz themselves on what they have learned. Some of my students get confused and think the app is "broken" at this point because they want to touch the answer on the screen to see if they are correct. To see if they chose the correct answer, they have to go to the next page.
Body Organs explains the major organs and also includes a section on cells. Each section discusses the parts and purpose or the organ, location in the body, cool facts, and ways to keep that organ healthy. I like the research section on this app (it poses questions for the students to go on their own and find out), but I think the students like the "quiz" part of the Landforms app better. The diagrams of all the body organs are great!
Life Cycle is a bit deceiving in its name, because it includes much more than just, well, life cycles! In addition to the life cycles of a frog, ladybug, butterfly, and plants, there are also the phases of the moon, pollination, rock cycle, nitrogen and oxygen cycles, photosynthesis... whew! I think that's all of them. It's great review and has wonderful diagrams (the nitrogren and oxygen cycles are a bit of a snooze but oh, well). Each cycle just starts over from the beginning with no review or research section.These apps could be used with primary and intermediate level students. The content and vocabulary may go over the head of primary grades, although higher level student would probably enjoy the challenge of it. If you have a VGA adapter for you iPad, these would be great to share with the class on an LCD projector to review before standardized testing - or any time you need a science break!
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