A new app developed by a Halifax-area teacher is bringing math to life in the classroom.

Students can place the camera of their smartphone or tablet over an object inside a math textbook; the app will then produce a 3D image of the object based on text. The app will also read the text to students or provide supplementary information to provide more context. However, it does not provide the answer; students still have to solve the questions themselves.

“Your phone or tablet scans an image that you want so, for example, our images are questions in the textbook. Once the image is scanned the app will place a 3D object on top of that image,” explained John Munro, who developed the app in collaboration with E-Learning Media Inc.

Munro says the app lets students bring schoolwork to life and observe it in a way never before possible.

"Students are able to tackle problems that are typically difficult to visualize, and find the solution using a new perspective,” he said.

The app uses a selection of questions from the Pearson Foundation and Pre-Calculus Mathematics 10 and Mathématiques 10: fondements et pré-calcul textbooks, with the possibility of supporting more questions and different textbooks in the future.

Education Minister Karen Casey officially launched the app Tuesday at Sir Robert Borden Junior High School, where Munro teaches Grade 7 and Grade 9 math and science.

Casey says the Department of Education has invested between $10,000 and $15,000 in the app so far, and she says it’s well worth the price tag.

“They are seeing a mathematics problem in a different light which will assist them in solving that,” said Casey. “We’ve done the field test, we believe that it is an asset to the students to be able to do that, and so we will look forward as to how we lay that out over the course of the upcoming year.”

Right now, there are eight augmented reality questions in Grade 10 math textbooks across Nova Scotia, with the possibility of creating more questions and expanding into other subjects in the future.

The EECD AR app is available on the Google Play Store and App Store.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Alyse Hand