Educational Apps to Inspire Curiosity

A person highlights notes on papers scattered on a desk. A smartphone displays app icons. Nearby, colorful pens and sticky notes are arranged. A computer monitor and mouse are visible, suggesting a workspace environment.
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

What if the only apps on a child’s phone or iPad were educational AND fun? The natural inclination to create and experiment becomes much higher when children and young adults have access to technological resources that stimulate learning over brain rot activities.

A screenshot from Urban Dictionary for the term Brainrot with a definition about addiction to low-effort content, mentioning cocomelon. Includes a quote and author name. Buttons show 486 likes and 22 dislikes. A banner advertises a Brainrot mug.
Screenshot by Hanne from Urban Dictionary

Let’s take a look at some of the apps introduced during our Technology and Innovation class. These are my written thoughts and notes during the class, so language and punctuation may not be as proper:

A List of Apps for School

  • Khan Academy apps: I don’t have a lot of information on this one, but I have used Khan Academy for years on my laptop and rate the math explanations quite highly
  • Google Keep: Can do keyword searches to find words from your notes if you take pictures of the writing to ‘search’ your own notes! Try this and add it to the blog?
  • Socratics App: Uses questions to solve them with AI (“What is Mitosis?”)
  • Arduino Science Journal: Could be used for science classes! Measures tilts, gravity force, changes with distance, magnetic pulls, light magnitude, sound, vibration, etc. 
  • Google Science Journal: Lesson plans and activities for age levels and grades complete with written lesson plans and materials
  • Google Sky Map: Point your phone at the sky and it will show you the star constellations (to be used during a camping field trip?)
  • Coach’s Eye/Hudl Technique: An app to video tape a physical skill in P.E. so you can see your performance in slow motion and pause to find the exact motions that need to be practiced
  • Macro Lens DIY: (not an app, just an activity) I have made this before! Try it out. Could be a fantastic inquiry project for students and have them use this to do a science project with cells!

Two Apps I Keep on My Phone (and use frequently)

  • Desmos: An app to use for graphing. It is so helpful to check your graphing coordinates and a fun app to play around and learn through experimenting!
  • Symbolab: You can scan material with the camera option, or write in the equation, to have the answer and the breakdown of the steps. It has helped me tremendously and I do recommend it to my students to use AFTER trying the question first. Symbolab can be used on phones or on the computer via this website: www.symbolab.com

Arduino Science Journal App Experiment

Above is a screen recording of the three experiments I did on Arduino Science Journal on my phone. I did the experiments from the Acceleration Module which teaches about Motion and Aerodynamics in Science. The app is pretty neat and the editing is laid out similar to WordPress, with options for embedding pictures using a personal gallery or the camera function and adding text in the form of titles, subtitles, paragraphs, or notes. The adjusting of the ‘blocks’ uses the same movement as WordPress with two vertical lines of three dots indicating to press and move the ‘block’ of content up or down in the ‘post.’

My Perspective on Cell Phones in Schools:

Below is the link to the blog post before detailing the Technology and Innovation Presentation where my own and my group’s perspectives can be found.

Cell Phones in Schools

In My Future Classroom…

A person wearing a purple and black striped shirt and black pants is sitting and holding a smartphone with a blue and gray case. Their nails are painted dark, and a blurred background suggests an indoor setting.
Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash

While technology is all around us and not going anywhere, I do recognize the downsides to the constant reliance on technology. For example, text to speech is helpful for students with disabilities, such as blindness, but it can also hinder students who need to work on their reading skills to strengthen them. Additionally, apps that help with math explanations can be a huge asset, and I can personally vouch for that. However, too much dependence does not allow for students to adequately gain the skills and develop their comprehension of the material. I can also speak to that from experience.

In my future grade 6 classroom, I will consider introducing a new academic app every two or three weeks that will include an assignment using the app for the students to become familiar with it’s functions and uses. That being said, save for potentially a ‘Free Friday Phone Block’ class that the students must earn a block to use their phones, I will be implementing ‘phone-free’ classes where the cell phones will remain on silent but may be with the students. I would do this because there are known developmental effects of the over-use of cell phones by children and adults. Most of us are addicted and too much screen time can affect mood, sleep patterns, self-esteem, and lower productivity rates, among many more. Let’s encourage healthy and appropriate phone use for our students.