The power of iPads – making the unseen visible

One of the joys of using iPhones and iPads in the classroom is the ability to make the unseen visible. At the moment the children are learning about the transfer of energy to different forms.

These transfers can be almost impossible to see with the naked eye. While the children might have remember the large splash that occurs when you drop a large weight into a tub of a water, the kids missed how even a 1cm cube can make a large amount of ripples. My classroom assistant used slow motion setting on her iPhone to film the action letting the children see the action.

We then experimented with tuning forks where children could hear the energy transfer but again the ability to slow events down was where the information they observed came into conflict with what actually happened.

The children then had a play by themselves using the soundbeam app to experiment with different sounds.

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The iPad is a device that is making science so much more accessible for the elementary classroom.