Compiled for the Missouri Bar, Department of Citizenship Education [1]

Within the past year, more teachers have been buying or have been given iPads to expand their teaching options and content.  However, recent polls show that few teachers have been given sufficient in-service and/or resources to begin the process.  In an effort to aid social studies teachers in addressing this problem, the following “starter list” has been compiled in the areas of civics and American government. Each app has been verified, and a special effort has been made to find free or low cost apps that will be useful to both teacher and student.  For ease of use the apps have been divided into two categories, content and productivity.

Common Core Standards (Free):  A great reference for students, parents and teachers to easily read and understand the core standards. Quickly find standards by subject, grade, and subject category (domain/cluster).

Common Core Tracker ($2.99): Common Core Tracker gives you the ability to transform your grade book and track Student Common Core Mastery! You can input and keep track of student scores directly from your iPad or your computer. Integrated Common Core and State Standards let you easily align any assignment.

Outliner For iPad($4.99): Outliner helps you organize and get things together at the library and otherwise.

Political Time Machine (Free): Pick a year and select a president… then watch from a collection of over 2,500 political videos.

The Branches ($0.99): An interactive app for learning about the three branches of government.

Politics Classics HD ($2.99): The best works of Politics and the Art of Ruling. Read the most influential works in the history of mankind, the fundamentals of modern civilization and democracy.

WP Politics (Free): The Washington Post Politics app for iPad provides our award-winning political journalism in an innovative, interactive and visual format.

OyezToday HD (Free): Tracks the current business of the U.S. Supreme Court in the form of abstracts.

PocketJustice ($0.99)): Focuses on the Supreme Court’s constitutional jurisprudence regardless of term.

Constitution and Federalist Papers (Free): Not only does the app include the full text of the Constitution, the product also features an explanation of each and every clause, as well as commentary on each of the amendments.

U.S. Constitution Interactive Guide (Free): An app that is intended for people who are interested in learning and sharing the basis of U.S. law.

The U.S. Constitution Flash Card Trivia (Free): U.S. Constitution Flash Card Trivia is an easy-to-use flash card reference suitable for all ages and backgrounds. This reference contains 150 detailed questions and answers on constitutional history, facts and events.

U.S. Constitution Annotated (Free): An annotated version of The Constitution for the United States of America.

U.S. Historical Documents for iPad ($0.99): A collection of U.S. historical documents assembled for a handheld device – you can search, annotate, bookmark, and even highlight words!

U. S. Government (Free): Primary focus is helping you learn FASTER. Through Confidence-Based Repetition, our intelligent flashcard platform delivers knowledge to you in the most efficient way possible.

Constitutional Law 101 ($4.99): A crash course featuring eight engaging animations that will get you up-to-speed on the laws that govern us under the US Constitution.

Constitutional Reference Suite ($0.99): This electronic reference is a great tool for quick access to the US Constitution and other Founding Works and Documents. Each collection is fully navigable using hypertext links throughout.

Glossary Laws ($0.99): Published by The Missouri Press-Bar Commission.  This app contains legal terms and definitions.

Free Law Dictionary (Free): An easy to use, user-friendly legal dictionary, with a very big database (more than 1,200 terms). No Internet connection is required.

Magna Carta The Definitive Guide ($0.99): This app provides a full historical overview of the Magna Carta, from its origin through to the modern era. The app contains a full Latin and English translation of the original Magna Carta and includes a very large and scrollable image of one of the only remaining exemplars of the 1215 Magna Carta.

American Revolution: History Challenge ($0.99): Die-hard history buffs and those looking to learn more about the American Revolution and the early years of the United States of America will delight in this challenging app.

American Revolution Interactive Timeline Lite (Free): This app offers beautiful imagery, video, and information through an interactive, zoomable timeline showcasing artwork, weapons, clothing, objects, and manuscripts. Image captions and video podcasts provide an overview of key milestones of the American Revolution.

Timeline-US History ($0.99): Timeline – U.S. History shows American history on a timeline with an easy-to-navigate user interface. It provides detailed descriptions of historical events along with high-resolution images.

United States Books (reference): ($0.99): This compilation of books offers the best in U.S. references. The books have varied topics like rivers, lakes, the constitution, taxes, the military, the government and many more items of interest about the United States.

American legacy ($1.99): A collection of documents that encompass essential ideas of American democracy. These seminal works are arranged chronologically beginning with the Mayflower Compact.

Revolution First-hand American History ($0.99): This is volume 3 of the First-hand History of America. This essential app includes 85 primary source accounts from 1745 to 1784.

The Revolution Interactive Guide (Free): The American Revolution comes to life with a fully interactive textbook and study guide designed exclusively for the iPad by a high school senior with a passion for U.S. History. Journey through the formation of our country with interactive flashcards, exportable war maps, audio narrations, review quizzes, interactive biographies, and exportable images.

The Intimate Lives of the founding Fathers ($9.99): Thomas Fleming examines the women at the center of the founding fathers’ lives. Mothers strongly shaped their sons’ view of domestic life, but lovers and wives played more critical roles as friends. Fleming nimbly takes us through early American history, as the founding fathers strove to reconcile the private and the public, often beset by a media just as gossip seeking and inflammatory as ours today, and examines the challenges women faced, which makes it all the more remarkable that these women loomed so large in the lives of their husbands—and, in some cases, their country.

Federalist Era Firsthand America ($0.99): Study Federalist Era of America from first-hand perspective. This is volume 4 of the First-hand History of America. This app includes 32 primary source accounts from pre 1785 to 1801. It is untainted and tells the history as it happened.

American Dreams Speeches and Documents in US History HD ($2.99): Featuring 800 documents, and audio and video recordings include: 90 Supreme Court Decisions, all the US Presidential Inaugural Addresses State of the Union Addresses, the Constitution and dozens of key laws, first-hand accounts and speeches.

Archiving Early America (Free): Discover early America’s historic sites as you tour the 13 original colonies. Each colony offers guideposts to visit the historic places that are part of the American heritage.

Beyond Textbooks 2010: American History Games (Free): This application helps students connect to the Social Studies content that they are about to learn through fun interactive games. The games are designed to get students warmed up and ready to learn.

USA 20^th Century History Games (Free): This app is a good way to learn the chronology of key historical events.

Declaration (Free): Features historical notes and images of the original Declaration of Independence document.

Manifest Destiny (Free): This fun, interactive app filled with voices from the past and present allows the user to move all the figures out of Gast’s painting, learning more about the American West and Manifest Destiny as each figure is dragged back into the painting. Designed to connect yesterday with today, the app also looks at the contemporary West
in a parallel view that allows the player to drag contemporary images into the painting, now updated to present time.

Science Human Conflict ($2.99): Traces the trajectory of violence and war through history, exploring racism, ethnic conflict, the rise of terrorism, and the possible future of armed conflicts.

Colonization First hand America ($0.99): Study the Colonization and Settlement of America from first-hand perspective. This is volume 2 of the First-hand History of America. This essential app includes 63 primary source accounts from 1562 to 1733.

History Line (Free): History Line is a collaborative learning game for the iPad focusing on US History. The game can be played by 1-6 players.

The Flow of History ($0.99):  The Flow of History gives you world history in a series of 243 hyper-linked full-color flowcharts. Now you can explore the connections between various historical events and processes, both across time and between cultures.

Great Speeches in History (Free): 
Includes:

 Martin Luther King, Jr. – I Have a Dream – delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
John F. Kennedy – Inaugural Address – delivered 20 January 1961
Franklin Delano Roosevelt – First Inaugural Address – delivered 4 March 1933
Franklin Delano Roosevelt – Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation – delivered 8 December 1941.

Lincoln Letters lite (Free):  Original documents from the Lincoln presidency.

Lincoln Telegrams (Free): Includes over three hundred digitized telegram memos written by President Abraham Lincoln between March 10, 1864 and April 12, 1865.

Real Time Congress (Free): Puts the U.S. legislative process at your fingertips. Have key updates, schedules, and key policy documents delivered to you the moment they are released by Congress and the White House.

The Congressional Record (Free): Daily insight to the actions and discussion by members of Congress.

Today’s Document (National Archives) (Free): Explore American history with 365 of the most fascinating documents and photos from the collections of the US National Archives. Today’s Document is an interactive gallery that displays a significant historical document or photo for each day of the year. You can learn what happened on your birthday, search for a document by keyword and other options.

Political Time Machine (Free): Pick a year + select a president… then watch from a collection of over 2,500 political videos!

My Congress (Free): Is a portal to detailed information about your elected U.S. Congressional officials. Track their news, video and Twitter feeds. Look up their official Open Congress profile or contact them directly.

U.S. Congress Watch for IOS (Free): Stay in touch with Congress like never before. View the latest and top bills, today’s House and Senate bills, and quickly browse and view your local Representatives and Senators. View a bill’s summary, the person who sponsored the bill, the state of the bill, even every action taken on the bill from introduction to finalization into law.

POLITICO for iPad (Free): POLITICO serves as the one-stop shop for the fastest, most in-depth coverage of the president and Congress.

Civic Quotes (Free): Civic Quotes provides a collection of notable quotations from a variety of U.S. government leaders over the years addressing representative democracy, the impact of government, the democratic process and citizen participation. Read the quotes, view primary source images related to the themes of the quotes.

U.S. Congressional Leaders Flash Cards (Free): Discover who the Senate Minority Leader is, or who is the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee? Learn your Congressional leaders fast.

U.S. Citizenship Test (Free): Test yourself using the same questions that State Department uses to test new immigrates.

Wartime Washington ($1.99): This app shows over 2000 photographs Esther Bubley took for the Office of War Information (OWI) during 1943.

Missouri Revised Statutes ($29.99): All of Missouri Revised Statutes (MO Law) in one app.

American Presidents ($3.99): Information and biography in addition to maps, specific Supreme Court Cases and more content for casual readers, educators and students.

JFK History Maker ($4.99): 250 High Quality Photographs, 200 Full Text, Documents and 25 Videos, complement this original biography of JFK written from the perspective of 50 years.

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography ($1.99): Published after Franklin’s death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography ever written.

The White House (Free): The official White House app brings you the latest from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, including news from the White House blog and press briefing room, photo and video archives, and live streams of events around the country with President Barack Obama and administration officials.

iGov.am (Free): Get news, photos and videos to you directly from the Armenian Government. Stay updated on the Government sessions and view related documents. Send a letter or an application to any state body and use this app to track the process.

Your Rights (Free): If government agents question you, it is important to understand your rights. You should be careful about what you say when approached by law enforcement officials. If you give answers, they can be used against you in a criminal, immigration, or civil case.

OyezToday HD (Free): This free app offers you the latest information and media on the current business of the Supreme Court of the United States. OyezToday provides: easy-to-grasp abstracts for every case granted review, timely and searchable audio of oral arguments + transcripts, and up-to-date summaries of the Court’s most recent decisions including the Court’s full opinions.

US Civics Self Test (Free): US Civics Self Test was designed to help immigrants learn about U.S. civics (history and government) while preparing for the naturalization test.

Civics 101 ($4.99): CIVICS 101: WE THE PEOPLE contains multimedia presentations explaining every part of the U.S. government, including in-depth presentations on the powers and history of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. A distinctive section of multimedia presentations contains all of the basic questions covered in the National Civic Standards.

ISCOTUS Now (Free): ISCOTUS Now provides detailed information on all U.S. Supreme Court cases accepted for review or decided by the Court in the current and immediately preceding Terms.

Step Into Time and Place (Free): Place a picture of yourself, friends, or family in the place and time of history using McGraw-Hill Networks: Step into Time and Place. Learn more about the historic event and place yourself at the scene.

Politics Classics HD ($2.99): 20 of the Best works of Politics and the Art of Ruling, finally here! Read the most influential works in the history of mankind, the fundaments of modern civilization and democracy.

Conflict in Viet Nam ($2.99): An in-depth history of the conflict containing pictures, maps, etc.

The Sixties (Free): The Sixties Free for iPad provides a multimedia journey of the 1960s. The app delivers an experience of the sixties on the iPad that includes music, movies, events, video, vintage editorial cartoons and more.

Political Time Machine (Free): Pick a year and select a presidential candidate… then watch from a collection of over 2,000 political videos!

Cold War 101 ($4.99S): Roots of the Cold War: A pre war timeline that spans the period from 1917 to 1945. 
- Cold War Terms and definitions.
- A short e-book called The Cold War in a Nutshell. Chapters include: The Beginning, Ideology, The Arms Race, Europe, Second Cold War (Part I), Second Cold War (Part II), The Reagan Years, and End of the Cold War.
- 3 podcasts on the Cold War, including Causes of the Cold War (Parts 1 and 2), and the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.

PBS iPad App (free): Watch the most popular and current PBS programs free and with minimal interruption. PBS for iPad features more than 300 videos, including full-length episodes, segments and previews with new content updated daily.

Barnes & Noble (Free): A free E-reader (E-mobi format).

Docs Anywhere ($1.99): This app allows you to check out your documents anywhere. (Excel, MS Word or a PowerPoint presentation)

gFlashPro ($3.99): This flashcard app allows you to explore subjects you already know and find out trivia for things you do not know.

The Flashcard Maker (Free): Create flashcards using your own terms and image.

World Book – This Day in History ( Free): An interactive multimedia calendar that displays historical events for the current day or any selected day, along with related media such as photos, illustrations, music, and speeches.

Pages ($9.99): Apple’s “word document” app for creating documents. Documents may be saved in I Cloud for access anywhere.

History – Maps of the World (Free): Maps of the World, useful for getting geographically familiar with the material you are reading.

History (Free): An interactive guide to thousands of historic locations across the United States brought to you by the HISTORY CHANNEL. The easy-to-use interface, photos, video and dynamic maps bring history to life anywhere in the country.

Ultimate All American Quiz ($2.99): Thousands of questions on everything from U.S. presidents and pop culture to military heroes and ancient civilizations.

Discovery Channel HD (Free): Watch selected full episodes for free and watch thousands of clips from shows like Deadliest Catch, Gold Rush, MythBusters, and more!

Keynote: ($9.99) This is Apple’s version of Power Point.  Numerous templates and graphics are included.  Power Points created with MS Office may be imported into Keynote.

Free Books (Free): This app gives you instant access to many books including classics like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby.

eClicker (Free): This app is useful for getting immediate feedback on various messages you send to students.

Sundry Notes ($2.99): Make notes, plan and get organized in one convenient place. This app also gives you the ability to search Google and Wikipedia.

Netflix ($8.00 p/month for unlimited use): View current and classic movies without commercials.

Bento For iPad ($9.99): Create databases, spread sheets and surf the net at the same time.

iNapkin ($1.99): Like scribbling your random notes on a napkin,.  This app keeps all of your notes in one place and allows you to categorize.

Evernote (Free): This is the ultimate note-taking app. Organize your thoughts on paper or use the audio function.

Dropbox (5Gb. Free): Save you documents, pictures in the “clouds.”

Dictionary (Free):  Need a definition…right now? Dictionary takes care of it for you with just a few taps.

Wikipanion (Free): This app allows you to look up a wealth of information on any topic.

The Guardian Witness (Free): The Guardian newspaper, gives you a perspective of world news from Western Europe.

Newsrack (Free): For news from around the world, check out this app that displays all of your news in one layout.

Offline Pages ($4.99): Save entire web pages and pick up reading right where you left off when you were near a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Audiobooks (Free): Now you can download literature, classic books and listen on your i-Pod or MP3 player.

I Tell a Story ($0.99): This is an app for the development of digital storytelling.

gFlash and Flash Cards (Free): This app allows you to download flash cards assignment, quizzes, tests, store images and audio for reference or incorporation into a lecture.

Fetchnotes (Free):  One of several apps that allow you to make lists, and organize thoughts.

IPlan for iPad ($0.99): This app will help you organize your day, project, etc.

Unstuck (Free): Unstuck will help you identify, analyze and solve problems.

NASA Visual (Free): An accurate source for researching earth and space through articles and pictures from this federal site.

Word Mover (Free): Allows a student to create poetry by choosing from a word bank of terms.

Doceri (Free): Combines screen casting, desktop control, and an interactive whiteboard within one app.

Good Reader ($4.99): With Good Reader on your iPad, you can read virtually anything, anywhere: books, movies, maps, pictures. In addition, you can highlight, copy, paste, attach notes and many more options.

Easy Writer Lite (Free): This user-friendly and simple text editor is an excellent productivity text tool.

Nearpod (Free): The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students’ iPads, iPhones or iPods. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution.

Google Earth (Free): Identify and view specific locations on earth.

iBrainstorm (Free): Create, capture and share your creative ideas with other teachers.

National Geographic World Atlas ($1.99):  Award-winning World Atlas and updated it completely for 2013, with a new look, improved functionality and brand new features.

Encyclopedia Britannica (Free): The complete Encyclopedia Britannica with one app.

CNN (Free): A national news agency with the latest headlines and original stories from around the globe.

iTrivia Politics ($0.99):  A political trivia game that will test your students’ knowledge on the presidents and their campaigns.

History Tools (Free): Lists many of the famous and infamous people who were born or died on each day of the year, major news events that occurred on each day.

MapProjector with Google Maps ($1.99): Present live maps and satellite imagery from ANY iPad to a TV or projector! Map projector lets you save multiple maps with landmarks, and present them on the big screen.

Storyboard Composer ($14.99): It is the world’s first mobile storyboarding application which allows you to acquire photos with your phone or by Artemis Directors Finder for iPhone, then add traditional storyboarding markups such as dolly, track, zoom and pan. You can even add your own stand-ins. The user can set duration for each storyboard panel and then play it back to get real time feedback on pacing and framing. 

Teachers Tech ($1.99): This app helps you find “how-to” videos on all things Web 2.0-related in the classroom.

iTranslate (Free): An award winning translation tool that helps you break down language barriers. With its state of the art technology, you can speak any language in a second.

GoClass (Free): Teachers can create different lectures and add students to the virtual roster to give them access. Students can view different lectures and teachers can check out which lectures are being viewed. Teachers can annotate images while sharing them to get their point across.

BrainPop Featured Movie (Free):  Watch a different animated movie every day, then test your new knowledge with an interactive quiz.

Mobile Slides (Free): Mobile Slides is a presentation tool that goes wherever you do. It provides playback control, Q&A session archiving and quick web publishing functions.

Remind 101 (Free): This is a great and safe way to text parents and students

iBooks Author (Free): This is an app for creating interactive digital books. The app provides numerous templates for ease of use.

Socrative (Free):  An easy a method for achieving immediate student responses to classroom activities.

Stick Pick ($2.99): Pick a student at random just by giving your device a shake or tapping the screen.   Stick Pick suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond during classroom discussions.

Penultimate ($1.99): Penultimate has outstanding pen to paper feel, with the ink flowing smoothly across the page. It incorporates very, very good palm protection. Photos can be imported from either the iPad’s photo album or directly from the camera.

Upstream (Free): Broadcast live and watch live video on your device – anytime, anywhere!Ustream powers live interactive video that enables anyone to watch and interact with a global audience of unlimited size.

Nearpod (Free): This app allows teachers to create interactive presentations and then share them with students. Students then use their Nearpod apps to submit responses that teachers can then assess on their own Nearpod app.

USA TODAY for iPad  (Free): The latest news stories, scores, weather and photos you’ve come to expect from USA TODAY.

NPR for iPad (Free): This NPR magazine provides timely news, arts & life, and music content.

NYT Editors’ Choice (Free): The Editors’ Choice application offers a selection of latest news, opinion and features that are automatically updated to your device.

AP News (Free): AP News keeps you up-to-date with what is happening anywhere, in your hometown and across the globe.

Icivics.org (website):  This site contains numerous innovative educational activities and lessons to engage 21st century citizens.

Idea Sketch (Free): Idea Sketch lets you easily draw a diagram – mind map, concept map, or flow chart – and convert it to a text outline, and vice versa. You can use Idea Sketch for anything, such as brainstorming new ideas, illustrating concepts, making lists and outlines, planning presentations and creating organizational charts.

Dragon Dictation (Free): Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application it allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages.

Showme (Free): Turn your iPad into your personal interactive whiteboard!  ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online.

Biographies of the Founding Fathers – Colonial Hall contains 103 biographical sketches of America’s founding fathers divided into 3 groups: Signers of the Declaration, Signers of the Articles of Confederation and Signers of the U. S. Constitution.

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[1] Source descriptions and pricing accurate as of January 2012.