ConnSENSE Review: Hollywood High

Learn About Life Science: K-2 Animals

Learn About Life Science: K-2 Animals
Published 2002 by Sunburst Technology
101 Castelton Street
Pleasantville, NY 10570
service@nysunburst.com
http://www.sunburst.com
Toll Free Tech Support 1- 800 338-3457 ext 2800

System Requirements: Win 95 or higher with sound card and video card or Mac 7.5 or higher.
Cost: 89.95 single copy; Lab Pack (10) $99.95
also available in download version $89.95
Teacher's Guide with Lesson Plans

Reviewer: Connie Ziko, SPLP
CZiko80245@aol.com

Learn About Life Science: Animals was evaluated on an IMAC in a public elementary school during a four week period. Three students with Learning Disabilities (with limited computer skills) and one boy with skills at the upper end of the Autism Spectrum (skilled in computers) tried out this program.

The graphics and visuals equally captivated all four students. All easily typed in their names on the start up screen. The introductory page is a Science Lab covered all the icons and their purpose-however text was not available when the cursor was placed over the icons.

Basically there were five different activities available on the CD centering on animals and their habitats. In the two Matching Game two levels were offered. In addition, a journal writing task was offered to supplement each activity. None of the students wanted to use the Journal portion.

MATCHING GAME: All four students thoroughly enjoyed the matching (concentration) game. The graphics (mosaics) and sounds (bubbles) were enticing. Level II involved matching the mother animal with its baby. These activities could easily be used as a turn taking task. Success was easily achieved with this task.

SONGS AND MOVIES: When the student clicked on the jukebox icon they were required to select one of three songs. Two of the student evaluators elected to play all three songs with the accompanying movies. However, the two older children choose to only listen to one selection, as this activity wasn't interactive. Again, text was not available to the songs although the words are contained within the manual.

PET STORE: This was a cute activity involving pets in a pet store. Students were required to click on an animal and drop him into his prospective habitat. All my student evaluators requested to play this activity over and over again. I would like to see some text (such as the name of the animal) light up and read aloud as each animal was highlighted.

HABITAT BUILDER: By far the most requested activity in the packet. The players selected from four habitats screens. From here they could select various animals from the desert, arctic, jungle, to place in the scenes. Below each scene was a text box. The kids enjoyed typing sentences about the scenes and LOVED the printed version. The printed version automatically included the date and the student's name. The only drawback in this activity is that when the animals were placed in the scenes they were a bit too large and filled much of the scene.

ANIMAL LESSONS: This was another popular activity. The students were able to follow along as the text was highlighted and read aloud. After each short lesson the students were given a question with four possible answers. In total 12 animal lessons were available. The quizzes are also reproducible in the manual.

We gave the Learn About Life Sciences: Animals program a high score ( A-) and would recommend it to others . All of the students voted to try all the other CD's in this series. (The student with autism proclaimed that he finished the program and wanted to go on to the next program.)