App: Planets
Cost: Free
Download Here
Planets is a free application that allows you to see 5 screens with information about astronomy and the planets, based on your location. The first screen, Sky 2D, displays a compass circle which shows the visible planets. The next screen, Sky 3D, shows a 3d sky view (as if you were looking up at a dome) with constellations. The user can rotate their point of orientation and see the placement of planets. Visibility is the screen I find most helpful. It shows you the times at which the planets are visible from Earth, including the sunrise and sunset. You can press on the individual planets and view several facts about them - from their type, radius, mass, and even a list of their moons. The globe is, as it implies, a rotating globe that the user can change to any of the main planets and move and zoom.
Pros: Planets definitely makes it easy to help the budding astronomer to have some fast facts in their hands to explore the night sky without being an overload of information or having an overly technical presentation. I could see this tool being very useful while using a telescope, learning how to identify constellations, or learn things about the other planets. It would be a neat activity to compare the different planets based on their appearance and facts using this app because the students are able to spin the globes right at their fingertips.
Cons: At times, this app will crash on me. The Sky 2D and 3D sections can be somewhat confusing and difficult to get a hang of. But overall, the cons are very minor for the purpose of this app.
I love being able to rotate the night sky and interactively view the constellations rom different angles. To is probably my favorite aspect of this app, and I could definitely see myself utilizing this future within my classroom. I like how this app is free and I could see myself utilizing it within whole group lessons, as well as allowing students to interact with the app on their own. Students could be allowed to explore the constellations or the earth from a 3D perspective, as they construct an understanding of the strs nd how they are placed in relation to the earth; activities could be developed to allow students to interact with this app while learning about the stars.
ReplyDeleteAfter playing around on this app I found it very interesting! I love the interaction that it has and how you can rotate the planets. I think that it's great because you could use a jigsaw method and have each group learn about a specific planet and then teach it to their group.
ReplyDeleteOne problem I did have with this app was that it crashed on me when I went to the 3D view. I was disappointed because I thought that would be a very cool feature to see. Hopefully an update will occur soon!
The section of the app I found the most interesting was the world and the shadow across its face according to the time of day and season. This would be great in a class where they are learning about different seasons to show the effect and shift in the position between the sun and earth. I would also show students the view of stars especially if they live in a city atmosphere where stars are scarce.
ReplyDeleteThis application is so cool! I really liked the night view, like Gary. This would be great to use in the classroom because it can be updated frequently, unlike a normal science textbook. Oberservations could be made everyday. It would definitley break up the monotony. I also liked the constellation view. Furthermore, the Youtube videos posted were very helpful as well.
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