Sector 33 Teaches Students About Air Traffic

Sector 33 is a free Android game from NASA. The purpose of the game is to play the role of an air traffic controller. As the air traffic controller you have to maintain spacing between planes as they approach the San Francisco airport. The game starts out slowly with two planes traveling as the same speed and increases in difficulty as you get better an managing the air traffic. At the most difficult level you have to manage five planes moving at different speeds. I gave the game a try this morning and found it engaging. That said, it’s a good thing I’m not a real air traffic controller.

Sector 33 could be a good game for students to play to learn about the relationship between speed and distance of moving objects. Throughout the game students will have to alter the speed of the planes. Students will also see how the angle of the planes’ flight paths affect the timing of approaches to the airport.

Toddler Counting 123 Helps Children Learn to Count

Toddler Counting 123 is a simple app that children can use to practice counting objects on an Android phone or tablet.

Toddler Counting 123 shows children a number of objects on screen and as the child touches each object the narrator counts aloud. The order in which a child touches the objects has no bearing on the counting process. Adults can use the settings menu to choose the type of objects that children will see in the game. The settings menu also has an option for changing the minimum and maximum number of objects on the screen. Toddler Counting 123 can be used in nine languages.

Toddler Counting 123 is available as a free app with ads. You can get the app without ads for $0.99 USD.

Peter Pig’s Money Counter Helps Students Learn About Money

Peter Pig’s Money Counter is a fun free Android app from Visa. The purpose of the app is to help young students learn to recognize U.S. coins, recognize the values of U.S. coins, and add the values of U.S. coins.

There are three levels in Peter Pig’s Money Counter and three games within each level. The first game asks students to sort coins into jars. The second game requires students to count coins and select the matching total value. The third game has students look at two piles of coins and determine which one has the greater value. The difference between the levels is the amount and variety of coins in each game.

Playing Peter Pig’s Money Counter could be a fun way for students to practice identifying and adding coins.

ABCya Launches Its First Android App… And It’s Good!

ABCya.com is a long-time supporter of my other blog, Free Technology for Teachers. ABCya produces educational games for pre-K and elementary school students to play online and on iOS devices. This month they jumped into Android app development with their first offering in the Google Play store.

Math Bingo is an educational game designed for elementary school students to practice completing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems in their heads. In each level students are given a bingo board of answer choices. At the top of the board the problems are shown. Students have to not only select the correct answer they also need to connect five answers to score “Bingo” in the shortest time possible.

Math Bingo can be played without creating a profile. However, players can create anonymous profiles using an alias and a randomly generated avatar. Math Bingo does cost $0.99, but it does not insert any advertising or collect any personal information. I played the game this afternoon. My only complaint is the background music in the non-game screens, but I’m sure that kids won’t mind it one bit. But for the sake of your own ears, make sure your kids have headphones to plug-in when they play.

Play Free Rice on Your Android Tablet or Android Phone

The popular online vocabulary game Free Rice is available for free in Google Play for use on your Android phone and or Android tablet. Free Rice for Android offers 19 subjects to choose from. Free Rice games are drilling activities that ask players to answer multiple choice questions. For each correct answer Free Rice donates ten grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.

If you already have a Free Rice account or if you create a Free Rice account, you can track your progress by signing into your account when you use the Free Rice for Android app.

The Free Rice for Android app could be a good app for students to use to practice vocabulary skills, practice basic mathematics skills, and learn geography. In the past I’ve found students get hooked on the web version of the game and I’m sure the same will be true with the Android version.

H/T to Jen Deyenberg.Â