Rollin' with STEAM

 by Hallie Gardner The app I decided to review is IXL. The IXL app is free to download on The App Store or Google Play, but students will either need a school account to login or families can pay monthly for a package to fit their child's needs with prices ranging from $9.95 per month to $19.95 per month depending on what subjects they plan to work on. The cheapest package gets your access to your choice of math or language arts practice, and the most expensive package gets you access to all four core subjects. After you download the app and login you have your choice of subject area and grade level. IXL is fully aligned with common core state standards, and it is easy to navigate to pick your subject, grade, and standard you want to practice! Once you begin practicing a skill of your choice, the program is very easy. It gives you one question at a time, and if you get it right, it awards you with points, and moves you onto the next question. The more points you receive, the more a...

by David Dobyns The app that I decided to review is called PhotoMath app.  This is a free app that allows students to scan in the problem they are trying to solve, and it will show them the steps needed to solve the problem as well as the answer.  I downloaded the app on my phone.  I found that this app is not difficult to use but it did not work well.  You point your phone at the problem and hit the red button to take a picture of the problem.  It would take the problem and give you answer with access to the steps to solve the problem.  First, the app would only work on text from a book or off the computer. It would not read my handwriting. Second, the app would not read word problems. I tried to scan word problems and I would just get a message asking if I needed help to learn how to scan the problem. It did not help when I looked at the help message. Third the app was difficult to get it to read some problems. The problems could not be very close t...

by Terri Steffes Reviewing the NASA app turned me into my curious, seven-year-old self as I did a deep dive into outer space for over an hour.  I browsed the incredible photographs nearly that entire time, looking at space in a way that I hadn't ever encountered before using the app. This is the official NASA app. New information is added daily and there is more information being added at a rate that one could never keep up with.  It may prove to be too overwhelming for children under the age of twelve, since the organizational structure of the app isn't clear.  Some students may need parent help to find specific information about space. The app is designed for use on phones or tablets.  Photos, on-demand videos, news, podcasts and more are available on the app.  When missions have launched, you can track them and see specific information about the mission, more than what is reported on the news.  NASA has an active Twitter feed which can be accessed throug...