SPECTRUM LESSONS

This issue, Mike Edmunds devotes his attention to Scisoft Educational Software, and offers us his views.

I read recently an article in a software magazine which stated that for the potential of the micro to be fully realised then ways must be found of integrating the machine with the rest of the curriculum. This magazine was well over two years old! Yet what do we find now... whilst the games player is provided with high resolution multi-screen extravaganzas the child in the classroom is still confronted by drill and practice maths programs or a dressed up version of Hangman {if it happens to be an English lesson!). This view is, of course, overly harsh as there are now many more exciting and stimulating programs available which cover many areas. However, in terms of the total programs used within the educational context it is still very much Maths and English as the norm. The demand for more wide-ranging software seems to be as great as ever. A few software houses are, however, making moves in the right direction. One such is Scisoft, and it is their turn under the spotlight this issue.

Just imagine trekking across wild countryside or striving to protect a rare bug from the unimaginable horrors of the Mystery Mansion, and all from the relative safety of your classroom or favourite armchair at home. These are just some of the options available using the wide range of educational programs for pupils, teachers or parents from Scisoft. A comprehensive list of titles is available covering most subject areas and most age groups from infants right through to Sixth Formers studying for examinations.

Each of the programs within the range have been designed for use either at school or at home and as such each comes with an extensive booklet to provide instructions and backup materials or ideas for further study. In the packages for the older age ranges suggested activities are included which will help the pupil make the best use of the program. For the packages intended for pupils studying for examination a considerable amount of information has been included within the booklets and consequently they seem an ideal way of home study or revision yet still provide enough material for use within school.

STAR READER

Star Reader is the first of the programs under review and is intended for children of 6 to 11 years. The program, as the title suggests, is to help your child develop his or her reading skills. This tape is Pack B which takes as its subjects Sea and Pyramids. There are three difficulty levels starting with simple sentence construction and extending to more complex sentences with harder vocabulary. Each ability level has two options, Deletion and Sequencing. Deletion requires the child to predict which word is appropriate to the meaning of a sentence. This is a valuable skill but the child has only one chance to get it correct and it might have been more beneficial to allow several attempts for those not quite so able. The child can call up an associated picture but this is rather slow to form and is of rather limited value. It does, however add interest to a mainly text format. The Sea option a similar use of the pictorial element also invites the pupil to write for themselves and the passages are stimulating enough to provide good starting points for storywork. The Sequencing section gives an opportunity for work on alphabetical order or encyclopedia work. There appear to be one or two slight quirks which spoil an otherwise competent program. For example, clues to incorrect responses are highlighted in dark blue, which also happens to be the same colour as all the rest of the text! The order of words is also vital... the program accepts '...trees and water' but not '...water and trees'. As a reading program it has some good points but to be of real benefit would need quite a lot of work with a Thesaurus and pencil, one of the suggestions made in the accompanying booklet.

Even Scisoft have their Maths programs, here are four differing packages covering both Primary and Secondary ages. The first is Maths Plus which covers Tesselation, Number Machines, Graph work, Number Line and a simple business simulation; Factory. Alhough this is labelled intermediate level it is certainly within the scope of Junior pupils. The accompanying booklet gives good instructions but, in this case, no additional activities. The tesselation section unfortunately only deals with shapes generated by the nine pentominoes but nevertheless is extremely comprehensive and with the colour, rotation and reversal options can be used to produce many complex designs. The remainder of the programs are equally good and make good use of the computer in an interactive fashion. Again no opportunities for second chances and this is perhaps their biggest drawback.

MATHS 1 & 2

Maths 1 claims to be 'exciting and stimulating programs for 9-13 year olds.' Whilst not disagreeing totally I venture to suggest that some of the programs may equally well be achieved with pencil and paper. As home extension however they do provide good value. The program on Fractions however, is very well done and encourages the estimation of differing fractions, with the computer taking a teaching role in the event of a mistake. Other programs on this tape are Symmetry, (using line or rotation this program also has a printer option to give hard copy of the design) Shape (to name given mathematical shapes), Battleships and Factors. This last program requires the necessary factors of a given number. The big concern here is the fact that this section is SLOW!

Maths 2 also has five programs. 'Lemonade' is the type of program that has been around for a while now and the idea is to make your fortune selling lemonade under various conditions. 'Angle' requires the pupil to estimate a drawn angle. The next program 'Glass' is a simplified version of Vu-3D and as such will aid the design of different glass shapes and allow them to be manipulated through different angles. just like Vu the frameworks are of the 'wire' type but are very effective. There is an option to change the resolution of the drawing but unfortunately this contains a BUG which spoils an otherwise excellent program. (Note to Scisoft, change an A$ in line 2150!) 'Percentage' is an effective estimation program encouraging the user with humourous comments such as "That was a pretty wild guess..." . Overall therefore, a fairly good mixture on this tape.

Maths 2(13+) consists of six mathematical programs and a Revision section. This program is intended for examination students who are expected to have thoroughly revised the areas concerned. These areas include all aspects of trig, ratios, sine, cosine and tangents. Pythagoras Theorem, percentage change, proportions and scales. Each of the programs have up to ten problem types and within each program random numbers are generated to give a wide variety. There are no second chances at a problem, indeed you are expected to find why you have made an error. At this level this is no real detriment to the program. Your attempts are given a score to give an indication of your competence in any area. All of the programs supply good examples and, being almost purely mathematical, generalised comments on each are not really relevant. The booklet is helpful and outlines all the necessary rules contained within the programs. The triangle diagram here is slightly suspect however!

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

Moving away from Maths we come to Scisoft's Intermediate level programs, the first of which is German 9-1 3. This, in essence, is almost exactly like 'Star Reader', the main difference being that all the required inputs and sentence work is, of course, written in German! An overlay is provided to give access to the required accented letters and other symbols peculiar to the language. I must admit that my German is decidedly tourist type, but even so I got some right. The Help facility provides an English translation of the required word and will also give a complete translation at the end for checking. The beauty of this program is the interactive aspect, not always immediately available in a crowded classroom. It is claimed that these are not simply vocabulary tests and whilst they actually appear to be JUST that, there is the opportunity to put the program to a much fuller use in terms of translation work etc. 'Alphabetical Order' requires translation before sequencing, and 'Encyclopedia' needs to determine where an English equivalent would be found.

Geography is a less brainteasing program and decidedly more fun! Four programs this time; Treasure Hunt, Around Britain, Spread of Disease in Woodland and Countries. Treasure Hunt contains three games based on map reading, use of compass directions and estimation of distances. Each game is played on a choice of eight maps which use standard Ordinance Survey symbols. This is a thoroughly enjoyable set of games and successfully reinforces the concepts concerned. Around Britain requires careful planning to achieve success, the aim being to travel around in search of hidden letters which spell out the name of a city or town. There are numerous options it is up to the individual to make the best use of available resources, there are also two short sections on place names and the estimation of distances between cities. (This last section should be tackled warily as the distance answers do not conform to any of the maps that I consulted!) Disease is a variation of the old standard 'Life' except that it details the spread of disease with in woodland. 'Countries' is by far the most impressive of the programs in this package and provides a comprehensive database on the major countries of the world. The database contains various details such as capitals, areas, population etc. A wide range of conditions is available as search options, this set of programs is accompanied by an explicit manual which also contains additional activities for the user to try.

The next program is Computer Studies Computer Studies and is intended for pupils in the 13-19 years age range. There are seven programs dealing with flowcharts, an introduction to machine code, logic gates, the application of gates, truth tables, a logic processor and number bases. The programs are of the question and answer type and mainly text although clear diagrams are used where necessary. I was impressed by the straight forward nature of these programs and they should be of real benefit for the target students. These would also be of interest to anyone wishing to go beyond the BASICs in this area! CES for example gives a fairly clear introduction to machine code, and even I could follow with no trouble at all. There is also a revision program and mock exam included... more of which in a minute.

THE APPLIANCE OF ...

Science 1 is a novel type of program but I am afraid it is not up to the standard of the other programs! 'Bug' is intended to be an adventure game for children, the aim being to find a box hidden within Mystery Mansion. This box contains the necessary requirements to keep a rare South American bug alive. Traveling through the mansion you are confronted by various problems which require scientific answers in order to proceed. The framework is fairly standard adventure type but there are too many minor holdups and inconsistencies to let the program flow smoothly. For example, in one room you are required to manufacture oxygen from given substances...however if you make something lethal instead you do not appear to die immediately. A performance report and performance report and the status of the Bug is given at the end. In all fairness, although this program did not appeal to me it nevertheless is a different approach to Science. There are also two database programs on Elements and Organisms which both succeed in their objective without being really anything out of the ordinary. 'Plant' follows the same style as Bug, the aim this time being the pollination of the plant. Again this program did not really succeed for me. The answer here is that if this sounds to be what you want then try it first.

The final two programs I intend to deal with together as they are essentially the same format. Both the Chemistry and Physics packs come complete with a very comprehensive, fully illustrated booklet which is intended to help with the students revision programme. Both programs have problem sections which are supplemented with graphics. Also included are several programs which include multiple choice questions based upon equations and definitions of relevant terms. Physics covers areas such as Mechanics, Electricity, Heat, Pressure, Light and Sound whilst the Chemistry program covers AcIds and Alkalies, Mass/Mole calculations, Gases, Metals, Elements, Ions and Electrolysis problems. A review such as this cannot hope to deal with such widely based programs with any degree of detail, suffice it to say that I would unreservedly recommend these packages as revision aids were it not for the Revision sections!... These, in my opinion spoil the whole package. Whilst the suggestions for programmes of revision are helpful and concise I see no need at all for the attitude that is put across! The concern over failure is surely real enough for any student without having fail certificates flashed onto the screen. The comments for this advice section also strike me as unnecessary, even if they ARE deserved "Stop kidding yourself, you are almost an adult now!", "If this is the first time you have thought about revising then we suggest you try prayer".

In conclusion, the Revision sections aside, I see these packages as being of considerable value, especially as extension packages for use within the home. Each, within the limitations imposed by the nature of the program, makes fair use of colour and sound and the excellent booklets add an extra level to the overall presentation. However, even given such comprehensive packages as these, and bearing in mind that they tread fairly new curriculum areas, I still maintain that there is still a long way to go before the micro realises its full potential within the school timetable.

So come on Software houses, put some of the profits from your Megagames into providing programs of equal quality for the Educational sector!