Zygote Body is best used for individual student practice. Teachers can support their students by printing out the description of tools and instructions in advance. Zygote Body is pretty intuitive, but not all students will be able to figure out how to use it without direct guidance. There is a pop-up window that describes all the tools, but it covers the screen when it's up. It's easier for students to have the list in their hands while they try to figure things out.
Continue readingZygote Body is an interactive 3-D human anatomy tool. You may recognize it as the Google Body Browser that was originally part of Google Labs. Users can intuitively rotate, resize, and annotate parts of the human body. More detailed views are available for the heart, skull, and ear. An Opacity Slider allows students to remove layers and focus on specific portions of an organ.
While Zygote Body Lite is free, the Premium version costs $4 a month. With the Premium option, users can save a particular view that they have set up with pins and annotations. Additional premium tools include quizzes and a slicer that allows users to cut organ images in three-dimensional planes.
Zygote Body provides a powerful opportunity for users to create their own images with labels and notes. Students can also make use of the Zygote scenes that are pre-set with annotated landmarks. By clicking on and off body parts, students can learn about the names and also read Wikipedia descriptions of their functions. The best part about the premium subscription is the quiz tool that lets kids test themselves in a visual way and definitely beats out flashcards. Kids will find the Explode tool both funny and useful since it allows them to break apart the body. As they bring the parts back together, they can also see the interconnection and interdependence of the body systems.
At first glance, Zygote Body appears very similar to other standout tools that teach kids about anatomy, like BioDigital Human. However, Zygote Body's best features are available only in the paid version, while other comparable apps offer the same features for free. This app also lacks that tool's community component that allows educators to create their own quizzes and share them with their students in other apps. Overall, this is a good tool, but check out other anatomy apps to make sure you find the tool that fits your classroom best.