Reviewer’s Name: Kelly Hoben (Elementary School Pre-Service Teacher)

Target Population: Grades 2-6

School House Rock Science Rock for grades 2-6 covers an array of scientific fields. Your students will learn about electricity, force and motion, light, sound, solar system, genetics, and the body systems. It’s hard to believe that so much can be in a program but Science Rock has all this and more!

Science Rock is a combination of seven educational games. Your guide through the games is Interplanet Janet, who has crashed into Earth and needs your help to rebuild her rocket. Each part of her ship is found within one of the seven games. In each game, students are challenged to use their scientific thinking. When you successfully complete a game, you earn one part of Janet’s rocket plus energy crystals to fuel her rocket ship. Once you have assembled the rocket, there is a final game, which is a race to Janet’s planet.

A student must sign in at Mission Control before each game and choose a level of difficulty: 1-beginner, 2-intermediate, 3-advanced. There is the possibility to change the level at any time during the game.

A noteworthy item in this program is the possibility to download additional questions and games from the Internet.

The content of the program is accurate. However, I do not feel that it is appropriate for the targeted audience; the questions and activities are too advanced for second grade or even third grade. The program should targeted for higher grades only. There were no errors or omissions, and there was nothing I would add to the program. The content is easy to read as well as access. I found the program to be free of gender bias and ethnic stereotypes.

The program was easy to run and install. Students with little guiding can easily use the application. There are help buttons for easy navigation throughout the program. The navigation buttons are arranged in a tool bar at the base of each screen. There is a quit button, a TV icon, a question mark button, Interplanet Janet icon, a go back arrow and a new game arrow. The TV button provides video from the televised School House Rock show regarding scientific principles. Interplanet Janet can be clicked on for help with questions a user has about any screen. With all these tools available, it is very easy to move through the program.

The graphics, animation, and sound are aesthetically pleasing. There is a good balance of intrinsic and extrinsic value in the animation and graphics. For instance, Interplanet Janet, who acts as a guide in time of need, has a function or purpose and would be considered intrinsic feature, where as the scenes and sciencescape serve a decorative purpose and only have an extrinsic purpose.

Science Rock makes excellent use of the computer. The software enables downloading additional questions or games from the Internet. It also incorporates a video with educational games that teach important science principles. Science Rock effectively challenges budding, young scientists.

Teachers cannot manipulate the software; however, it has an excellent tracking system. The program creates a chart of the students’ progress that a teacher can print out. The chart shows the students' names and the level they have completed and the highest level they have attempted.

This program is one that empowers the students. The students are asked to make many decisions, and it is through this decision making that students learn to value their problem solving skills. The students do not create anything of their own, but they can print out dozens of activities and hands-on experiments to try at home--a great way to strengthen a newly learned scientific topic.

It is possible for the students to work alone or in small groups. However, I would recommend independent work if a teacher wants to track individual work using the printout chart.

Teachers can use Science Rock as a supplement to their science program. Initially, the teacher would have to coach the students, but it shouldn’t take the students long to be able to work independently on the program.

As mentioned, teachers cannot manipulate the program, but they can track students’ progress through a built-in chart. The program also comes with a teacher’s guide that includes over 40 wonderful activities, reproducibles, curricular integration ideas, and follow-up lessons.

Science Rock is an excellent program to be used in a computer center where students can work independently or within a small group. To use Science Rock with a whole class, a large-screen projection system would be needed. An initial introduction to the program by the teacher is suggested and would be worthwhile especially in the lower grades.

Science Rock is a beneficial program to have in a classroom as a supplement to the science program. This program challenges the students with higher level questioning. The students are able to track their progress, and their teacher can also track their progress. The program includes many graphics, animation, and sounds that are both motivating and entertaining for the students. Overall, this is a great program!

Science Rock is a program that I would like to have in my classroom. It covers a great deal of scientific concepts while motivating and entertaining the students. The only problem I had is that the publishers targeted the program for too young an age group; I believe the program is suited primarily to the higher range of the suggested age group. Since I found this fault in the marketing of the program, I gave it a 9.