Hands-on Experiments for Smart Kids: Discovering Life

PC version requires:
Windows 95/98, P166, 32 MB RAM, Thousands of Colors, 4X CD-ROM Drive

Mac version requires:
System 7.5.5, Power PC 166, 32 MB of RAM, Thousands of Colors, 4X CD-ROM Drive

Description:

The goal of Hands-on Experiments for Smart Kids: Discovering Life is to promote discovery-oriented learning of scientific phenomena. Children learn by doing. Children are encouraged to explore science-related topics and do experiments that help them better understand the concepts and their applicability to real life. Kids can search for any topic of their choosing or they can follow a topic path with a "Smart Kid." For example, choose Sylvester and explore questions related to water or choose Louis and explore questions related to air.

Here is a brief example of one topic that children can investigate.

• Topic: Bubbles Under Pressure
• Question: Why should deep sea divers not come out of the water suddenly?
• Computer Experiment:The child is guided through an experiment investigating this phenomenon. "Open the large bottle on the screen and put the ballon on the neck. Now click on Sylvester so he can free up the sugar in the liquid. What happens?"
• Explanation: "The balloon inflates! We have freed up the gas that was in the liquid..."(do the experiment to learn more.)
• History & Future: Read about other historical facts and take a look at the future.
• Hands-on Experiment: Equipment Needed (1 unopened plastic bottle of soda), Handling (what to do), Explanations (What did you observe and why?), and Application (How does this relate to deep sea divers?)
• Other Activities: Parents, teachers, and children can print out the original text that accompanies each topic question (e.g., Bubbles under pressure - Why should deep sea divers not come out of the water suddenly?) and the hands-on experiment instructions, which allow you to do your own experiment on each scientific phenomenon. Children can also draw pictures and create their own stories or reports related to each topic. These too can be saved to the hard drive or printed.

Features:

• Comprehensive range of science-oriented topics (18 different topic areas): physics, biology, chemistry, matter, ecology, mechanics, energy, oceanology, meteorology, health, optics, electromagnetism, geology, psychology, math, electonics, history, and space
• Guides children as they participate in experiments on the computer screen
• Provides them with instructions on how to do their own experiments away from the computer screen
• Material was developed with the joint efforts of researchers, educators, and students from various backgrounds

Technical Aspects:

Report and Conclusions:

The involvement of parents, teachers, or other adults will be essential if younger children are to benefit from Hands-on Experiments for Smart Kids. While many of the in-depth passages are read aloud, a certain level of reading ability is necessary to navigate the program, and parents and teachers will likely want to supervise the gathering of materials for experiments. I also strongly recommend reading the user's guide that accompanies the CD to get a better sense of the objectives of this software as well as how to navigate through the diverse and numerous range of scientific topics. For example, the functions of the navigation buttons are not apparent (one button takes you to the computer experiments, one to the hands-on activities, one to the historical fact sheets, etc.); experience with the software as well as reading the user manual will clarify any confusion. One of the most important concepts embedded in this software program is that children need to explore their environments, not just sit in front of a computer screen; hence the "hands-on" approach to gathering real objects and trying out ideas. So go explore and investigate your world!