Blue Ribbon Reviews January 2005
By Linda Lindroth

Make math an important part of your new year with the introduction of these great tools. Fractions and economics will never be the same again.

Fractions with Professor Von Strudel
This dynamic instructional tool from Micrograms Software for grades 2-6 uses a professor in a lab to assist students as they learn about fractions. The program consists of 12 key fraction topics from Introduction to Fractions all the way to Word Problems. Covered skills include equivalent fractions, greatest common factor and least common multiple, reducing to lowest terms, mixed numbers and improper fractions, basic operations with fractions, decimals and percents.

The opening screen for each lesson reveals Professor Von Strudel in his math lab ready to provide instruction and help with learning fractions. Each problem set has a fraction and a graphic representation of the fraction. When a student enters an answer, the shadowed graphic shades in to represent the fraction – scaffolding to support clear understanding of the fraction concept.

The screen has multiple help functions including a T button for a fraction glossary and a Calculator button to use while solving problems. Each problem set asks the student to answer 10 questions about the fraction skill.

While a student is working on a problem set, a highlighted Review button can be clicked to get help from Professor Von Strudel, who uses one of the corresponding tutorials to explain the concept. During an activity, the Professor offers helpful tips related to any errors made, and if repeated errors are made, the Professor automatically takes the student through a tutorial with step-by-step examples.

Students can click on Summary to get their progress report. The record shows their score (9/10) on each activity and the class average so they can see how they are doing in relation to the rest of the class. Scores can be viewed for the current session, last five sessions, or cumulative records.
The Teacher Module is password protected and lets the teacher set up class files, enter student names, change the grading scale and set options, with or without a password, to allow printing, opening class files and student name selection. It's also possible to import/export names from a text file making it possible to use existing files from school records or export a class list from one Micrograms program to another which saves time!

For more information, visit www.micrograms.com or call 800-338-4726 for more information. Win/Mac $41.95.

My Horse Farm
Viva Media earned the Winner's Circle with this product, particularly when my school is between two horse farms in Lexington, KY. My Horse Farm for grades 4 and up is an economics simulation that challenges students to manage, maintain and expand their own horse farm. Players then choose a game: Running the Farm or Cross Country. The game is also timed by rounds – clicking on the Next Day button will start a new round.

Cross Country. The riding simulation lets students either ride for pleasure or train for a tournament. Each terrain (woods, beach and city/country) has three levels of expertise and dozens of challenges as players learn to be a champion rider. Students can train before they become a "real" Horse Farm owner.

Running the Farm. The goals for success are to increase your horse's trust by taking care of your horse(s) to earn $1,200, breed a foal to earn $4,000, complete the training course to earn $2,000 and win the Champion's Competition. As players make decisions about their farm, they earn and spend money. Each horse (you can own up to 5 horses) has a graph to monitor health, power, food and water supply to help track the success of your farm.

For more information, be sure to visit www.viva-media.com or call 212-431-4420. Win CD, $29.95.

Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching Pre K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.