PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

Coin Critters is a program that lets students explore the world of money and allows them to develop a sense of the functional use of money. This program helps builds math, recognition and thought process skills through recognizing the values of coins, matching coin values and counting back change. The starting point of this program is the startup screen which includes a choice of five buttons: lessons, worksheets, help, options and quit.

If you click on the lesson button, two boxes will appear: lessons and coins. There are nine choices in lessons: click on heads up coins, click on tales up coins, select amount to match coins, select coins to match amounts, do you have enough money?, coin equivalents, which is more?, purchase items, or make change. Once you have clicked on the lesson you want, you click on which coin you would like to use during the lesson: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, or half dollars. During the lesson, you can exit at any time by clicking on the exit button. In order to complete a lesson, the student needs to obtain 100% on all the problems given and then the student is able to move on to the next lesson. Every time the student successfully completes a lesson then student wins a coin. With these coins the students can click on the game icon and play a game, each game costs the student one coin.

Coin Critters is appropriate to the target population. The students will enjoy hearing and seeing if their answer is correct or incorrect. The program is easy to use and gives the students a choice of following the lesson structure or choosing lessons randomly. The programs activities of identifying coins, adding up coins, purchasing items and making change conform to the curricular guidelines for the targeted age group. Coin Critters provides a number of introductory to more advanced lessons that allow students to develop a real sense of money and at their own learning pace. I feel that this software is free of gender and cultural biases.

Coin Critters does not require an involved introduction by the teacher and is easy to run. The program does require the students to be able to use an mouse and click. The software includes icon buttons to begin lessons, to access worksheets, to get help, to change options, a check or yes/no to give your answer, to exit a particular lesson or to quit the program entirely. Along with simple directions, there are entertaining sounds and colorful animation that help this program enrich the students understanding and use of money.

This program makes good use of technology. It not only requires identifying coins and matching correct amounts of change but offers functional lessons using money. Having lessons where the students need to make change and purchase items with the least amount of coins allows the students to see how these money and math skills are relevant and useful in daily life. I would have liked to have seen the word problems have an auditory option for the students who may not be as strong of a reader. Another feature that would have liked to see would be matching coins to their correct name. These features would help add a more whole language approach to the program. The program is enjoyable to use and teaches a functional use of money and math skills.

The students' role in this program is to explore all five coins and nine different lesson options that are available and work at their own pace. To pass a lesson, students must correctly complete each problem given. If students answer a problem incorrectly, the problem is worked out on the screen for the students' to see how to do it correctly. One way the program constrains students' is each lesson only works on the coin that is clicked, the students' do not have an opportunity to work with multiple coins. On the other hand, each lesson becomes increasingly difficult when higher coins are selected. A motivating factor for students is they can win a coin every time they score 100% on a lesson. With this coin, the students can go to the game section and play a game.

The teacher should give a brief introduction of the program and the use of the different icons but after that the students should not need much supervision while doing the actual lessons. The actual lessons themselves can not be modified but the lesson length and number of attempts can be changed by the teacher. The number of correct answers can be set from 1-10 and the number of attempts can be set from 1-3. The numbers preset are 10 correct answers and 3 attempts. This option is nice because it allows the teacher the opportunity to make sure that all students have the chance to succeed at their own level and pace. Another convenient aspect of this program for teachers is the help section. This section offers screens to help students remember important facts about the coins. These screens could also be used to give a quick review of all the coins and their equivalents. One of the most important aspect of the program for a teacher is the ability for the teacher to print worksheets to go with the lessons and progress reports for each player. This is a way for the teacher to track the progress and to assess each students knowledge and work. The worksheets are available for all lessons and all coins. The teacher needs to choose a lesson and a coin and click on print. The progress notes indicate completed lessons, the number of game tokens won and the game score.

The teacher could use this program as a tool for large group instruction or have the students' use it on an individual basis. Individual use would probably be the most ideal situation to utilize this program, it allows each student to problem solve on their own pace. The program would be a great supplement for a number of money or math lessons: adding, equivalents, or making change. It is a fun way for students to use math in a meaningful way.

Overall Coin Critters is a good addition to have in a 1st-2nd grade classroom. It provides educational opportunities for students to develop functional math and money skills and to incorporate these skills into everyday situations. The program allows the students to become familiar with identifying coins, knowing their values and how to use money out in the real world. The program has multiple lessons covering a range of levels. Each lesson is an opportunity for the student to explore their own personal knowledge of money through math problems that they will face throughout their lives.

OVERALL RATING: 9 out of 10

Coin Critters is a good overall supplement to teaching math, recognition, and thought process skills involving money. It is motivating by using real life situations to teach money skills. It is also rewarding to the students because they can earn coins to play a game that most students love at this age. I gave the program a 9 because I feel that language could have been incorporated more within the lessons. The program is easy to use, enjoyable and motivating for the students.