Learn As You Go: Apps for Science Education

1. ChemiCal

Published by TWSS Worldwide Software, ChemiCal is a chemistry app that includes a color-coded periodic table and a calculator. The latter will process an entered chemical formula and return the mass of one mole of the chemical. ChemiCal also comes with an extensive element database that provides a plethora of information on elements, including average atomic mass, density, heat of fusion, melting point, boiling point, mass of isotopes and electron configuration.

2. Vernier Video Physics

This science education app takes advantage of the built-in cameras on many portable devices. When you take a video of a moving object, the app sets up a scale that allows you to see the object's trajectory, velocity and position as it varies over time. It allows you to understand physics using things all around you, like a car, basketball or rollercoaster.

3. Video Biology

Released by Thinkwell, Video Biology includes over 300 biology lectures by teacher George Wolfe. Each video is between five and 20 minutes in length. They cover topics such as evolution, cell biology, respiration and photosynthesis.

4. 101-in-1 Physics Solver

For the student in need of help calculating physics problems, this app provides plenty of solvers from a wide range of topics. The 101 solvers cover kinematics and forces, work and energy, simple harmonic motion and more. They range from the very common, such as acceleration, to the more obscure, such as total internal reflection.

5. Painless Earth Science Challenge

If your child is apprehensive about learning earth science, consider the Painless app from Barron's. It includes simple earth science quizzes interspersed with arcade game challenges. This keeps learning fun and exciting.

6. A+ Science Facts!

A+ Science Facts! is a useful app for taking advantage of dead time to learn science. By shaking your phone or iPad, the app displays a new science fact from its library of thousands. Among its diverse facts are ones about 18mph being the fastest speed of a falling raindrop and the Earth's shape being an oblate spheroid, not a perfectly round sphere.

7. 8 Planets

This science app, which is designed for young children, contains four games that teach about the Solar System. For example, one game teaches kids the names of the planets and their order. By playing the games, kids earn rewards, develop motor skills and accumulate report cards that parents can view.

8. Pangaea

For those interested in geology, Pangaea shows students the movement of the continents over the history of the planet, beginning with the titular supercontinent. It features significant events in both time and location. Many events can be explored in depth by clicking an 'info' button.

9. Science Fun To Go

This app is intended to get young kids excited about science. There are a variety of features, including a blog about science news, videos, a fact or fiction game and a series of science-themed jokes. The content includes material by award-winning children's science author Seymour Simon.

10. Biology Quiz

The appropriately-named Biology Quiz app contains what you might expect: a series of quizzes that enable you to test your expertise in a variety of areas of biology. All quizzes are multiple choice. They cover categories of biology including genetics, biochemistry, cells and ecology.