Cell and Cell Structure App Review
App Info
Price: $2.99
Overview
Cell and Cell Structure is an educational application designed for children in grades 6-8 with the goal to teach them everything they need to know about that small little miracle of biology, the cell.
The app provides the user with three choices of activities on this initial screen: the main educational section where the learning takes place, interactive activities such as a quiz and flash cards, and a collection of videos taken from the main educational
When you first launch the Cell and Cell Structure app you may feel as if you’ve jumped into the old Fantastic Voyage or InnerSpace movies as you find yourself swimming around with red blood cells. Along with this great animation, you’ll also find yourself listening to some “spooky” sounding music perfectly fitting for the experience. The plus here is, you can simply tap a button in the corner of the screen to silence the soundtrack. section.
Navigating the app and entering your desired activity is fairly straight forward although it did crash for me the first time I tapped to enter the main educational section (entitled “All About Cells”), but that only happened once during the time I was testing the app. Also, the app only works with the iPad in landscape orientation which may, or may not, be a bother to you.
Features include:
- Interactive activities such as a word search, flash cards and a quiz
- Well produced videos featuring cell animations
- General learning section featuring 12 chapters
The highlight of this app is the quality of the graphics, not only in the cell animation videos (of which there are currently only four with a promise of more to come), but also in the general learning section graphics and diagrams. When the user is in one of the learning chapters, for example the Cell Theory chapter, there are brightly colored diagrams of plant and animal cells with text providing information on what you’re looking at. The user can then swipe the screen and see close-ups of the various cell parts, like DNA and membranes. It really is quite visually stunning.
The four videos provided within the app range in length from just under two minutes up to four and a half minutes and are narrated with a very clear voice that’s easy to understand. The videos focus on mitosis and the general structure of both plant and animal cells.
Again, the app only functions in landscape orientation and it is only available on the iPad.
There is no doubt that the Cell and Cell Structure app is jammed full of cell learning opportunities and information for the user. The 12 chapters of content consist of topics relating to everything a child in this middle-school age range would need to know about cells.
The topics cover everything from exactly what a cell is to how people can see and study cells. The interactive activities included in the app aid the user in studying the material in a fun way though the use of a word search and flash cards. Finally, an included quiz on the cell content is provided to see how the learning is coming.
It’s the quality of the graphics that provide the most entertainment in the app as they’re really a joy to look at and explore. The more interactive components of the app however are the word search and flash card activities.
The word search in particular is quite well designed and snappy and allows the user to highlight the found word on the screen by sliding their finger along the letters. It’s quite fun if your child (or you!) are a fan of word searching.
The app is priced at $3.99 which is a tad on the high side for this type of app, but the value is still there. Old textbooks and lectures may not match your child’s method of learning and perhaps the interactivity and beauty of the Cell and Cell Structure app is just what your middle-schooler needs to help them tackle their cell studies.
If that’s the case, three dollars is more than worth it and definitely a value. Sure you can find cell information online for free, but this app really puts it together nicely with beautiful graphics.
The app is easy to use for the targeted age group of grade 6-8 students beginning their study of the cell. There are no in app purchases, however there is a link to other apps provided by the app developer, Emantras Inc. With that said, when I tapped on that link, the app was not able to connect me to a webpage with other apps and I just received a page-not-found error.
There are no links to social sharing although there is a direct email link to access support from the app developer.
The app does not provide the option to have the text read to a user who may to be able to read the text on their own.
