Finally, the iPads have arrived!

Students at Heritage Middle School jumped with excitement last week when they learned that the long wait for their new tablet computers was over.

The West St. Paul school is issuing an iPad to each of its 680 students, thanks to a federal grant that is transforming Heritage into a magnet school. Students have known the tablet computers were coming, but Heritage staff announced their arrival during a surprise all-school assembly last week.

The kids went straight back to class, where they got their hands on the iPads for the first time, exploring apps and taking photos. They'll use them for lessons in class, and soon they'll also be allowed to start taking them home.

Heritage isn't the only Minnesota school that has bought take-home iPads for students. The Little Falls district plans to issue iPads to students in grades 5-12 in the fall, and high school students in the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop district got them this year.

School leaders embracing iPads say they're being used for everything from online research to games that build reading and math skills.

Teachers at Heritage have been familiarizing themselves with iPads and planning lessons that use them over the past few months.

As a magnet, Heritage will specialize in environmental STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) programming.

SARAH LEMAGIE