Common Sense Media Review
Colorful graphics give kids a cool peek inside cells.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
HudsonAlpha iCell
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
HUDSONALPHA ICELL is very straightforward. Kids tap to choose animal, bacteria, or plant cell on the main page. Each cell is colorfully designed, but none of the structures is labeled. Therefore, beginners may have a difficult time navigating their way through the cells and remembering what they learned. Once kids tap on a structure, its name pops up and explanatory text appears at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes the screen automatically zooms in on a structure, but kids can zoom in or out and can rotate cells for a 360-degree view using their fingers. At any point after selecting a cell type, kids can choose from three text options: basic, intermediate, or advanced. Basic text typically gives one or two short sentence descriptions of structures, intermediate gives longer descriptions with additional vocabulary, and advanced gives very detailed descriptions with challenging vocabulary.
Is It Any Good?
For a free tool, HudsonAlpha iCell is worth a try for kids who're interested in biology and cell structures. Three text levels make it adaptive for a wide range of learners, and kids will enjoy the colorful, interactive illustrations. There is plenty to learn about each type of cell, but, without challenges or activities to test their knowledge, kids might lose interest rather quickly. So long as kids aren’t looking for countless hours of engagement, the app is a decent tool for teaching kids about cells.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
After exploring all three cell types, ask kids to create a graphic organizer listing similarities and differences of the cells.
Print out unlabeled diagrams of each cell type and challenge kids to label the structures.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android , Windows app
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : November 18, 2011
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
- Version : 3.2
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 4.3 or later; Android 2.0.1 and up
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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