Thursday, June 26, 2014 | 2 a.m.
Editor’s note: There are more than 1 million apps available for download from Apple's App Store and a similar number of Android apps available on Google Play. Staff writer Brian Nordli weighs in on one of the applications he deems worthy of being the Sun’s App of the Week.
App: DIY Sun Science
Where you can find it: Apple’s App Store
What is it: With summer here, parents looking for activities to keep their children busy should look no further than their iPhone and the sun.
Using the DIY Sun Science app, children can learn about the sun through hands-on activities, videos and images.
The activities, which are geared toward young children, can be completed with household items. They include measuring the sun’s size using cardboard and a thumbtack, cooking s’mores using a "solar oven" and spotting sunspots.
Meanwhile, in the observatory section, youngsters can study the sun's surface through live NASA satellite images. Children can thumb through the images to see solar flares, sunspots, coronal mass ejections and other activities.
There also are explanations about what occurs on the sun’s surface, as well as a puzzle quiz for children to test their knowledge and learn more about the sun.
As the dog days of summer take hold, DIY Sun Science offers a way to keep children occupied and make the sun a little more bearable.