February 1, 2014 (Vol. 34, No. 3)
Rating:
Strong Points: Beautifully designed; innovative organization of content
Weak Points: A bit expensive, given the limited content
Platform:
iPad
Cost:
$4.99
Summary:
The Focus on Plant app is an excellent (albeit a bit expensive) educational app that introduces students to the basics of plant biology. The app is comprised of five major sections, each of which is given its own home screen within the app: plant structure, plant cell anatomy, plant physiology, life cycle of plants, and plant evolution. Each home screen is cleverly designed such that students get the opportunity to really explore that section. Within a given topic’s home screen, app users can tap on various text labels to reveal more information, and they can also select sidebar menus that open to expose more illustrations and text. The illustrations used throughout the app are beautiful, and the app is overall very well organized. The glossary of terms and quiz feature are also nice additions.
