Reviewer’s name: Christine Hennessey (Elementary Pre-Service Teacher)

Target population: Grade 3

Jumpstart Third Grade uses riddles and games to solve a mystery. The story takes place on Mystery Mountain, the home of an inventor, Professor Sparks. Professor Sparks' daughter, Polly, sneaks into his time machine. Polly aims to change history, making her incorrect answers on her history quiz correct. Botley, a robot that her dad programmed to be her guardian, must find a "transquizzer" to retrieve 25 robots.

Students using this software assist Botley by solving riddles and gathering clues that Polly leaves behind. They play a series of games to find the clues. The games incorporate language arts, math, science, social studies, music, and art skills. Botley often offers the student choices, such as going into the professor’s art gallery or his kitchen. In the kitchen, Botley needs the student to follow a recipe to create a meal for a monster. The recipe incorporates math by using measuring, millimeters, milligrams, ounces, and other measurement units. Once the recipe is complete, the student receives points toward one of Polly’s clues or riddles.

The content of this program is accurate and appropriate for the target population. The program's content is also quite comprehensive, covering numerous areas of the third grade curriculum. The program is free of gender and cultural bias; female and male representation is equal, with Polly and Botley as the main characters, and the characters take the form of robots with no specific cultural identity.

The program is easy to use; it begins running as soon as the CD is installed. Although the program runs smoothly, more information could be provided at the start up screen to help the user get started. Once the user gets beyond the opening section, Botley assists with each step. Most third graders should experience little difficulty using the program. The utility belt as the menu bar is helpful. The graphics and audio are exceptionally sophisticated. The colorful pictures and exciting sounds add excitement to the program and sure to capture the students' attention as they embark on a fun learning experience.

This program makes good use of technology. It goes beyond drill and practice for math, and just reading and memorizing history books. The multimedia used makes for a fun, and therefore, motivating activity. The program is very interactive. Although the student cannot add to or change the games, he/she interacts with Botley by responding to his instructions. The only tracking and management feature available is accessed by clicking on the inventory button on the utility belt to see the number of points the user has accumulated.

A utility belt at the bottom of the screen serves as a menu bar. The belt allows students to change locations, exit, go back, get an update of their points, and change the level of difficulty of the questions and games. The program has two different levels of difficulty. This program is sophisticated since it requires intermediate knowledge of computers. The instructions in the beginning are limited such as where and when to click. Once it gets started, Botley gives the instructions. Finally, a positive feature to note is that when the student gets an answer wrong, Botley responds with "almost, try again," "ouch," or "nice try," so the student will not be discouraged. When the answers are correct, there is always positive reinforcement.

The student is empowered by this program since he/she is able to manipulate and control much of the applications and therefore the outcomes. The student must solve riddles and achieve goals in order to go on to the next clue and continue on the mysterious journey with Botley. The student reaches each clue by using Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music and Art. Because fun games are used to solve the riddles and search for clues, the student can loose sight of the fact that he/she is learning and using academic means to reach each goal. This program allows for students to create a product, such as reaching a goal and solving a riddle, which can be used for assessment via the number of points achieved. The program can be used by more than one student by taking turns. In the beginning of the program, the user must type his/her name and then the computer keeps track of each person’s score. When a student takes a turn, he/she begins by clicking on his/her own name. When the student wants to stop, he/she must "save," and his/her points will be accumulated each time he/she plays. The program can help students value their own thinking and learning process because it is a sophisticated program with many different and interesting features. It challenges the user and allows him/her to re-try whenever the answers are incorrect.

The role of the teacher would be to illustrate how to insert the CD and start the program. It would be beneficial if the teacher demonstrated the many features to the class with a LCD on an overhead projector. The teacher cannot modify the program. The teacher can use the program as a supplemental activity for any or all subject areas. Since the Mystery Mountain journey integrates all subject areas, the teacher can plan lessons that integrate these subject areas too (e.g., language arts and history). The teacher can also use the program to develop a contest in the class and use the scores for assessment. The students in the class can compete individually or divide into groups. The package does not include teacher materials or provide management tools. The program can promote student-student interaction due to the score-keeping feature; however, it does not promote student-teacher interaction. The teacher’s role would be to illustrate how to use the program. The teacher would use this program as an activity that is supplemental to a lesson or unit that has relevance to the program’s applications (i.e., a lesson on measurement).

This program could fit into the classroom as an activity set up at a "work station," as an activity supplemental to a specific lesson or unit, or even as a small group activity. Students can play individually, with a partner or with teams. As a small group activity, the students can share turns and compare their scores. The program can most definitely be effective for one student, especially since it requires one student at a time to play. The students can compete with themselves or each other. For the first time usage, the teacher should explore the program in its entirety to familiarize himself/herself with the myriad features. Also, this program would be fun at Halloween since it depicts a "spooky" theme on Mystery Mountain.

This program is very creative with its sophisticated use of games and the integration of subject areas. Due to its exciting and fun theme, the program is very motivational and therefore would promote student learning and retention of concepts. By trying to solve each riddle or gather each clue, the student is being continuously quizzed. It is a very challenging piece of software that would also enhance the user’s computer skills. A teacher must be very creative to tie the program into class lessons; however, the program would still be beneficial if used merely as a separate activity. The only weaknesses are the lack of instructional guides and the omission of what to do when the program is finished loading.

I gave this program a rating of 8. This program is creative, ties in many subject areas, can be used individually or with groups, and makes learning fun. Whether a student answers correctly or incorrectly, positive reinforcement is given and I believe that is important. Teachers can use this program to enhance lessons but not as a replacement for teaching. This software program may be useful for students to use at home to reinforce what is learned in class. Finally, as mentioned above, the only areas of improvement would be in terms of instructions; otherwise, one may not get the most out of this program.

Back to Software Table of Contents