Want to give your kids a boost as they enter the classroom this fall?
Thousands of educational apps are available for smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices, covering a wide range of subjects including math, English, and science.
Not only are these downloads fun to tap and flick through — to help keep students engaged in the subject matter — but parents will appreciate the relatively inexpensive investment (if not free altogether).
Available for both iOS and Android (unless otherwise specified), the following is a look at a handful of recommended educational apps for elementary students, and perhaps a couple for middle- and high-school tweens and teens, too.
MATH
* For kids in high-school, the free Desmos Graphing Calculator (iOS and Android) is one of the most comprehensive (and highest rated) math apps you can have installed on your phone or tablet. Consider it a next-generation graphing and scientific calculator that lets students plot graphs (polar, cartesian or parametric); create tables for any equation (from lines and parabolas to derivatives and Fourier); add sliders, adjust values, and animate graphs; play with stats including best-fit lines and parabolas; and more. No Internet access required.
ENGLISH
* Ideal for middle-school students, Mindconnex’s Shakespeare in Bits apps include the original 400 year-old plays – such as Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar (each for $14.99 apiece or $49.99 for all 5) – but they’re all animated, voiced by professional actors and with translations (into modern English), analysis, summaries, biographies and relationships, and study notes. When the plays are running, text is highlighted so you can easily follow along or pause at any time.
SCIENCE
* For middle- and high-school students and now also pre-school students, the recently-updated Khan Academy (free) allows you to learn almost anything by tapping and watching the library of more than 10,000 videos. This smart resource covers a massive number of topics, ranging from science and math to humanities. Each video is about 10 minutes long, including a growing number of them with interactive exercises. The iPad version now offers 150,000 exercises with instant feedback. Khan Academy also recently added 21 mobile apps for children ages 2 and up from early-learning app maker Duck Duck Moose.
LANGUAGE STUDIES, GEOGRAPHY
* To help get kids excited in Geography and History, Google Earth offers a virtual rendering of the entire planet — including the ability to zoom in down to street level using 3D satellite imagery. Use your fingertips to pinch, flick and tap to spin around the globe from outer space, tap through layered data, read informative articles, and explore historic landmarks and natural wonders.
With over 20 years of industry experience, Marc Saltzman is one of the most recognized and trusted technology evangelists in North America. Marc is a freelance columnist for more than 40 publications (including a syndicated column with USA TODAY), a prolific (16-time) author, radio + television personality, public speaker, and host of “Gear Guide” on Cineplex movie screens nationwide.
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