Tech Tuesday: Learn About History With These AR Apps

Technology can help enrich our lives in a myriad of ways, but one of the best is through enhanced educational experiences.

Instead of just reading about history, technology can now help you experience it.

In this week’s Tech Tuesday, we’re showing you three augmented reality apps that make learning about history extra exciting.

If your kid dreams of going to the moon, brings the moon to them.

Brought to you by the Smithsonian Channel, the augmented reality app lets you launch a model of the Saturn V rocket, take a peek inside Apollo 11’s lunar command module, and step through a portal to see Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps, all from the comfort of your living room!

The app also gives you a 360-degree view of NASA artifacts, like Armstrong’s space suit.

The app also includes videos, quizzes and games.

The brings you closer to Lady Liberty than you ever thought you could get.

The app uses augmented reality and immersive storytelling to bring the Statue of Liberty to live.

With the app, you can explore the iconic monument from new perspectives. You can use the “view in AR” feature to check out a bird’s-eye view of the statue.

Under the “How Liberty Was Made” section, you can use the Time Machine feature to see how the Statue of Liberty appeared in her original copper. You can then use the Time-Lapse feature to see how Lady Liberty has changed over the years.

The app also includes an X-ray feature that lets you strip away the exterior and reveal the incredible skeleton.

This app walks you through more than 150 years of the statue’s history.

Let’s face it, women are often left out of our history books. The helps to fill some of those gaps with illustrated biographies of important women in history, like frontierswoman and scout Calamity Jane.

The app pairs with the popular middle school textbook A History of US: Liberty for All? 1820-1860. With the book and app in hand, you can scan any portrait of a man in the book to unlock a related story about a key woman in history.

Don’t have the textbook? No problem! You can also print and scan an image on the Lessons In Herstory website to trigger the AR features.

Lessons in Herstory is working to expand to work with more textbooks.