iPhone Apps for Innovation

Education for Innovation

Dedicated exclusively to understanding how and why students study technology and engineering K-12.

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Seven Great iPhone Apps for Technology & Engineering Teachers and Students

There are lots of apps that have arrived on the scene recently that teachers and students of technology and engineering may be able to use as resources. Below are a few good choices for teachers and/or students that I tested recently on my iPhone 3G running software version 3.1.2. Please note the grade levels are my recommendations, not those of the developers.

myAnthro-Basic Edition
Grade Level: 9-12
Price: Free
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
This is a nice app that shows the basic relationships found with human anthropometrics, which could serve as a basic guide in ergonomic design activities. Users can input a specific height in millimeters or inches and the app returns twelve values such as average shoulder height, arm length, and hip breadth. Or, users can explore averages based on percentiles and sex. A disclaimer in the app warns against using the data for actual design, but this should give students an idea of ratios and relationships and serve as a general guide for high school level design projects.

SketchBook MobileX
Grade Level: 9-12
Price: Free for the Express Version; $2.99 for the Full Version
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
This app developed by AutoDesk is great to capture those on-the-go ideas one may have when working on a project. It is a unique mobile drawing program that works well assuming you can get past the fact that you’re drawing in a tiny area in the first place. Drawings can even be done in up to three layers and in good resolution if exporting. Photos can be imported from and drawings can be exported to the photo library. The full version offers a good number of drawing features and also the ability to save sketches within the program rather than just the ability to export the to the photo library.

Design Data Engineering Materials
Grade Level: 9-12
Price: $0.99
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
This app offers pocket access to a lot of data that may be useful to secondary students for designs. Users can browse through materials by density, elasticity, tensile strength, melting point, and other characteristics. The app also provides some examples for how materials are typically used in technological applications. A high school student may have to sift through lots of data in the provided charts to find some of the simple information they may be looking for. While the organization and accessibility of the information may leave something to be desired, the information it does provide should be useful.

Famous Patents & Inventions
Grade Level: 7-12
Price: $0.99
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
Eighteen famous inventions are referenced in this app such as the telephone, the transistor, the light bulb, and the airplane. Users have access to the information direct from the language and drawings of the original patent files. A “tutorial” provides a written description of what a patent application requires, from the written description to claims, to the drawings required. While only providing information for a relatively small number of inventions, it should give a good idea of what is required and allows the user to see the data directly from the approved applications.

Font Size Calculator
Grade Level: 5-12
Price: Free
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
This app is a simple resource for graphic design and communications activities. Users input a viewing distance in feet or meters and high or low light conditions and the app provides a minimum font size in points, inches, or centimeters. The user can also control a reliability percentage, though the slider is tough to control, and get a return font size for the percentage of the population that will be able to discern the font size from a particular distance. For example, at a viewing distance of twelve feet in high light conditions, a font size of 30 points should be able to be read by 98% of the population.

TED
Grade Level: 9-12
Price: Free
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
Lots of technology and engineering teachers are already fans of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference talks and this app gives you a new and easy way to access them. A simple, YouTube style interface allows you to browse, view, and search. You can also add items to a favorites list for easy access.

Bridge Basher Light
Grade Level: 7-12
Price: Free
Account or Signup Required: No
Description/Review:
With a similar interface to the classic West Point Bridge Designer, users can construct a simple truss bridge using simple straight members. A grid guides the construction, so designs can be input quickly. The test is a bit hokey with a “word train” of letters that ride across until the bridge is destroyed, but it does give an idea of structural integrity of an arrangement of members. Also, be warned that a bridge that fails in the first part of the test returns a message that says, “your bridge really sucks,” which hopefully the developer will choose to adjust in the future.