Awesome Apps for Science Experiments, Storytelling, Coding and More

Every month, we review some of our favorite educational apps that have been released or updated. You can find all the posts in our series here. Below you'll find a mixture of iOS, Android and Web-based apps.

SCRIBBLE PRESS

Scribble Press is an iPad app that lets you build and illustrate your own e-books. The app offers numerous story templates and drawing tools, guiding you through the story-writing and book layout process. The books that are written with Scribble Press can be shared with others -- either via Facebook or Twitter or email. They can also be posted online on the site's gallery, although books remain private unless shared there. (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

SQUAD

Squad is a collaborative code editor. In other words, it's a tool designed to make it easier to share and work together on programming projects. Squad's tools can be used by both experts and learners, and the company recently launched Squad for Education, a version designed to be used with large groups in a computer lab classroom setting. Squad supports over a dozen programming languages, including HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Python, C, and C++. Web, licensing costs depend on number of students.

MINDSNACKS - LEARN CHINESE (MANDARIN)

The mobile language learning startup Mindsnacks launched its Mandarin iPhone app this month. As with all the Mindsnacks titles, the app offers various games to help learners review and boost their vocabulary knowledge. While the app is initially free, you do need to upgrade in order to unlock all 50 of the levels. Mindsnacks' Spanish language learning app was chosen by Apple as one of the best education apps of 2011 (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

MINI MINUTE

It's hard to pick one app from the new educational game-maker Airy Labs to feature here, particularly as the startup updated all seven of its apps this month. The startups mobile games all feature delightful artwork and game-play, built by a smart team of cognitive neuroscientists. One of its apps, Mini Minute, helps children learn to tell time. It features a Stonehenge-like ring of rocks which the player must defend against invading monsters. (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

EXPLORIMENTS

Long known for its Flash-based educational content, Exploriments launched 3 science education apps for the iPad this month: Weight, Mass and Force of Gravity (iTunes link), Fluids - Archimedes Principle, Buoyancy and Flotation (iTunes link), and Electrostatics - Coulomb's Law (iTunes link). The apps offer simulated experiments with a wide range of variability and interactions. In the case of the Fluids app, for example, users can change the size and density of objects, as well as the density of the fluids. iOS, Free - $2.99)

VAN GOGH'S DREAM

Created by the Van Gogh Institute, the Van Gogh’s Dream iPad app is meant to explore Vincent Van Gogh's artwork and writing in a new and interactive way. The app includes a complete catalog of the artist's 80 Auvers paintings, his last letter to his brother Theo in its original version (as well as in transcription and in translation). The app also includes several testimonials from art historians and other artists. (iTunes link). iOS, $9.99

EDUCREATIONS

Educreations is a new app designed to make it easy to create, narrate, and record whiteboard video tutorials and to share them with others. A Web-base version of the app has been available for some time now, but the native iPad app was released this month -- and it's easier to write on a whiteboard with your finger than it is with a mouse. There are several other interactive whiteboard apps available on the iPad, but Educreations' app offers several features that set it apart from its competitors: lessons can have multiple pages; you can add images to the tutorials — from the iPad camera, from its Photo Library, or from Dropbox; you can move and resize images while you record. The ability to create via a Web browser — any Web browser — and not just via a tablet is a really important thing to consider too when looking to adopt this tool for a classroom. (iTunes link). iOS and Web, Free.

Anything we missed?

Let us know in the comments!