THINKIN' Science I

Reviewer: Terri Buganski
Computer resource teacher for the Newington Connecticut Public Schools.
EMail: m.kellog.mid.school@snet.net

THINKIN' Science I from Edmark Corp., 1997
http://www.edmark.com/
Hybrid CD-Rom for PC or Mac
Grade K-2
Evaluated on a Power Mac, April, 1998
School version street price $44.95
School versions include a comprehensive Teacher's Guide with lesson ideas and reproducible activity sheets.
The package comes with a user's manual which includes a description of each activity, learning opportunities, detailed instructions on how to play, adult options that can control how the games are played and activities that can be done "off the computer" to reinforce concepts learned.

Rating: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, Way Cool!

Thinkin' Science I is designed to encourage kids to explore the world. Four objects are transformed into Science Scouts who locate science challenges, explain problems and offer helpful feedback. Bobbie the sock, Buddy the leaf and Einstone the rock search for challenging science scenarios and then send messages back to headquarters. Back at the Science Station, Carrie the paper bag, explains the signals appearing on the Radar Screen and provides a set of tools to help students solve the problems.

There are five learning environments.

Day and Night - provides a model to help students understand the relationships between the Earth, sun and moon. By rotating a model of the Earth kids can see the effect from the ground and space.

Fun Physics - students experiment with ramps, catapults and pendulums to study slope, weight, time and velocity.

What Did You See is a series of challenges to sharpen observation, memory and visual discrimination

Mystery Cave - students gather data about the smell, size, shape, color and texture of a mystery object. This activity can improve students' ability to gather and interpret data, form an hypothesis and make a deduction to solve the problem.

Animal Tracking - kids identify animals by the tracks they leave.

Positive features: Clever tools such as the foot tool which gives a description of a track and an animation tool which shows animals in motion to identify prints made in the snow.

Science Web - this section includes brief reference articles, which help explain science concepts introduced in the program. Students can print text and illustrations, or listen to recorded narration. Provides self-directed learning opportunities by allowing kids to navigate and access the tools within the program. Students can explore a physics playground, conduct experiments with ramps and catapults or rotate a globe to discover what causes day, night and seasons changes.

Grow Slide for selecting level of difficulty.

Together Time activities to do "off the computer."

What Makes it Way Cool?
Adjustment of difficulty levels (Grow Slide or Activity Preferences) - Allows adult to monitor the child's progress or set an activity to focus on a particular science topic. As the child solves challenges the slider automatically advances to more difficult challenges. It is also easy to use, contains motivating characters, and has thought provoking problems. Thinkin' Science is adaptive to students with physical disabilities - Single Switch Input Options. Preferences - set system volume, turn printing on or off, control exiting the program, and modify the user list.

I found it fun to use as did my kindergarten daughter.

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