Despite some misgivings concerning the price, I took the leap and bought an iphone last month. I haven’t been disappointed. As you may or may not know, most of my time is spent with K-5 students at Primavera Montessori School, and I’ve been very impressed with the educational potential of the iphone and by extension, other iOS devices such as the ipod touch and ipad. For a fraction of the price of a computer ($230-500), you get a kid friendly, web enabled device, that you can load up with educational apps and videos. itunesU has some great content for older students, and podcasts such as Radiolab are always fascinating.

Below I’ve described the apps I’ve put on my “education” screen (on left). This is by no means an exhaustive list–just a starting point of what I’ve found so far.

Google Earth

There are lots of great geography apps on the iphone, and Google Earth is a must have, especially because it’s free. It’s not as fleshed out as the full version of Google Earth, but it still provides plenty of data for students to explore our planet.

Solar Walk

Stepping out further into space, we have the first app on the list by Vito Technology, Solar Walk($2.99). It’s a beautifully done 3D solar system model, with a nice ambient soundtrack. You can zoom in and out of planets and read all sorts of data about what you’re seeing. I’ve spent plenty of time flying around the solar system on this one, and I’m sure kids would love it.

Star Walk

Star Walk ($2.99), the other Vito Technology app, is probably my favorite thing for the iphone. It uses the built in gyroscope and GPS technology to create an accurate star-map window into the universe. Just hold it up to the night sky, and discover constellations and information about distant stars.

Wikipedia

This one’s a no brainer. Wikipedia makes a free app that gives you easy access to the website. My students have used it and it works really well.

On this day…

On this day is a neat little calendar app (free!), that gives you a listing of historical events, births, and deaths on particular days in history. It’s a great conversation starter for your morning class meetings.

Wolfram

WolframAlpha now makes a handy mobile version ($1.99) of their mind-blowing computation engine, turning the iphone into a supercomputer. It can be a powerful calculator, it can access historical weather data, it can calculate planetary orbits, it can calculate chemical reactions, etc etc etc. Check it out if you haven’t yet, or read my post on calculating the relative size of the atomic nucleus to the sun.

Elementals

There are lots of periodic tables out there, but the Elementals (free) happens to be my favorite. All of the elements are personified and interactive–the cutest chemistry app out there.

Molecules

Combining elements we get molecules. Molecules is a neat little 3D molecule viewer. Pretty simple but it’s free.

3D Cell

Combining molecules we get cells. 3D Cell (free) is what it sounds like–a 3D cell model you can explore. It’s not terribly pretty, but it’s the best out there and comes with some cool videos.

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs is a free app by the American Museum of Natural History. It presents you with a composite image of a T Rex that you can zoom in on to discover many smaller dinosaur pictures loaded with info. Good for dinosaur loving kids.

3D Brain

3D Brain is another free 3D biology app. Like 3D Cell, not mind-blowing, but pretty neat.

NASA

NASA makes a free mobile app that gives you quick access to their amazing library of space videos and pictures.

Weather Doodle

Weather Doodle($.99) is a cute spin on the traditional weather app. I don’t think it’s the best weather app out there (I use Weather 2), but it’s a nice way to introduce young kids to basic weather concepts and format.

Compass+Calculator

This is the compass and calculator that come with the phone. There are more advanced ones out there, but these is free and fine for kids.

Little Uzu

The last app on the list, Little Uzu ($.99) isn’t explicitly educational, but kids love it, it’s not a video game, and is actually quite soothing (which comes in handy). Imagine it as an interactive screen-saver. It’s even better when you play your own soothing soundtrack with it.