Inspirit

What is Inspirit app?

The first screen you reach after the simple account creation for inspirit tells you what the app is and gives an insight into its quality. You see a blood cell rotating in 3D. It is detailed, clear and visually attractive.  Attached to it are labels of its different features

inspirit is a 3D model-based STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) teaching and learning resource. You see this from the rotating 3D model and associated info. If you wonder whether the quality of the model is indicative of the rest of inspirit’s content: it is!

Learners use inspirit to support their science education. They can go into a topic in more depth than they covered at school, revise past learning, and refine their understanding. Study guides and learning resources support students.

Teachers can incorporate inspirit’s resources into their lessons. It comes with loads of pre-made lesson plans, study guides, interactive simulations, and 3D models that together produce lessons that meet NGSS standards for Chemistry, Biology, and Physics.

The general structure of the resources are:

Lesson Packs: There are many of these pre-made and ready to go, but you can create your own within inspirit. These are essentially bundles of resources that form a lesson.

Simulations: These hands-on 3D activities let kids experiment, explore and see cause and effect in scientific topics. Each simulation has an accompanying study guide and worksheet.

Study guide: These contain learning material in text format embellished and clarified with 3D models and images.

What we love about Inspirit app.

Inspirit feels so full of content, yet it is still growing with many more promised 3D models, interactive activities, and study guides.  The 3D models look impressive, but the study guides are well-written too. There is never the feeling that an aspect of the platform has been compromised in favour of another.

By following the guidance of established science curricula, the app also hits a sensible level of complexity. It will not matter too much if students aren’t following one of the referenced curricula or standards, as while there might be some difference in content, the level will be about right.

There is a palpable feeling of enthusiasm for the subject of science too.  Whether on the learner or teacher parts of the platform, inspirit makes you want to dive in. Its promises of future additions make it an exciting resource to revisit again and again.

What skills does it improve?

inspirit supports learning about biology, chemistry, and physics.

What age is it appropriate for?

The content that inspirit delivers is not aimed at young children, although it could certainly be interesting to them when supported by a teacher.  The terms of use for inspirit state that it is for kids age 13 and over, so teachers and parents should only direct kids over this age to use it independently

Is Inspirit app easy to use?

A risk content-filled apps run is that it becomes difficult to find relevant resources, but inspirit has avoided this.  It is easy for users to find content by topic and type.  When teachers want kids to access a specific activity or guide, it is straightforward  to provide a link.

The interactive activities are designed to be intuitive and self-explanatory but are accompanied by instructions for using them.

How will students benefit?

Inspirit is an incredible resource for kids learning about science.  One of the most challenging things will be for kids to remain on teacher-directed topics as there is so much interest to explore.  During this review, it was all too easy to go off along a point of interest, find a fascinating model to examine, and then explore further in an interactive lab. 

Such engagement is excellent, though.  It will help all kids progress towards good grades, but it might also spark new scientific interests just for learning alone.

How will teachers benefit?

inspirit is a very adaptable platform.  It has something to offer a lesson wherever on the continuum between teacher-led and independent learning it sits. 

Pretty much any teacher whose lessons touch on science could make use of inspirit.  Teachers of younger kids could use the 3D resources to bring the taught part of their lessons alive, and non-science specialists can use the study guides to help them plan their lessons. 

Teachers who deliver lessons at the level for which inspirit is designed get a resource that will become indispensable.  They are certain to use it in their lessons and allocate its resources to kids using the simple link system.

Teachers can also guide the development of inspirit as the developers ask for requests.  This input will help inspirit’s designers to spot areas of high demand and respond to serve them quicker.

How will parents benefit?

Parents used to spending money to help their kids’ education will be amazed to find such a comprehensive and high-quality resource available for free for a topic as demanding and important as science.

Being so readily available will also make it worthwhile for parents who want to support their kids but might have forgotten their science lessons.  inspirt will give them the facts and the appropriate level of detail that their kids need.

What can Inspirit app improve on?

YouTube serves the supporting videos for inspirit.  This can create issues for school network filters, and it means that the videos can be interrupted by ads.  An ad-free video service might not be compatible with inspirit’s free price, but schools would prefer it.

Any content-based app will always have the suggested improvement of more content.  If the existing content is good, as it is with inspirit, inevitably we’ll want more.  The 3D content is especially good and, understandably, its coverage lags behind the non-3D content.  The developers, however, promise that the app will continue to expand.

Inspirit is a web app, but while its interactive resources display and perform perfectly well on mobile devices, the controls in the simulations can be problematic—for example, sometimes the user needs to tap a key, but the on-screen keyboard will not be visible. 

How much does Inspirit app cost?

Incredibly, everything described in this review of inspirit is available right now for free.  We checked with the developers whether this would remain the case, and the answer is yes.  It won’t even display ads.

In future, inspirit will offer features beyond those described here, and they will be premium offerings. 

Is Inspirit app safe to use?

There are no advertisements served by inspirit itself, although watching one of its videos is likely to result in seeing a YouTube video. 

Overall rating of the app.

Some apps sit on the borderline of a five-star Educational App Store rating but inspirit achieves it easily.  It is a fantastic resource for the amount and quality of its content—to have all of this available for free is quite incredible.  We certainly look forward to seeing what its premium features will offer.

If you teach science, and even if you don’t, you’ve absolutely nothing to lose by accessing this fantastic resource.   Sign up now and get planning your science lessons or learn something new for yourself.