My colleague, Daryn, pointed me toward this app a few weeks ago, and I finally had the chance to download it and try it out this weekend.
North Star Smart Stars Survey is an iPad app produced by Fablevision. It was designed by Peter Reynolds (author of The Dot, Ish, The North Star, and other books) and Megan McDonald (Judy Moody series illustrator). Based on Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences, the app allows the user to answer a series of questions in order to end up with a beautiful constellation map of that shows his or her strengths based on the relative sizes of each star.
Constellations can be saved to the Photo Gallery, or shared through e-mail. They can be edited at any time. Multiple users can take the survey on one device, and all of the information is saved under each user’s name.
For teachers, this can be a valuable resource, allowing you to differentiate activities based on the interests of your students. There are also whimsical downloadable posters available for each intelligence.
As noted by Paul Reynolds in the comments below, this app is now available as a free download, which makes it a great deal for your classroom!
Thanks for the great review of the North Star SMART STARS Survey app. Good news – thanks to support from the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning & Creativity (ReynoldsTLC) – the app is now free!