Common Sense Media Review
Spark big interest in tiny things on this super science app.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
DIY Nano
Parent and Kid Reviews
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
Kids can tap on well-categorized, labeled videos to watch them (each just a few minutes long), or choose from 15 activities or experiments on DIY NANO. The activities and experiments each include a materials list (some items may be more complicated to acquire and messier than others), instructions, and detailed explanations of why they do what they do. Kids can also visit Whatisnano.org from within the app for even more nanotechnology-related information. Through email or AirPrint, users can share a PDF of an activity.
Is It Any Good?
Kids can gain real enthusiasm for all things nano by watching the informative, sometimes funny, videos and doing the activities on DIY Nano. This ingenious, uncluttered, easy-to-use app can help kids understand how tiny things act differently and can be very helpful to humans and nature in ways that are so much easier to understand than one would think of words like "nanotechnology engineering." From videos about nanocoatings and talking about a billionth of a meter to experiments about how gummy shapes are built via chemistry, this app is hugely interesting. The only small critique is that many of the ingredients or tools needed for the experiments aren't typically found in the average home. Still, DIY Nano is simply an excellent app about a complex topic for kids of a wide age span.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Help your kids choose the experiment or activity that looks most interesting to them and then gather the necessary ingredients, objects, and tools.
Reinforce the messages of how tiny things can change our everyday lives by pointing out nanotechnology in everyday items, like cooking, sports, or art materials.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects : Language & Reading : following directions , vocabulary , Math : measurement , Science : engineering , biology , chemistry , gravity , substance properties
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , investigation , part-whole relationships , Creativity : innovation
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : January 28, 2015
- Genre : Education
- Topics : STEM
- Publisher : The Lawrence Hall of Science
- Version : 1.3
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 5.0 or later
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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