Education (Thing #18)

Seriously, Things with so many app options to choose from are terrible for the decisively challenged like me!  So many of the apps appeal to me, so I end up trying a handful.  Here are the Education apps I found that I could see myself keeping on my device for personal/fun reasons.

Advanced English Dictionary & Thesaurus
Simple app for the basic function of dictionary and thesaurus.  Some entries have more in their WordNet than others.

Wordnet options include: Related to, Similar to, Hypernyms, Hyponyms, Holonyms, Domains, Meronyms, A value of, Antonyms, and probably more.  In all honesty, I didn't even know what the definition of some of the WordNet options were, so I used the app to find the definition!  Did you know that a hyponym is a more specific version of another word?  i.e. beagle is a hyponym of dog, tulip is a hyponym of flower.

Within this app, I probably would only use the definition, similar to, and antonyms options.   Otheriwse, I can see myself getting stuck in a vicious cycle down the rabbit hole following the WordNet trail.

B-Rhymes Dictionary
A fun app for finding rhymes of words.  You can search for a word you have in mind or 'roll the dice' and B-Rhymes will generate a random word and its rhymes for you.   As the app itself says, these are not A-Rhymes, but B-Rhymes, or almost rhymes.

Once you have selected a word, B-rhymes generates a list of words for you.  The rhyming words are broken down into their parts, and color coded based on how well they rhyme with your original word. 

Though it's a fun app, I don't know how applicable this would be to my life.  Maybe when you read a word, but don't know how it is pronounced?  Rather than looking up the phonetic spelling?  It probably would be more helpful for kids' lit authors, poets, songwriters, etc.  I'm pretty sure my family would consider it cheating if I pulled out the B-rhymes app when I draw the "Words that rhyme with luck" card playing Outburst...

Fooducate

Holy cow do I LOVE this app.  It is a great place to check the nutritional value of foods you are eating, track what you are eating, and find healthier alternatives.  It would be a great weight loss tool, though its also awesome for someone like me who simply wants to eat a balanced and healthy diet.  (Also a great educational tool for my husband who thinks the blueberries in yoghurt count as a serving of fruit!)

To start, you are asked for basic info about yourself: gender, age, height, weight, activity level, if you want to lose weight or not.

From there, you can scan a UPC code, keyword search, or browse for a food item.  Each product has a rating from A-F.  You can view explanations for the rating, the nutritional values for the product, and healthier alternatives.   You can see the info for my chocolate chip bagel below.

If you choose to eat something you can add it to your Health Tracker.  The main screen of Health Tracker shows a snapshot of your diet for the day, calorie goals, calories consumed, calories burned, and how many you have left.  This is the awesome (not so healthy) food I've eaten on my Saturday on the go.

In addition to food items you've eaten, you can also add exercise, water, notes, and your weight to you your Health Tracker.

The more detailed screen of your Health Tracker shows your daily summary.  This includes info about your food grades/calorie quality, calories, foodpoints, carbs/protein/fat breakdown, and "real foods" breakdown which measures how processed your food was.

If you continue to use Fooducate, you can use Health Tracker to track your progress, among the same measures as above.

I definitely will continue to use Fooducate!  My goal will be to always have an average daily food grade of B or higher.  My poor husband...this is going to drive him nuts!