Touch Physics is an iPad or Android app.  It’s designed to teach students physics through challenges that become increasingly harder the more they solve.  Each challenge requires students to apply the concepts of force and motion to solve.  In order to solve the challenges students draw shapes on the screen to cause actions.  For example the students draw a ball that falls down to push another ball so that it will roll up a ramp and reach the goal.  The challenges are fun and engaging and students gain points the more challenges they complete.

Concerns

Fun interactive game, but there isn’t any instruction that goes along with it.  That would have to be provided by the teacher.  So unless the teacher follows the challenges up with instruction and vocabulary the students may not connect the vocabulary and laws of physics to the challenges.

Sample Uses

This is a great extension to build into your science units.  It could be used as a center during the unit or an elaboration to the lesson that day.  Students could solve the challenge and then draw how they solved it in their science notebooks and explain how they used the concepts they learned in class to solve the challenge.

Do I plan to use it?

Possibly.  I’m not totally sold yet, but I need to play a few more challenges to see if it would really connect well with some of the units we do in the ES.

Commitment and Learning Curve

LOW! – Except that the challenges are actually somewhat hard and I got stumped a few times.

Best for ES MS or HS?  

ES/MS/HS – Any level as the challenges become increasingly difficult.  ES students may only  be able to do the first few challenges.

Cost  

Free! – for the first 10 challenges.

$2.29 –  for the  full version (50 levels)

Website Link:

Find it on the app store or click here to see the website: http://www.gamez4touch.com/TouchPhysics/index_html