Good practices Apps
Here is a list of great apps that can support you during your classes. All selected apps are available at least in English, so it will be useful for all countries. And as a plus it enhances student’s language skills. All apps can be downloaded via the App Store (iOS/Apple) or Google Play (Android). To see if they are also available for Windows Phone check out the Windows Store.
Food Web
Subject: 
Duration: 20-45 minutes
Description and goal: The Food Webs app lets you play with feeding relationships between unique plants and animals found in Western Australia. The goal is to create a complete food web using sets of organism disks that represent producers, herbivores and carnivores in an ecosystem. You can learn about these species and their roles by flipping the disks to view photos and diet information. When your food web is complete you can also add one of Australia's most destructive introduced species - the cane toad, and see the threat it presents to native animals. Guides and instructions help you to connect the food webs and learn about organisms and their relationships in an ecosystem.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/food-web/id565839214?mt=8
Connection to curriculum: With this game students can acquire a deeper conceptual understanding of the relationships and dynamics within an ecosystem.
Getting started: Download the app on your smartphone or tablet. The app is available for iOS only at the moment. The app is free of charge. The advanced levels are quite difficult. Take some time to carefully read the instructions before playing the game
How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Let your students play the game in the introduction phase of a teaching unit about ecosystems. After that they will be well prepared and motivated to discuss a series of issues such as “What kind of organisms form the first trophic level of a food chain?”, “What is an ecosystem?” and “What passes through a food chain or a food web from producers to herbivores?”
iCell App
Subject:
Duration: 15-35 minutes
Description and goal: The iCell App allows you an insight in 3D-images of the cell. You can study cell structures using a dynamic and realistic virtual model. The app contains examples of three types of cells: animal, plant, and bacteria. For each type of cell you have the option of reading information about the structures of the cell at a Basic-, Intermediate- or Advanced - level. The app is easily navigable and allows you to compare animal, bacterial, and plant cell structures.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/hudsonalpha-icell/id364882015?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.hudsonalpha.icell
Connection to curriculum: Cell Biology
Getting started: Download the app on your smartphone or tablet. The app is free of charge. You can select 3 types of cells: animal, plant and bacteria. When looking at the 3D view of a cell, you can use your finger to tap on parts of the cell to select and zoom in on that particular organelle. Each organelle comes with a name and a short description of its function in the cell. You can also hold down one finger on the screen, and drag to rotate around the cell or the selected organelle 360-degrees to get a better view of it.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Introduce the cell organelles and the corresponding vocabulary through the iCell app.
2. Give students the task to compare an illustrated plant cell with an animal cell (and additionally with a bacterial cell).
3. Students can use the 3D models of a cell to quiz each other.
Map of Life
Subject: 
Duration: Minimum 15 minutes, time consumption depends on the intended purpose.
Description and goal: Map of Life app delivers a simple field-guide for tens of thousands of species worldwide to the palm of your hand and tailored to where you are. With continiously growing coverage and functions it allows you to instantly record species and potentially contribute important data for research and conservation. The app is available in six languages and it’s planning to add more in the near future.
Download here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mol.android or https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/map-of-life/id983715827?ls=1&mt=8
Connection to curriculum: This app allows students to classify animals and plants and to learn more about the different types of plants and animals in the local environment.
Getting started: The app menu offers different options:
- The “What’s around me”-option refers to the geolocation of the user and provides information and photos about species expected in this area.
- The “Search the map” functions allow you to enter a place name or to click on the map and the expected species at the chosen location are shown.
- The “Search for species”-function enables you to search by the common or scientific name.
- The “My records”-function allows you to upload your sightings after opening a free account.
- The information for each species includes a data sheet with a description taken from Wikipedia, a map of geographical distribution and multiple images, in addition to the classification of the IUCN Red List.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Your students can use the app during a field trip or an excursion into the forest to identify and explore the animals and plants around them.
2. Give your students the task to take pictures of a certain number of species. They should note down their observations and try to identify those organisms with the help of the app.
Classify IT
Subject:
Duration: 20-45 minutes.
Description and goal: This app is a kind of science game that challenges students to sort and group living organism based on shared characteristics such as the habit to build a nest or according to their assignment to different taxonomic ranks (e.g.the classMammalia or the orderCarnivores). Students can learn a lot about species classification in a playful manner. App users have to choose a level and then tap all the organisms that fit into a given category. If they receive 100 percent on a level, they earn a creature card, which includes information and fun facts about an organism. Three main levels of difficulty make the game adaptable to many skill levels. Hints about the classification categories help students with low achievement.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/classify-it!/id911484593?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aaas.classifyit&hl=de
Connection to curriculum: You can use this app when you introduce the general concepts of biology to your students. The app fits the curriculum goal of teaching students how living things are classified according to common characteristics and similarities.
Getting started: A brief instruction menu helps to get started. Once you start the app the game begins and you are given a category and several organisms you must classify. For example, the category might be "Living Things That Are Mammals," and you have to tap on all the organisms that are mammals. You can get a hint about the category. You need at least an 80 percent correct answers score to pass the level. If your selected answers are 100 percent correct you earn a fun, fact-filled creature card.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. After the students get familiar with the app and played the game for a while you can discuss with your students why scientific classification is important and how it works. Start by asking the students after which different criteria they sorted the given organisms.
2. Then you can introduce taxonomic classification of life and explain that taxonomists classify animals and other living organism according to the following nested groups, ranging from the general to the particular: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, genus and species.
GoREACT
Subject: 
Duration: 20-40 minutes.
Description and goal:
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goreact/id649585694?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goReact
Connection to curriculum: This app can support the introduction of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Moreover it can be implemented in learning units regarding the chemical bonding (in particular ionic- and covalent bonding).
Getting started: Touch the symbols of any element in the periodic table and the app will inform you about the name of the element, important properties and uses. By touching the app’s menu icon, you can choose a ‘Standard View’ of the Periodic Table or an ‘Atomic View’ that shows the atomic mass of each element. Double-tap elements in the Periodic Table to place them in the app’s Reaction area at the bottom of the page, where the elements can form any of the nearly 300 notated compounds. In most cases, when you place an element in the reaction area, the app will guide you through choices that yield one of these pre-loaded compounds, and then explains how the compound is used with a photo or video. Students can also learn about the organisation of the Periodic Table by selecting ‘Help + Information’ in the menu, then touching the contents icon and selecting the Periodic Table.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. During the learning unit „Periodic System of Elements“ the students use the app in the Working Phase to get familiar with the elements and to understand the principle that the atoms of an element react with each other to form chemical compounds.
2. Students can edit a concrete task of a worksheet with support of the app. For example the task can be to complete the following table: in the first column some common chemical elements are listed and students are prompted to create compounds which contain these elements. In the free columns of the table they can note the elements they added and the resulting compounds. Moreover they record in the table characteristic features and usage of each chemical compound.
iQuake Lite
Subject: 
Duration: 15-45 mintues.
Description and goal: iQuakeLite allows you to monitor earthquakes around the world. iQuakeLite displays the latest earthquakes using heat maps. The graphic representation will show you instantly where, how big and when an event happened. The maps give a nice overview of the anfractuosities and tectonic plates and provide extra information about the depth, strength and location of the earthquake.
Download here: itunes.apple.com/us/app/iquakelite/id364895287?mt=8
Connection to curriculum: This app needs to be embedded in a class about earthquakes.
Getting started: Download the app on your smartphone or tablet. The app is available for iOS only at the moment. The app is free of charge. An Earthquake table lists the most recent events with coloured visual cues for the magnitude. Clicking on a line will send you to the map and display the corresponding quake. An info disclosure displays the USGS information in real time for the corresponding earthquake.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Let your students create “profiles” for the latest earthquakes containing features such as time, location and magnitude. With the app-feature ‘tectonic plate overlay’ they should formulate their assumptions concerning the cause of the earthquake.
NASA’s Earth Now
Subject:
Duration: 15-35 minutes.
Description and goal: “Earth Now” is a free NASA application. It visualises global climate data from Earth Science satellites. The data are regularly updated. Data sets are visually described using "false colour" maps. In the app you can find the following thematic data:
|
- Air temperature - Carbon Dioxide - Carbon Monoxide |
- Gravity Field - Ozone - Sea level |
- Sea Surface Salinity - Visible Earth - Water Vapour |
The data are available for various intervals, for example, air temperature contains measurements for one day and carbon dioxide contains data for one month. The main view shows a 3D model of the Earth. It may be rotated by a single finger stroke, and may also be zoomed in or out by pinching 2 fingers. It also presents the active satellites orbiting the Earth. After clicking on the name of satellites, the short information about it will be displayed. From the menu you can select the vital signs. The following elements are available for each of the parameters:
- The visualisation of its distribution in the global scale;
- Colour-coded legends indicating the relative strength or weakness of environmental conditions;
- A running animation showing its values during a given period of time (various for each of the indicators).
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/earth-now/id494633346?mt=8 or play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.nasa.jpl.earthnow.activity
Connection to curriculum: The app is consistent with learning contents referring to climate, weather and atmosphere.
Getting started:
- Once the app has finished downloading, open it.
- A 3D model of the earth will appear which can be rotated by a single finger stroke.
- Zooming in or out can be realised by pinching 2 fingers.
- Satellites, orbiting Earth are displayed. Via the button “Where are they now” you can observe their current position. After clicking on the name of satellites, brief information about it appears.
- Tap the “vital signs” button (it occurs in the left bottom of the screen) in the menu and you are invited to select a dataset. You can choose between different climate data recorded by satellites, for example: surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and water vapour as well as gravity and sea level variations.
- Choose a parameter, then the data will be displayed as a colour map projected over the 3D Earth model (loading the content will take a few seconds, depending on your Wi-Fi / data signal strength).
- Below the earth-map a colour-coded legend is provided which indicates relative strength or weakness of the respective parameter.
- Via the button “Details” helpful descriptions provide background information on each data set.
- Via the button “Details” animated datasets are accessible showing the selected parameter during a given period of time (various for each of the indicators).
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Combine the app-experience with distinct research tasks for your students. For example students are entrusted with the task to find out about the ozone levels above Antarctica, Canada and Australia or they should identify areas with currently high carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels. Results can be compared and discussed in groups.
2. Figure out in a group discussion the benefits of satellites delivering actual Earth parameters.
Tips and tricks: The updating of the data usually takes a few minutes (depending on the speed of your Internet connection). The data from the app can be rather used for general conclusions because they aren’t detailed.
Skeptical Science
Subject:
Duration: Minimum 25 minutes, time consumption depends on the intended purpose.
Description and goal: Skeptical Science refers to the topic of global warming and is presenting arguments of people who deny that a man-made climate change is occurring. Each argument is followed by a section entitled “The Science Says” which includes a concise, science-based response or objection to the argument. The app presents serious scientific data including diagrams and links. The goal of the app is to promote a better understanding of climate science, and to critically examine arguments that have been made against global warming and see if they have any scientific basis. The app allows you to argue/reason global warming misinformation.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/skeptical-science/id353938484?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shinetech.skepticalscience
Connection to curriculum: With this app students will gain more insight in the central issues of climate change.
Getting started: Download the app and open it. Four sections appear which group anti-global-warming arguments into four categories: It's not happening, It's not us, It's not bad, and It's too hard. When you click on one of the categories, a drop-down menu appears listing all the arguments related to that category. Each argument, referred to as ‘Sceptic Arguments’ in the app, consists of individual statements or arguments that have been made to contradict the consensus that global warming is a real phenomenon that is largely caused by human activities. Clicking on an argument brings up more detailed information, pros and cons, and a discussion of the argument's merits. Across the bottom of the screen are five buttons. The first, labelled “Browse”, gets you back to the Home screen with the four main categories. The second button, “Top 10”, cites and links to the 10 most commonly used arguments. The third, “Reported”, shows you a list of the arguments you've reported. The fourth button, “News”, links to recent stories added to the app, while the last button, “About”, gives information about the app and its developer and the author.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Distribute different “anti-global-warming arguments” listed in the app to your students (they can work in pairs). With the scientific material provided by the app students should deal with this argument and prepare a short presentation where they scientifically argue against this statement.
PDF Maps
Subject:
Duration: Time consumption depends on the intended purpose.
Description and goal:The PDF Maps app is not only a geospatial map reader (which supports PDF, GeoPDF and GeoTIFF formats) but moreover it allows the interaction with such spatially referenced maps. You can record GPS tracks, add placemarks, find places and also view your location. Once a map has been downloaded (a huge offer of free maps is available e.g. at PDF Map Store) to your smartphone or tablet you can access this map even when you are offline.
Download here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Avenza or https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/avenza-pdf-maps/id388424049?mt=8
Connection to curriculum: This app supports the geography curriculum requirement that students should develop skills in map work such as interpreting, recording and communicating spatial informations through the use of geographical maps. Their competencies in using maps through practical activities will be developed.
Getting started: Once you have downloaded and opened the app you are able to view the listed maps. Tap the ‘Import Map’- button (the plus sign within the navigation bar) to add more maps from the web, from Dropbox or from a storage device. By tapping the shoping cart symbol you can download maps from the PDF Maps Store. The store contains transit, tourist and special interest maps from around the world. Many maps are available for free, some you have to purchase. You can easily navigate within a selected map because you have to apply standard gestures: flick to pan, pinch / expand to zoom and double tap to zoom and center.The navigation bar above the selected map offers different options and tools:
1. Tap the GPS button to locate your current position on a geospatial PDF map. Of course this is just possible if you are in the map’s display range.
2. Add placemarks: You can add placemark pins anywhere on the map with the tap of a finger.
3. Edit placemark attributes: You are able to add / edit attributes at any placemark: e.g. adding notes, custom fields, field values and much more.
4. Under the ‘Map Tools’ - button you have access to the following functions:
- Find by Coordinates: display the coordinates of interest on a map in popular formats including Latitude/Longitude (Map default or WGS84), Northing/Easting, and Military Grid Reference System/United States National Grid.
- Find places: search for points of interest on any map by entering an address or a keyword. Places are based on search engine results. Save the found places as placemarks that can be visible or hidden as required.
- Plot Photos: Upload a geotagged photo and the placemark will drop in the corresponding place on the map.
- Record GPS Tracks: Tap ‘Record GPS Tracks’ –button and the ‘Play’ icon on the map to begin recording. Your movements will be recorded when the app is open or when it is minimised to the background. Tap ‘Done’ at any time to stop recording and to automatically save the track to the Tracks folder.
- Measure Distance or Area: Use the ‘Measure Distance’ tool to measure how far you need to travel and the ‘Measure Area’ option to measure the size of an area.
- Open View in Google Maps: Use the ‘Open in Maps’ tool to view the current map extents in the Maps app. Perform more detailed searching by opening placemark locations in the Maps app based on its coordinates.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Your students can use the app during a field trip or city excursion to find and track the route and gather their own data.
2. With this app you can organise the path of an outdoor learning activity by creating a route map containing placemarks with informations or tasks for your students.
Wundermap/Weather underground
Subject:
Duration: 15-40 minutes.
Description and goal: Wundermap Weather Underground is an advanced weather application. It gives current information about temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction, UV index, air quality (ozone, fine dust, and pollen), sunrise and sunset, Moon and data about hay fever. This information is organised under different sections such as weather, health and other sections. The app also gives a forecast for the next 10 days and users can view temperature, rainfall and wind conditions for each hour of the day. The app is designed in clear colours and structures. If you close the app, a small weather sign with the temperature will stay on the front screen (widget function). Information such as UV index and air quality is further described with small texts. In the main menu users can also navigate to sections about hurricanes and tropical cyclones (hurricanes) with on time information (including sea surface temp.), to sections about skiing weather, weather radio and social media. The app is also linked with web-based pages about climate change, historical weather, pictures and videos, maps and radar, news and blogs as well as activities.
Download here: www.wunderground.com/download/index.asp
Connection to curriculum: The app is consistent with learning contents referring to weather, climate and atmosphere.
Getting started: The menu offers a variety of weather layers, for example the current weather conditions received from nearby weather stations, severe weather warnings, animated radar and satellite images, live webcam images, hurricane tracks and more.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Students can monitor weather conditions (e.g. while talking about the weather some students might check the conditions. Or they can reconstruct the weather throughout a day and compare their observations with the data. In summer time UV index and ozone will become more interesting). Combine the weather data presented in the app with your own measurements (see for example this website) and check if the measurements fit.
The Economist World in Figures
Subject:
Duration: Minimum 15 minutes.
Description and goal:
The World in Figures iPhone app puts essential data and unexpected knowledge in your pocket with statistics on more than 190 countries around the world. Based on The Economist’s annual book, it enables you to:
- View and compare world statistics on topics that range from transport to tourism and commodities to cinema.
- Access important socioeconomic data from anywhere.
- Share fun facts on Twitter and Facebook.
More detailed information is only available when you purchase the app. (€5.99 each month). Here you can read more.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/economist-world-in-figures/id497729555?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.economist.wif
Connection to curriculum: This app allows students to gain knowledge of the world’s countries including an assessment of different spatial, cultural and political contexts.
Getting started: Once the app has finished downloading, open it. Once you have registered for a free trial you can chose between 4 main options:
- The option “Fact quest” offers a quiz.
- The option “Ranking topics” allows you to determine e.g. the fastest growing cities, the countries with the highest or lowest economic growth and much more ranking criteria.
- With the option “Country profiles” you get access to a lot of country related data and statistics, covering a wide range of topics e.g. people, economy and trade.
- With the option “Comparison tool” you can build your own country comparison charts.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Students can study different countries, create country profiles and compare countries using certain sets of criteria.
Students can compare the country profiles and draw conclusions.
2. Students can choose a demographic variable (birth rate, per capita GNI, life expectancy etc.) and map the distribution of that indicator in a certain area (e.g. in Europe) of a map using the app as a data source.
3. Once students have become familiar with the app and the characteristic facts describing each country, they should think about the question “Which criteria are suitable to classify countries into Industrial Countries and Developing Countries?”
MalMath
Subject: 
Duration: 30-60 minutes.
Description and goal: MalMath is a an android application which solves math problems by offering step by step descriptions with detailed explanations and a graph view. It is free and works offline. Moreover this application generates random math problems with several categories and difficulty levels. The user can save and share solutions and graphs.
Currently available languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Turkish, Albanian, Croatian and Arabic.
Download here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.malmath.apps.mm
Connection to curriculum: This app can support the learning and understanding of diverse mathematical topics.
Getting started: Type in your mathematical problem in the appropriate field and click “solve”. The application delivers the solution. By clicking the “Show steps” button each step and sub-step of the problem is shown and described in detail. In the right part of each step you see a button showing the letter “I” in a circle. This is the “highlight” icon which highlights the part from the expression which was changed from the previous step to the actual step. The “show steps” button solves a mathematical problem step by step and shows the solving process with an animation. You can plot functions with MalMath, even multiple functions are supported: you can plot two functions in parallel and compare their graphs. MalMath also makes the analysis of the graphs.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Introduce MalMath to your students to offer them a possibility to train and improve their mathematical skills.
2. Introduce the formula for population growth: P = P0ert
With P = final population after time t, P0 = starting population, r = rate of growth, t = time and e = Euler number = 2,71828…
Give your students the task to calculate with MalMath the time point when the world’s population will reach the 8 billion mark: at the beginning of 2016 the world’s population was 7,432,663,275 and the current (2016) growth rate is approximately 1,13 % per year. Start a discussion concerning the main problems of a growing world population. The major problem is not space, but an imbalance in food and fuel, with 5% of the earth’s population consuming 23% of the world’s energy. 13% of the people do not have clean drinking water and 40% do not have adequate sanitation and sewerage treatment.
3. The problem generator function of MalMath provides your students with a lot of exercises to challenge their understanding in a certain mathematical field (problems are generated from various mathematical topics: Aagebra, trigonometry, limits, differentiations and integrals. There are three difficulty levels available). This might be helpful especially before a maths tests.
Sensor Kinetics
Subject:
Duration: 15-50 minutes.
Description and goal: Sensor Kinetics demonstrates the physics of gravity, acceleration, rotation, magnetism and more as these forces are measured by your smartphone sensors, including the gyroscope and accelerometer. The app includes comprehensive help files with easy to understand information and experiments that you can perform with the sensors.It is a great hands-on tool for physics courses on classical mechanics.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/sensor-kinetics/id579040333?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innoventions.sensorkinetics
Connection to curriculum: This app supports the understanding of general physics concepts such as motion and forces, magnetism and gravity by performing simple experiments.
Getting started: Once you have downloaded the app and opened it you come to the main screen. Allll the sensors available on your Android device are listed here. Each chart screen displays the data in real time as it is captured on your device. Sensor Kinetics also measures data from your Android device's scalar sensors, including temperature, air pressure, light and more. The “help function” (question mark symbol in the upper right corner) provides complete descriptions of what each sensor does and also gives advices for conducting experiments with this app. Charts can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. With this app a lot of experiments are possible, for example the movement analysis of a children’s swing. Fix your smartphone to the swing chain and record the swing movement with the accelerometer function. The resulting graph plots centripetal acceleration (Y-axis) against time and allows students to analyse the behaviour of a simple pendulum.
2. With the magnetometer sensor you can detect the orientation of your device relative to the Earth's magnetic north. When experimenting with this sensor, you can see the effect of the device rotation relative to the magnetic north, or you can see which influences the presence of ferromagnetic material has on the value of the local magnetic field of the earth (e.g.: move a magnet near your device).
Tips & Tricks: See more at this website.
Socrative
Subject:
Duration: 15-50 minutes.
Description and goal: Socrative is a free educational application that represents an online response system for students. It is based on the principle that the teachers can post educational exercises. The students give their digital answers and the teacher can monitor the responses of all students. Through the use of real time questioning, instant result aggregation and visualisation the teacher can identify and evaluate the level of performance and understanding within the whole class in a very easy way! Socrative saves your time so the class can further collaborate, discuss, extend and grow as a community of learners. There are two app versions, one teacher app and another one for students. Educators use the Socrative-teacher app version to create a virtual room and prepare quiz questions in various formats, students enter the room via the Socrative-student app.
Download here:
itunes.apple.com/nl/app/socrative-teacher/id477620120?mt=8 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Socrative+Inc.
Connection to curriculum: Versatilely applicable.
Getting started: Watch this video. It shows you how to use Socrative and how to conduct a quiz in your classroom using this tool. Create your teachers account here. Teachers login through their device and select an activity which controls the flow of questions and games. Students simply login with their device and interact real time with the content.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Via the Quick Question function the teacher can ask questions of understanding on the current topic at the end of a lesson to get feedback regarding the learning success of the entire class. Ask a question on a new topic or a natural phenomenon you would like to introduce to your students via the Socrative Quick Question Function. Every student can give an answer in the anonymous virtual mode. Allow your students to see the answers from the whole class and ask them to vote for the answers they like best.
2. In inquiry based science education you can use Socrative for posing research questions and hypotheses on a certain topic. For example introduce a scientific phenomenon by a picture or by an experiment without explaining the topic. Then prompt your students to post the (research) questions which come to their minds in terms of the considered phenomenon. Then the most preferred research questions will be selected by voting. You can apply the same procedure for selecting a research hypothesis within the class.
3. You can use this tool to receive anonymous feedback on your science lesson.
Answer Garden
Subject:
Duration: 15-35 minutes.
Description and goal: Answer Garden is a simple Web 2.0 tool used for getting feedback from a group. It can be used to determine the knowledge level of students on a given topic. No registration is required. After creating an answer garden your students can answer your question by going to the website and logging in with a code that is provided to them. Once a question is typed in, students can submit answers on the website or the Answer Garden can be embedded on a blog or on another website.
Answers are limited to 20 characters so students must be short with their answers. Twenty-five answers are visible per garden, but if students submit the same answer, that word grows bigger.
Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/answergarden/id886601928?mt=8
Connection to curriculum: Versatilely applicable.
Getting started: answergarden.ch/Quickstart-Guide
How to integrate this game into your science lesson:
1. Answer Garden can be used to activate prior knowledge before a lesson and as an "exit card" to determine the level of understanding following a lesson.
2. Students can use this website to work collaboratively, e.g brainstorming. Answer Garden engages students by letting them see each other's answers. It also provides a good visual tool because if the same words are frequently typed in as answers those words in the word cloud become larger. By resting your cursor over an answer the number of respondents is shown. The resulting word cloud can also be exported to different design programmes to make the word cloud look more appealing. For this you can click on ‘Export to and choose either Tagxedo (only works well with Internet Explorer) or Wordle.
Lino
Subject:
Duration: 15-25 minutes.
Description and goal: Lino is a free service that allows you to create an online-pin board on which “sticky notes” can be posted. In addition to basic texts, the sticky notes you place on your canvas can contain videos, images, and file attachments.
Download here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linoit.lino or https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lino-sticky-photo-sharing/id416718906?mt=8
Connection to curriculum: Versatilely applicable.
Getting started: Create your account on Lino. Once you have logged in you can create a new canvas which is comparable to an online-pin board. You can make your canvases and notes public or private. If you choose to make a canvas public other users can add sticky notes to it and read all of the notes on it. How to operate on the canvas:
- Moving the canvas: Hold the left mouse button on an empty canvas area and drag it around.
- Click on a sticky note in the upper right corner.
- Drag and drop it to the place you want it.
- Type in your text.
- Add a sticky to canvas by tapping the “POST”-button in the lower right corner.
- Some additional options are offered: You can have tags, change size or colour of the font, choose an icon, use a due date, change the sticky colour etc.
You have the option to post pictures, PDFs, movies or other documents by selecting the corresponding icon in the upper right corner under the stickies.
How to integrate this game into your science lesson: Use Lino for a digital brainstorming session for example when you introduce a new topic. Encourage your students that they should add everything to the lino-canvas which comes up to their minds concerning the current topic: facts, keywords, images, videos, ideas etc.
Tips & Tricks: When a whole class delivers contributions the jointly created online-pin board can become a little bit unstructured and chaotic. The teacher can help to structure it by rearranging the contributions. Or the teacher can entrust the students with the task to structure the sticky notes by certain criteria.
