The Magic School Bus in Concert Activity Center

Age Group: Age 4 to 8, Age 8 and Up Type: Art/Creativity, Thinking Games, Science, Music Price: $20

PC version requires:
Windows 95+, P133, 16MB RAM, 15MB HD, 4x CD-ROM, Super VGA, 256-color, 16 bit sound

Mac version requires:
iMac, iBook, PowerPC, 233 MHz, OS 8.1+, 16MB RAM (32 if OS 9.1+), 256-color, 15MB HD, 4x CD-ROM,

Description:

Climb on the bus for this absolutely delightful ride with Ms. Frizzle and the whole Magic School Bus gang in Scholastic's The Magic School Bus in Concert Activity Center by Microsoft. Anyone who enjoys The Magic School Bus TV series and books will be enchanted with this creative look at the science of sound. Whether you're exploring volume and the way varying lengths of waves change a sound in the Wild Waves Experiment, testing your skill at sequencing sounds in the Sound Off Memory Game, experimenting with how sounds change when made in varying environments (i.e. blowing a whistle in the bathroom, a canyon or a box) with the Acoustamatic or playing all kinds of instruments with your favorite characters from the series on the Sound Stage, this is an excellent place to have fun while you learn.

Animated clips in every activity explain various aspects of sound vibrations, waves, how various musical instruments work, how sound travels through the ear and much more. But kids will hardly notice how much they are learning as they enjoy each of the following activities. Inside the school bus you can find:

Noisy Game Show--This Jeopardy style game show with 3 difficulty levels allows 1 or 2 players to think about the way sounds are formed. From the simplest questions in the "Name that Noise" category to the more challenging ones in the "What's Missing" (showing one item such as a drum then asking what second item, instrument or tool would be needed to create the sound you hear) and "Where is it?" (playing one of many sounds then asking if it was made in a box, park or canyon and the child is expected to pay attention to the echo, muffling or other sound clues to make their decision) categories, kids can hone reasoning skills based on what they already know about sound.

Wild Waves Experiment--This activity allows you to play with the length (speed, tone) and volume of the waves that sounds coming from a voice, gong, saxaphone, violin and pitch fork make. The simulated otoscope lets you see pictures of the sound waves and how they change as you slow them down or speed them up. My 4 and 6 year olds as well as my husband were absolutely fascinated by this little detail of the game.

Sound Mixer--This fun feature works like the "create your own music" sections of many programs where you can sequence the sounds in any order you want to create a song. You can "record" sound bites on the Sound Stage and then mix them in many different ways. A creative little twist to this Mixer is that it includes sounds like a blowing nose, a plunger, a fly buzzing, a bag of laughs, cows, cats and dogs that spark a childs curiosity and lets them explore how different "music" might sound if they interspersed it with these other sounds.

The Acoustamatic--Ever wonder what a whistle sounds like under water? Here's your chance to find out! You can experiment with 5 different sounds in 4 environments (under water, bathroom, in a park, in a canyon) and they are all mixed in with Ms. Frizzles signature style of explaining the scientific reasons for all kinds of phenomenon.

Scrambled Sounds--The scrambled pictures in these sound puzzles each carry a piece of a sound. This game can be played on 3 levels and lets you hear and learn about various instruments from around the world, a sonic boom from an airplane, lightning, a race car and more. My 4 year old was fascinated with playing these sounds repeatedly because many of them were new and different to her.

Then if you'd like to leave the school bus you can go on and explore the following:

The Sound Stage--4 of the kids from Ms. Frizzle's class have a lot to teach you about the ways musical instruments make sounds, how sound travels and more as you experiment with them on the sound stage. Here you can record sound bites from bassoon, banjo, violin, guitar, sax, various drums, bass fiddle, gong and more for use with the Sound Mixer. You can "see" the sounds of the various instruments with a pop-up otoscope, hear The Magic School Bus theme song played in several musical styles and generally goof around with musical sounds.

The Power of Sound Game--This arcade style game with three difficulty levels and multiple steps within each level lets the opera singer shatter glasses by shooting her voice at them.

The Sound-off Memory Game--This great sequencing game also has 3 difficulty levels where you can sit in one of the kids' bedrooms and see how many sounds you can repeat in order as they are played. The laugh track, dripping water, whoopee cushion, drinking from a straw and many other sounds keep kids focused on the fun of the sounds so they don't realize they are improving their ability to order information in a particular sequence.

Features:

• Science of sound
• 8 activities
• Different difficulty levels
• Open play and structured activities

Technical Aspects:

Report and Conclusions: