Mobile Technologies in Science Education

Eric Demoncheaux, PhD

Challenges

• Overcoming students' overwhelming concern for their image, social status, after school activities, etc.

• Getting students to apply what they have learnt. • Finding a way to get students to apply what they

learn, and to recognize how to apply the lessons.

Preconceptions and Misconceptions

• Science has a kind of built-in curiosity.

• Tackling the misconceptions and preconceptions leads to student self-correction.

• Install in them the desire to learn more.

Teach students to think beyond the text

• "Teaching Science" means getting students to "think".

• Memorization is necessary to learn the fundamentals.

• To really learn science, and to master it, requires the development of critical thinking skills.

Memorisation of facts

• Concentrate on memorizing facts.• Teach students how to use those facts.

You can't look everything up

• You can't put information to good use if you don’t know how.

• Students need to be able to explain things clearly and completely and accurately to others, in speech and on paper.

You can lead a horse to water …

• Create a sense of purpose, of direction and future before you teach.

• You have to have a class of students that have some willingness to learn, some desire to achieve, however slight.

Can technology help?

• Many schools lack adequate facilities for lab work. • Science could be “done” online with the help of

pre-recorded real experiments and interactive data collection.

• Online labs allow to "flip" the science lab.• Online labs may prove to be cheaper than real labs

too.

Mobile Learning

Ipads

• http://www2.hull.ac.uk/ifl/ipadresearchinschools.aspx

Ipads

Ipads

iPads in the classroom• Another perspective:

Online resources

• Lots of online resources for Chemistry - related teaching here: http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry

• The Royal Society of Chemistry has also released a free app for ipads, iphones and android phones called Elements of Nutrition.

Mobile learning

• Amplify, Spongelab, Edmodo and Educade.• Edmodo allows locking of the ipads so that

students can’t misuse them during lessons. • Nearpod allows to make interactive

presentations.

iPads apps for STEM Education

• https://edshelf.com/search This link takes you to the edshelf “tools” where collections can be built based on subject, age of learners, device platform.

• http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/05/50-best-ipad-apps-for-stem-education/

‘Exploriments'

• ‘Exploriments' has a range of apps for your high school classes:

http://www.exploriments.com/index.htm

File sharing

• Notability is an app which may be used for worksheets and submitting work for electronic assessment.

More apps …Biology- Protozoan- Might microbes- colour test- motion pics- google earth-science 360

Chemistry- Lab assisstant-Mahjong chem- chemical-chemical by design- circular motion-Mol.Wt.Finder-formulas lite-Molarity- molecules

- chemistry-Atoms in motion- Elements-Atoms HD-sMole Builder- Lewis Dots-Nova elements-Salts- The elements

Astronomy- GoSkyWatchP-NASA-NASA Viz-Nasa science- Starwalk- Hubble site- Solar walk

- earth viewer- Saturn

Anatomy- 3D brain- Essential Skeleton- 3D cardiovascular system-3D Digestive system

Physics-E fields-Fourier Touch-Angry birds-Projectile-string

Apps for STEM

• CGP has a couple of good apps for revision. One version is free.

• iCell is great for discovery of cell structures. • Virtual dissections are fun as each student can get

involved. • Students can also make up their own word

searches on puzzle-maker.

iPADS and its camera functions

• StoMo, free stop motion.

More apps

• Biology - Gene Screen• Chemistry - Organic 3D, MPSE (Best free Periodic

table app)• Teaching - Explain Everything, Lino

Avoiding the technology is impossible

• iPads in the classroom allow us to move away from the 'sage on the stage' and can enhance the learning for everyone.

• Yet, so many apps are 'nice to haves', but not 'must haves'.

Support the learning of others

• Taking away i-Pads, or giving them to students to use, does not make good learners.

• Good learners are developed by: – an atmosphere that values learning – a curriculum that provides challenges that can be

satisfied by hard work and commitment.