By Kim Ducharme on February 10, 2019
Have you ever wondered if there was a better way to learn math and physics than through text books and tests? Meet the Noticing Tools suite of apps — a great use of mobile technology for teaching middle and high school students how to notice and actively understand the world around them through the lens of science. The apps were created by Local Projects in collaboration with the New York Hall of Science.
The apps
Playground Physics: This app allows students to take videos of each other running, jumping, swinging, and skateboarding, etc. Then, by tracing the lines on the screen, you can calculate their speed, force, and energy to discover and analyze physics principles at work.
Choreo Graph: Students play with graphs and geometry to create fun and funny choreography for animated characters.
Fraction Mash: Students can create crazy photo mash-ups by playing with fractions.
Size Wise: Here students can explore ratios and proportions and make objects look wildly bigger and smaller than their actual size.
Volumize: This app lets students to take 2D photos into 3D modeling canvas to explore the relationship between surface area and volume.
Picture dots: An open-ended discovery tool the helps students notice patterns and tell stories by adding dots of color, words, music, and sounds to photos.
A collaborative approach to prototyping
Local Projects invited a community of educators to collect data on how their students were using the app. This helped the design team ensure that the tools were useful for teachers and students. On the website, you can find standards-aligned lesson plans that you can remix and make your own.
This suite of apps truly embrace the affordances and opportunities of mobility, and have a huge potential for engaging learners through serious play by opening up the world to them through a new lens. What a great way to challenge them to investigate and understand complex concepts and principles in science!
Have any of you that are physics teachers heard of these apps, and do they get a thumbs up from you? Have you come across similar resources that similarly embrace the affordances and opportunities of mobility?
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Images source: https://noticing.nysci.org/apps
References
Noticing Tools – Teacher Hub. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2019, from https://noticing.nysci.org
These apps look like an awesome tool for kids to learn connections in Math and Science. A downside of these apps is that they are only for iPad which my limit who is able to use and implement them into their classroom. Something else to note that may cause issues for teachers is that apps can come and go. The Volumize app is no longer available to download which may deter teachers from using these apps. Its great when you find good tools but it really sucks when they are taken away.
I really like how this company worked together with teachers to produce lesson plans to go along with their apps. This is a great way to get teachers invested and allow for teachers to give it a try with a support to help guide them.
September 23 by Robert
When teaching math creating meaningful connections between the concepts being learned and “real life” can be a real challenge. The apps mentioned above would allow students to learn using pictures, actions, and locations of their choice. This would increase buy in and engagement which leads to students to developing a better understanding of the concepts being learned. The fact that these tools are apps also allows students to use them anywhere removing the boundary created by classroom walls. These apps open up and link both physical and digital environments for learning math and physics.