The World Atlas App is a comprehensive educational app for geography. Position maps, flags, and data for more than 240 countries and territories of the world are available. Data from wikipedia is attached to the App. The App is suitable for secondary and higher education students.
The free edition offers political maps with regional units and comprehensive economic and statistical country data for all African countries. For extensive information on all countries in the world and for the complete Quiz function, the full version must be purchased.
See also Maps of the World,which is more suitable for primary and lower secondary students.
Maps of our World App describes itself as a geography quiz. yet, the App is more than a quiz, it is a training tool on topographic features such as countries, capitals, other major cities and rivers.ains etc. In addition it shows information on countries. The maps are highly clickable. The free version is very useful, shows mainly political maps, and is so far free from advertisements. The full package offers fysiological maps as well.
Many Apps that claim to offer World Maps have a strong focus on the USA. The App Maps of our World is a genuine tool for more than just the USA.
It ia a user friendly App which is a great tool for primary and lower-secondary students to train there knowledge on the position of countries and cities in the world and some main features.
For more extensive geographic information see the World Atlas App.
The New York Times App offers quality articles that can be used in class, be it in arts or science classes. The download is free of charge and includes FIVE free articles per month. These can be shared, thus used in class.
The articles are possibly relatively long for students with English as a second language. However, the topics cover a wide spectre, from art, human interest, politics to technology.
Purchase
Basic subscription $1.88 per week for education
(students and teachers)
Free App with 5 free articles per month
DiScoro writes about inquiry-based learning, digital resources, and ways to encourage higher-order thinking. We focus on STEM education and the use of technology.
Puzzles and riddles that are fun. They require language skills, understanding, logical thinking and can be solved individually or in groups. The Brainzilla website offers a number of ‘Zebra’ puzzles and riddles. An easy one to start with is Movies Night and a pretty difficult one to solve is Einstein’s Riddle. Brainzilla puzzles and riddles are suitable for K4-10.
It is advisable to print out the riddles and puzzles, as the solutions can easily be found online. You can help the pupils to organise their thinking by providing a card for every clue and a stack of cards for the values given. Allow pupils to work together, because not all will enjoy the puzzles if they get stuck.
More similar puzzles can be found on Math is Fun under the so called ‘Einstein Puzzles’. The vocabulary used in the clues here is more suitable for K8-12.
Visualisation of so called ‘Einstein’s Riddle’ which can be found on many websites.
The PHET simulation pH Scales enables students to experiment with acidic and basic fluids.
Note that pH scale and acidity are complex concepts for students especially for primary school pupils. A lower pH value means more ‘acidic’ and a higher value means less acidic, or more ‘basic’. Neutral is indicated by the pH value 7.0.
However, the simulation can help the students to familiarize themselves with the concept(s). The simulation can be used in grade 6 or 7. Depending on how much time you wish to spend and how much structure you wish to give, in addition to the simulation, you could encourage the students to experiment and discover the basics about pH values in fluids and its application in every day life.
Suggestions for tasks and experiments:
Check out the different fluids available. Rank the fluids from most basic to most acidic before you start measuring. Write down your estimation.
Measure the pH values for the fluids given and write the results in a table. Which fluids are closest to pH 7.0? What does it mean if the pH value of a fluid is close to 7.0?
Use water to dillute the fluids and try to make a fluid that is closest to 7.0. Write down what you have done to reach your result. Make a screencast of your closest result(s) and print it out.
Can you dillute a basic fluid with water to a pH value below 7.0? Can you dillute an acid fluid with water to a pH value above 7.0? Try to explain the result?
Think beyond the simulation.
How could you make an acidic fluid basic? In other words, how could you for example change the pH value of an acidic fluid from 5.0 to 7.5?
a. Your body functions best if the pH value is neutral. How does your body manage this?
b. With the knowledge about the pH value of your body, how can you support your body to remain healthy?
pH value paper strips
In addition to the simulation students could use pH paper strips to measure the acidity of fluids. It becomes particularly interesting if the fluids you use can be tasted. Students can describe the taste they experience. Use for example coca cola or other fizzy drinks, fruit juice, tea, milk, coffee, water. This real life experiment makes it possible to neutralise an acid/basic fluid using other chemicals, for example by adding bicarbonate (baking soda) to an acidic fluid.
battery hydrometer
Another interesting tool is a battery gravity hydrometer, which actually measures the acidity (pH value) of the battery acid. You could also say that it measures the gravity of the battery fluid. Together with a Volt meter it is used to check if the battery is charged and in good condition If your battery is fully charged the pH value should be near 1.28. If the battery is discharged, the pH value will be near 1.14. The battery hydrometer only measures accurate with pH values around 1.2. So is useless to measure pH values over 2.
DiScoro writes about inquiry-based learning, digital resources, and ways to encourage higher-order thinking. We focus on STEM education and the use of technology.
Video Science produced by by Science House offers a large number of short videos on experiments. The videos focus mainly on chemistry, but some videos are about phenomena from physics or other science areas.
Students can watch the video’s or carry out the experiments themselves., although some experiments require substances or equipment that will not be readily available. For you as a teacher the videos may inspire you to let show students the experiments. Of course it is even more more interesting and instructive if the students carry out experiments themselves in class.
The future for industry and society lies in recycling, and even a step further ahead in cyclic production, and cradle-to-cradle production. Particularly interesting are therefore experiments such as “Green plastic” and “Recycling paper”.
The latest App (version 4.0) is designed for iOS 6. Unfortunately the App does not work on iOS 11. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
DiScoro writes about inquiry-based learning, digital resources, and ways to encourage higher-order thinking. We focus on STEM education and the use of technology.
This time we write about an App that may be useful for learners of English as a second language. The App The Phrasal Verbs Machine (Cambridge University Press) enables non-native speakers to learn and train the use of Phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are two part verbs. They consist of a verb + an article and or preposition. The article/preposition often changes the meaning of the verb. Read more on the Brititsh Council website and on wikipedia.
The latest version supports 17 different languages, which means that the phrase is translated and the explanation is given in that particular language. The App has a strong visual component with a short animation showing the meaning of the phrasal verb. A disadvantage is that more advanced students of the English language will quickly master all the 100 phrasal verbs.
The World Atlas App is a comprehensive educational app for geography. Position maps, flags, and data for more than 240 countries and territories of the world are available. Data from wikipedia is attached to the App. The App is suitable for secondary and higher education students.
DiScoro 