Guest post by Ms. Neumeyer, our online student teacher from Canada.(Dean Shareski's class) Today Ms. Neumeyer continues her series of iPad app reviews.
Check out her other reviews!
I don’t know if you have ever heard of Bill Nye- but he was a big part of my learning about and coming to love science. He is an excellent science teacher who really knows how to bring science topics to life for kids through humor and interesting experiments. Here is a picture of this humorous and intelligent guy:
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| Bill Nye The Science Guy |
Disney recently released an app called Bill Nye the Science Guy. When you first open the app a voice over by Bill Nye exclaims, “You’ve arrived at my desk!” and a desk full of objects is shown. Users can choose from objects on the desk, such as a rocket, a robot or a sundial, and the app will bring users into a different lesson. There is a huge variety of options to learn from such as: games designed to teach users about the solar system as you take pictures from a rocket, learning about planet Earth’s geological history while digging up a backyard, and cool optical illusions woven into a storyline about alien invasion.
In
addition to games, there is also a book of do-it-yourself experiments and the six
science experiments require nothing more than everyday household items. Be
sure to check out the bobble head. It has interesting science facts to share.
My favourite
part about this app is the original videos from the Bill Nye the Science Guy show! A quick
tip is that despite the buy button on the right hand side, if a user
just taps the video it starts playing.
This app also displays Bill Nye’s typical humour as you can see when you open Bill Nye’s desk drawer and learn when he started wearing bow ties and even how to tie yourself!
Here is a short video of some screenshots I took while trying out this app:
Had you heard of Bill Nye The Science Guy before?
What part of this app seemed the most interesting to you?
Dear Ms. Neumeyer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for spending your time with us to teach us something new everyday!
Yes, I have heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy before. One of my former friends told me before, but I don't remember when. I haven't played this game before, but by looking at the video, I think the end is the most interesting. What I mean by that is that at the end, it says, "How to tie a bow tie". I don't exactly know what attracts me to that so much, but I'm guessing that it will be very humorous. Do you like the end too?
In the picture above the slideshow, I think that Bill Nye is posing for that picture. Nobody would go like that in front of a camera purposely. It seems like Bill Nye is a guy for me. I like funny jokes along with learning. Don't you agree with me?
Sincerely,
Heather
Hi Heather,
DeleteThank-you for allowing to be a part of your community, it has been a great learning experience!
I'm glad you have heard of Bill Nye before, I find him to be very entertaining and a great teacher. I also really enjoyed the "end" of "How to tie a bow tie", he is almost always wearing a bow tie.
I agree that he is probably posing for that picture- he has such a funny face! I agree that humour make learning more fun and easier.
All the best,
Ms. Neumeyer
Hi Bryce! It's Uncle Irwin again! You're probably wondering why sometimes I call myself "Uncle Uncle Irwin". Well, here's the reason -- Gaga is my sister, and your Mom, Sloane is Gaga and Papa's daughter. So that officially makes your Mom my niece, so that's the reason why your Mom calls me "Uncle Irwin". Since you are your Mom and Dad's son (are you still with me?!), then you are actually my GRAND Nephew, so that's why I sometimes call myself Uncle Uncle Irwin to you and Hunter. Did you follow all that? I know, it's confusing. Ok, so here's something even MORE confusing -- you and Hunter are my GRAND nephew and GRAND niece, but I am your GREAT Uncle! Oy! How confusing is THAT?!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are the BEST Grand Nephew an Uncle Uncle EVER had!!!
I love you, Grand Nephew Bryce!
Uncle Uncle Irwin :-)
Dear Ms. Neumeyer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the app recommendation! I got this app just yesterday and, when I started playing, I noticed that this app does have a lot of educational features.
The first minigame I played was the game where the robot dug holes and looked for treasure in a backyard. Some treasures I found include: petroglyphs, a diamond tipped drill, an old rubber eraser, and some other objects. The second game I played was a illusion challenge. There was one part of the game where you had to figure out if there were really dots blinking on your device. I figured this out by putting my Ipad on a table, leaning down at just the right angle so I could see the Ipad screen, then I looked to see if there were really dots on the screen, and I came to the conclusion that there weren't. There were other challenges in the illusion game, but I want to let you figure out what they were and the other games there are on the homepage (Bill Nye's desk).
I was suprised to see this post because, in class when we were looking at Twitter tweets, I noticed that in the notifications box, there was a alert that said a man named Bill Nye the Science Guy had followed our class. I was wondering why he had followed us since then. Now I know why. He is a scientist that loves to learn following Mrs. Yollis and her learners (students). I am guessing, since this happened during the time when we were trying to decode which bird a feather came from, he was interested in our ideas of birds that the feather could have come from and he decided to follow Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Tweets.
The bow tie section sparked my interest too, like Heather. When you look inside the section, you get to know some interesting facts about Bill Nye and his bow tie. You also get to learn how to tie a bow tie along with some pretty amusing pictures of "Bill Nye" trying to tie a bow tie.
Have you gotten the Bill Nye app yet? If not, I think that you should. If you have gotten the app, what sections have you explored so far? If you have explored all of them, which section was your favorite?
Sincerely,
Keira
Hi Keira,
DeleteI’m glad you decided to check out this app, I found it be educational and fun too! It seems as though you had a good time playing the mini-games. I wasn’t as good as you were when playing the game where the robot dug holes and looked for treasure in a backyard, I only found one petroglyph. Which mini-game was your favourite? I think mine would have to be the optical illusions!
That is very exciting that Bill Nye the Science Guy has followed your class! He is a great person to go to for science questions.
I have got the Bill Nye app, on my Ipad mini. I got to explore all the different parts of the app (which is how I was able to write the review), but didn’t have much time to spend playing on it. I am looking forward to spending more time on it after I finish all of my homework!
All the best,
Ms. Neumeyer
@Ms. Neumeyer,
DeleteMy favorite mini-games were the game where you are in a rocket on a mission to get to Pluto, but you stop at every planet to learn facts about that particular planet. My other favorite is the game where you dig in someone's backyard and look for treasure. Do you have a second favorite mini-game? If so, what is the game?
Although not one of my favorites, I do enjoy the optical illusion game. In the optical illusion challenge, I most enjoy playing the challenge where you have to figure out which way Bill Nye is spinning. It seems to me that that part the game is easy. What is your favorite part of the optical illusion challenge? Why is it your favorite part?
About Bill Nye following our class, I don't know if he is following us anymore. Mrs. Yollis said she saw the notification in the notifications bar too, but she can not find it anymore. Maybe he followed our class just for the period of time that we were doing the feather mystery. Anyways, when I saw that he followed us, I also saw his profile picture. It was the same picture that is in the review that you created for us students. In my opinion, I think that picture is a picture he posed for and he intended for it to be humorous.
Warmly,
Keira
Hi Kiera,
DeleteI was terrible at the mini-game with the rocket- I just don’t seem to have very good aiming shills- but it was still very fun. My second favourite game was also the game where the robot digs up the backyard looking for treasure!
My favourite part of the optical challenge was trying to figure out if Bill Nye’s face was scrambled. I was able to trick a few of my friends when I showed them!
That is too bad about Bill Nye not following you anymore, but I think it was probably just a mistake. That is funny that it is the same picture as I used for the review- I didn’t realize that when I picked it!
All the Best,
Ms. Neumeyer
Ms. Neumeyer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recommendation! I grew up loving Bill Nye the Science Guy, and actually showed my third grade students one of his old episodes on the Solar System a few weeks ago. It was so old it still spoke about Pluto! My students still enjoyed the video even though it was outdated. This is a great app I can share with them!
Thank you,
Ms. Byron
Hi Emily Bryon,
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed my recommendation! You are right- Bill Nye's shows are getting pretty old! But I, like your students, also still enjoy his videos. I haven't found another educational science show which combines humour and knowledge in the same way.
I hope your class enjoys this app as much as I did!
All the best,
Ms. Neumeyer
Dear Ms. Neumeyer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the app Bill Nye the Science Guy. Some of us have heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy. If you enjoy learning activities you should try the app Mr. Peabody and Sherman. You could also try Sushi Monster.
Did you know Saturn has more than 2,000 rings? We studied the Solar System this year, and we can't wait to see what the Bill Nye app will teach us!
Are there any other apps for science that you would suggest? We are studying plants now!
Thank you,
Mrs. Keever's Crew
If you have some free time visit our blog!
http://keeverscrew.edublogs.org/
Hi Mrs. Keever and Crew,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you enjoyed the Bill Nye the Science Guy app. I haven’t tried Mr. Peabody and Sherman or Sushi Monster- but I still new at using apps, so thanks for the suggestions. I will have to check them out soon.
Wow! I didn’t know that Saturn has that many rings it sure is a lot! My favourite fact about the solar system is the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and it is a giant, spinning storm in Jupiter's atmosphere.
This is my first app review about Science so far, but in my internship class they used Leafsnap For iPad to help identify leaves while doing nature walks.
All the best,
Ms. Neumeyer
P.S. I’ll be sure to check out your blog soon as well!