My favorite programs in the list below tend to favor environments and tools that leverage imagination and creativity to design cool new stuff or simulate interesting things.  Others highlight interesting mathematical or physical simulations.  Some are just games with good logic puzzles.  The very best ones are simple enough to be accessible to even elementary school students, but are actually powerful enough to be every-day tools in professional use.  Most of the favorites have played staring roles in any number of the WISE programs we have piloted across a number of schools.  The grade levels ascribed to each program represent the sweet spots in technical maturity where we have seen the best engagement, but there are always exceptions.  Others have been fully tested an received positive ratings from the two Alvelda daughters.

If I’ve missed any of your favorites, please let me know, so I can try them out and ad them to the list!  (I know I still have to add the Arduino and Cricket families, which will come in the next update.  Stay tuned!)

Mac/PC Software:

Lego Mindstorms ($189.00+) (4th-graduate school) (FAVORITE!!!)

  Probably the single best educational toy/software combination ever produced.  You can make ANYTHING with these suckers, from working compressed air engines to mechanical computers, to robots, to, well…anything.  The software is also very powerful, with both tile-based tools for beginners and a wide range of third party compilers and sample code.  The FIRST Lego league is built around these products.  If you only plan to try ONE THING in STEM education, this should be it.  And join the FIRST Lego League as quickly as you can.  It may look daunting at first, but you will be forever grateful.  Suitable for 4th-8th grade. http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/lego_mindstorms_education_nxt_base_set/2095 http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Software/Default.aspx http://www.teamhassenplug.org/NXT/NXTSoftware.html http://www.ni.com/academic/mindstorms/works.htm http://www.firstlegoleague.org/ 

Lego WeDo ($150.00+)(K-3rd grade)

  This is the kiddie version of the Lego Mindstorm sets, but geared for k-3 students.  The projects are simpler, but are still comprised of design, mechanical construction, and computer programming with an even simpler tile-based system that even my kindergarten daughter was able to master within 20 minutes.  This is a really great way to introduce kids to both programming, and principles of design and construction.  I find the workbooks to be very simple and accessible with a one minor quibble: I find them to be very rote, i.e. build this structure and answer questions about it, and maybe make a few minor changes.  This is fine for a first introduction, but I prefer to add mandatory open-ended challenges without design guidance after the kids acquire the basic skills.  Also, be prepared to support some of the kids who have not had any practice with completely visual/pictorial instructions in 3D, who may require some practice and handholding to help them interpret their first build instructions.  Nothing wrong with the latter, but best to be prepared.  http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categories/products/elementary/lego-education-wedo

LightBot 2.0, (free, 1st-12th grade) (favorite)

  A great FLASH game that runs in any PC or Mac browser where you program a robot to get to, and light up tiles in a simple environment.  Easily accessible even for first graders, and yet still challenging for experienced professional programmers at the expert levels.  Fun for the whole family, as it were.  Great collaborative opportunities too, and simple to pick up.   For you hacker types, it includes procedural, sequential, looping, recursive, and conditional programming, and is quite sophisticated, though even a first grader can get going in 5 minutes. And it’s free.  Just go to the web site and start fiddling with the tutorial and hit Play, select the first quite square under “Basic” levels.  Keep going till you max out and then ask your friends or a teacher for help. http://armorgames.com/play/6061/light-bot-20

Scratch:  (free, 2nd-8th grade) (favorite)

This is the great visual software/game/interactive story design tool from the MIT media lab.  It’s a free download and can be installed on Windows, Macs.  Minimal reading is required, with programs written by dragging tiles around, making it accessible to the lower grade levels.  There’s a great community sharing aspect to it, containing thousands of submissions from all over the world.  I’ve found that it requires some structure provided by a teacher at start-up, but kids tend to get up to speed within about 20 minutes.  Appropriate for grades 2-8, though I’ve seen precocious kindergarten kids have a great time with it. http://scratch.mit.edu/

Squeak: (free, 4th-8th grade)

A smalltalk implementation popular with more techie teachers. Also free to download and install , Suitable for 6th through 12th graders. http://squeak.org/

HacketyHack: (free, 6th-8th grade)

A nice free download with a great self-tutorial on how to write code that starts simply and gets pretty sophisticated quickly.  Anyone can write a chat bot in 30 minutes!  This is mostly written syntax, so it’s mostly suitable for middle schoolers and up.  It makes a good transitional system with enough structure and handholding so kids can effectively learn without supervision to move from the tile based environments into full-on coding.  But after a bit some of the limitations will drive interested students to more sophisticated and powerful languages and environments. http://hackety-hack.com/

StarLogo TNG: (free, 4th-12th grade) (favorite)

A very nicely updated version of Logo that includes elements of scratch and visual block design of programs, but with the ability to render 3D environments and sprites. (Also from MIT)  It’s great for designing animated stories and video games, and some of the community projects and demo code are fantastic.  The STEP program at MIT that created this system also runs some very nice teacher training programs in Boston to learn how people are using the technology in schools.   Appropriate for grades 4 through 12. Very powerful tool for teaching computer science, design, and other sciences with simulations and so on.  http://education.mit.edu/projects/starlogo-tng

Stellarium:  (free, K-Professional)

One of the most realistic and flexible virtual planetarium programs.  Includes powerful provision to pre-warp images for projection onto domes. Whatever the grade level, there is something to do with this great software.  Just showing the night sky to urban elementary students is interesting, and more advanced students can build their own planetarium.  (free for Mac, PC, and Linux) http://www.stellarium.org/ http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/small_planetarium/ 

 SolidWorks ($150.00, 6th-Professional) (Favorite!!!)

  This is probably the single best and most powerful piece of mechanical design and analysis software available.  Professional engineers and designers use this software every day to design and simulate and analyze real manufacturable goods from airplanes and cars to bridges and buildings.  Even so, one of the most amazing things about it is that it has become so simple and intuitive to use that even 4th graders can make 3-D models, legos, jewelry, etc…Then, they can have anything they imagine be manufactured using 3-D printers in materials from plastic to stainless steel and even sterling silver!  Fantastic curriculum materials are available on the SolidWorks education site to help kids design, build, and analyze C02 powered race cars, bridges.  Better yet, even if schools can’t afford a $3,000 3-D printer (amazing when you think about the fact that that’s what a paper printer used to cost not too long ago)  3-D prototyping companies are making their services available via the Internet, so you can just email them a design file and get your widget back in a week! Every school should have at least a couple of seats of this fantastic tool. http://www.solidworks.com/sw/education/3d-student-design-software.htm http://www.shapeways.com/

iPad/iPhone apps: 

MathBoard: ($4.99, K-6th grade)

Great for math drills of all sorts for K-8th graders.  Keeps statistics on performance.  Think 21st-century flash cards. Nothing super-fancy or creative, but well done for the purpose.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathboard/id373909837?mt=8

Toontastic: (free,K-3rd grade) (favorite)

  A fantastic cartoon animation toolkit with great instructions on how to design story arcs as well as sophisticated audio and voice-over capabilities.  Perfect for digital story-telling workshop for almost any age. (iPad) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8

Create a Car: ($0.99, K-2nd grade)

A simple graphic app with a bunch of graphical elements to assemble cars and trucks of all sorts.  Not too complicated or deep, but a fun creative exercise that the kids spent more time with than I expected.  Suitable for k-3rd graders. (iPad)http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/create-a-car/id388173036?mt=8

Science360: (free, 4th-8th grade)

This is just a nifty science image/video/news app that assembles great info on the latest scientific advances. Takes a long time to load, but worth the wait. (iPad)http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/science360-for-ipad/id439928181?mt=8

Geom-e-tree ($0.99, 4th-8th grade) and

Geom-e-twee (free, K-3rd grade) 

A Simple  fractal application with two versions, one for K-3 and another for 4-8 that allows simple touch interaction with fractal parameters to generate interesting patterns. I’d like to see more tunable parameters to cover broader ranges of patterns, including Barnsley’s fern leaves and trees, but a nice start for all that. (iPad) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geom-e-tree/id417602842?mt=8

Star Walk: ($4.99, K-Professional)

Probably the best planetarium program for tablets.  Includes the ability to hold the tablet over your head, and move it around to see what’s up! (iPad)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-walk-for-ipad-interactive/id363486802?mt=8

Ions: (free, 3rd-Professional) (favorite)

A great physical simulation of charged particles, electron guns, with kinematics, gravity,  dynamics, and  electrostatics.  Very interesting to play with, and a great playpen for individual challenges like: start with an electron emitter over here with a wide spread, and try and focus us the spray with individual charged elements to hit this target over here. (You just designed an electrostatic lens just like an electron microscope!) Suitable for K-12, depending on the challenge. (iPad) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ions/id414602147?mt=8

The Elements: ($13.99, 3rd-Professional) (favorite)

Probably the single most beautiful and best resource for learning about the elements available.  Includes all the physical data you could possibly want. live video of the elements, and an embedded link to Wolfram Alpha. Anyone interested in Chemistry or Physics should have this app.  Plus it includes and embedded video of Tom Lehrer singing his famous “The Elements”  song. (iPad) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-a-visual-exploration/id364147847?mt=8

Symshuffle ($1.99, K-12)

A simple tile matching game that is great for exploring symmetry and simple spatial transformations and 3D thinking.  Great for k-12. (iPad) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/symmetry-shuffle/id387650111?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Bobo Explores Light ($4.99, k-6 )

A very nice animated interactive graphical novel that introduces a wide range of fundamental concepts in optics and light.  Suitable for 1st through 4th grade. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bobo-explores-light/id463809859?mt=8

Coloruncovered (free, 4th-12 grades)

A great interactive app from the Exploratorium that interactively explores some really nifty visual illusions and phenomena of perception.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-uncovered/id470299591?mt=8

Back in Time ($7.99, 4th-8th)

A nice, modestly-interactive textbook that explores the timeline of the universe form the big bang to the 21st century.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/back-in-time/id450345693?mt=8      

Codify: (free, 6th-12th) (favorite)

  The first complete programming environment completely self-contained within the iPad, wherein one can design and run powerful graphical applications. The language is LUA, which started off as a visual interface design language.  The whole environment has been nicely designed around a touch interface.  Great for 6th-12th graders learning to code real programs and simulations.  Only drawback is that code is confined within this environment.  Hopefully this will be solved  in the next version with the ability to export and share code. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codify/id439571171?mt=8

ForceEffect (free, 8th-professional)

A nice static forces physics simulation and rendering tool for dimensional analysis of forces and moments from the makers of Autocad. Nicely integrated with the ability to analyze real life situations and designs from  imported photos, and a very well done touch interface. 8th grade-professionals. http://itunes.apple.com/ke/app/autodesk-forceeffect/id476321600?mt=8

Wind Tunnel:  $1.99 (K-Professional) (favorite)

Wind Tunnel Pro ($5.99, K-Professional)

HudsonAlpha iCell (free, 4th-12th)

Vernier Video Physics ($2.99, 8th-12th)

This is a great logging tool which uses any video as it’s base data entry.  Perfect for tracking and logging physical phenomena and then analyzing the data in class. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vernier-video-physics/id389784247?mt=8

iCircuit ($9.99, 4th-graduate school) (favorite)

This is a great piece of electronic design/CAD and simulation software that can start at simple battery and lightbulb levels for elementary school students and ramp up through sophisticated analog and digital circuit design for graduate level courses. It tends to top out when designs get complicated, and there is no simple interface to output and manufacture actual circuit boards from the designs.  But for teaching purposes, it’s fantastic. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icircuit/id383359044?mt=8

SparkVue (free, 2nd-12th grade)

This is an add-on application for the Pasco Scientific physical science laboratory probes and sensors.  It offer the perfect combination of high-quality graphics interface without requiring a full-on computer, but is massively better than the cheesy low-cost plastic and LCD numbers that come with many kits.  Perfect for impromptu or planned lab experiments with quality data logging and analytical tools. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sparkvue/id361907181?mt=8

Fractals ($2.99, K-4th)

This is a nice simple fractal image generator.  I see this as a great intro tool for the lower grades, but by the time students hit 4th grade, I’d prefer to see them writing their own code to generate and display fractals.  Codify and Scratch, and StarLogo listed above are perfect for this. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fractals/id300542371?mt=8

Educational iPad/iPhone Games

Osmos ($4.99, K-Professional) (favorite)

TinkerBox (free, 2nd-8th)

Build Rube Goldberg type apparatus to solve physics based challenges. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tinkerbox-hd/id415722219?mt=8

Cut the Rope: Experiments ($1.99, 1st-6th)

NanoPanda ($0.99, 1st-6th)

Another very well done physical logic puzzle based game.  And kids dig the pandas. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nano-panda/id421389529?mt=8

Touch Physics ($2.99) (favorite)

One of the first physical puzzle based games, and the crayon metaphor really works well. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touch-physics-hd/id364870866?mt=8

Touch Physics 2 ($1.00)

Physics Game Box ($0.99)

Some irreverent physics based games, both projectile, and structural destruction.

Trainyard ($0.99, 3rd-Adult)

Where’s my water ($0.99)

A very well done logic puzzle game that teaches some fundamentals of fluid flow and probability, among other things. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wheres-my-water/id449735650?mt=8

World of Goo ($4.99) (favorite)

Dream track nation ($0.99)

Harbor Master ($1.99) (favorite)

A great time and motion planning game where you have to juggle more and more ship path planning, cargo unloading, and hazards with vehicles of all sorts of speeds and capacities…ramps up and up and up until something crashes. Teaches quick thinking, prioritization, management strategies…a real winner.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harbor-master-hd/id363658120?mt=8

Flight Control HD ($4.99)

The airplane version of Harbor Master.  Also great, but it doesn’t have the cargo unloading or out-shiping.  You just need to land more and more planes, set up holding patterns… another great one.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flight-control-hd/id363727129?mt=8

Words with Friends ($1.99)

This one, while not a STEM program, is great for building vocabulary.  Think of it as a network-enabled scrabble on steroids, so there’s always someone willing to play.  But playing against your friends is best.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/words-with-friends/id322852954?mt=8

Doodlefit ($.099)

A nice spacial puzzle piece fitting game that teaches spatial transformations in 2D.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-fit/id392912231?mt=8

Here are some related links to earlier blog posts on the topic of educational software.

Teach Kids to Program.

High School Computer Science: Then and Now.

The Toy That Got Me Started in Computing.