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Three Sunburst Science Programs |
Sunburst Technology
101 Castleton Street
Pleasantville, NY 10570
service@nysunburst.com
http://www.sunburst.com
System Requirements: Windows 95 with sound
card and video card or Mac 7.5 or higher;
Cost: Each program is priced at $89.95 for a single CD-ROM 0r for Lab Packs
of 10.
Teachers may preview free for 30 days.
Reviewer: Elaine Sokolowski
jullaine@aol.com
Rating: A
All three programs were field tested for two months with children ages 8-12 within mainstream and resource room settings. The disabilities of the students included Autism and Learning Disabilities. The students had prior experience with computers and other software programs. The software was used in resource and mainstream situations.
The programs are well suited for many learning styles and all come with a comprehensive teachers manual and classroom activities. There are accessible keys for shortcuts and easy navigation. The programs utilize multimedia activities, are colorful and include speech and music. The basic structure of all three are the same and very intuitive for the students to manipulate through with minimal assistance.
The opening menu is a cartoon Science Lab and offers simple graphics and voice output labeling. When a student places the mouse on a picture it says what area of the "game" this will branch them to. Each program has three songs about the topic, a "book" that has supporting graphics on each page and the text can be read aloud by the computer. So this offers independence to nonreaders and poor readers and is conducive to small group activities. All programs include quizzes, matching, sorting, building, and sequencing activities to support the text in the journal books relating to the topic. The activities are very supportive and offer branching for success and reinforcement.
I enjoyed using these programs and observing the students' immediate success with them. The information is presented in a clear and predictable fashion within each program and from one program to another, which helps with generalization of skills. Having the information predictable allows structure dependent students a good sense of control and success.
For students with modified curriculum these are perfect for teaching the basics. For students accessing regular curriculum this offers a great review of information and empowerment because they have an opportunity to pre-learn the information. I used this for a group of students with varied abilities and it offered a solid common ground that all of them could learn on together. This is potentially a very nice inclusion activity. The children with disabilities were able to learn the program first and then "teach" their peers how to play.
All in all these are very effective and simple programs that can be used in a variety of settings with a variety of students. They are "kid tested" and "kid approved".
The Senses covers the topics of How we See, Parts of the eyes, How we hear, Parts of the Ear, How we taste, How we feel, Animals and Senses.
Physical Science covers What is matter, Solid, Liquid and Gas, Changing shape, Measuring, Measuring Matter, Water Properties, Molecules, What is Mixture, Matter Everywhere.
Astronomy covers The Solar System, The Inner Planets, The Outer Planets, The Sun, The Moon, the Stars, Investigations, Space travel, Galaxies.
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