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5 New Apps to Spur STEM Learning

A monthly showcase of the latest mobile apps for educators and students. This month's roundup features apps for science, technology, engineering, and math instruction.

  • IL&FS releases 12 new science and math apps, under the name Exploriments. The apps use simulations, interactivity, and a simplified touch-n-move feature to help students learn concepts like electricity, linear motion, and buoyancy and flotation. Free-$3.99; iPad.

  • isygames has released D. Bones for the iPad and iPad 2. The app teaches kids about the human skeletal system via puzzles, quizzes, and supplemental information about every major human bone. Designed with vibrantly illustrated cartoon graphics, the app encourages users to remember bone locations and advance their knowledge of the skeletal system as a whole. Available in both English and Spanish. $1.99; iPad.

  • Brainchild launched Achiever! for iPad at last month's FETC conference in Orlando. Designed for elementary and middle school students, the app has state-specific and Common Core content available for standards-based instruction and assessment for math and language arts. For each standard, students take a pretest to establish their baseline scores. If scores are low, students can watch instructional videos and work through the program's study mode to improve proficiency. Student's work can be synced with online reports for data-driven instruction. Free; iPad.

  • NASA released Sector 33, an educational game designed to challenge students in middle school and above to use basic math and problem-solving skills. Players act as air traffic controllers guiding planes through airspace, adjusting the planes' path and speed to safely reach certain spots in the sky in the fastest time possible while keeping the planes a specific distance from each other. Free; iPhone, iPod touch, iPad.

  • Inside the World of Dinosaurs, M5859 Studios, is a comprehensive and fully interactive digital dinosaur encyclopedia narrated by British actor Stephen Fry. Featuring the A to Z of dinosaurs--from Archeopteryx to Zuniceratops--the app contains a library of 60 fully animated and interactive dinosaurs with 3D objects, sound effects, and animation. $13.99; iPad.

About the Author

Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.

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