Teaching Math with the iPhone |
 Written by Kevin Diep |
  (3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)  Loading ... |
Everyone knows, whether they like it or not, that math is the most important subject in school. Even if you don’t think you need it for your career, chances are you’re going to run into situations where knowing math really helps pretty often. As I wrote before, education apps are becoming more common and technology is no stranger to teachers and classrooms these days. So of course there are tons of apps for teaching kids mathematics being developed. Many of these apps are directed at children still in elementary school and feature simple lessons about basic arithmetic. There are also several apps that cover all the bases, from elementary math to calculus and linear algebra. Growing up I was very much into math but everyone else wasn’t, so when I used a few of these apps I thought about how helpful these apps would have been for people who didn’t quite “get” it. Here are a few apps that piqued my interest through their potential for classroom use:
This app is an excellent tool for classroom use. It comes with tons of basic equations from a wide range of fields in mathematics, from high school geometry to college-level linear algebra and calculus. Also included in the app are formulas from other fields like physics and chemistry, as well as a periodic table of elements. Developers have recently included a financial equations section, making this a good resource for economics classes. I think this app would be a great tool in the classroom. It comes with a ton of useful equations, but it leaves the explanations in the hands of the teacher.
Mathemagics – Mental Math Tricks, unlike the previous app, is better suited for students’ use at home. It teaches quick ways to perform not-so-simple arithmetic functions in your head, then tests you so that you can get practice. Although I found some of the formulas to be slightly overcomplicated, it’s a fun way to improve kids’ math skills in that it teaches them alternatives to the standard methods being taught at school and motivates them to practice their math skills. This app breathes new life into something most kids find either boring or difficult.
There are plenty of other apps that I would consider to be useful in the classroom or as a learning tool outside of the classroom…in fact, too many to list. If you search the app store, there are dozens of flashcard apps for kids just starting to learn math. With so many resources available and so many people already with the technology, it’s a wonder that these apps aren’t already being used in classrooms. But as more and more people move into the mobile age, I think we’ll see a lot more apps like these being developed and used by educators.
