CD-ROM Title	Evaluation	Appropriate Age Group	Review Comments
Encarta 96	Excellent to Good	All Ages	-For research purposes or for exploration to heop develop topics -Students could explore "animal habitats' and each could become an expert in that category. Studenst are able to see, hear, and understand important topics. -Informational purposes: finding out more about a subject they could use as extra resource -This could be used for lots of things. I really like the family portraits. It would be ideal for discussing cultures and peoples of other lands. -Students can do research on varying subjects to gather information for reports, presentations, and other activities -We are doing a unit on Australia and this is helpful for kids exploring for projects, assignments, etc.
Creative Writer & Fine Artist	Excellent to Good	All Ages	--Wonderful for writing: creative writing, reports, banners, cards. It could get students really excited about the writing process. It's just a fun program. Good for covers of children's books, art, making classroom banners and newspapers. -Writing stories, creating pictures, fun graphics -Entertainment, writing, illustraiting, and publishing -Concrete poetry, teaching shapes for kindergarten, creative writing prompts (great visuals to compete with things like sega, personalize, and very user friendly -Great sounds, user friendly -Creative writing (use the story starters or pictures) -Poetry (concrete poems), introducing the letters of the alphabet -Have the students use software to write a story or use the illustrating tool to work on different forms -I would use this for writing interesting pages. They would get used t opublishing works and making products. -Students could create lots of things, but they may use up a lot of paper and ink. It would be nice for big projects.
Dangerous Creatures	Excellent to Very Good	All Ages	-You could use this for so many things. Animals from other countries, similarities and differences of animals, etc. -This software can ube used in many ways. It could be incorporated into units on animals, different habitats or ecosystems, and the senses. -I would let them explore first. Then I would let them learn vocabulary and use it as a resource and research center. -Investigation and exploration center with different units. You could use the vocabulary and definitions, matching habitats with animals, using altlas for geography. -Great to enrich units about habitats, animals, videos, tours, science, social studies. Awesome pictures and sounds. Very exciting. -Free exploration of different animals, research on a specific animals/habitat, great to see what animals live where.
Magic School Bus	Human Body - Good Solar System - Excellent to Very Good Oceans - Good	Human Body - 1st Grade and up Solar System - K and up Oceans - K-5	Human Body: -I liked the travel log and passport idea. They would need detailed instruction. -Can be used as a supplement to the human body lesson. -Help teach about body in an interesting way, but seemed to be rather confusing and hard to follow - would want to know better how to use it effectively. -You can teach about the body's orgns, do further exploration, cute idea of traveling through body. Solar System: -Students can use this for fun research! Some tings need better explanation or the teacher must first go over the program with the kids. -Fun, interactive, creative, informative. Oceans: -It let kids explore oceans - informational presentation.
500 Nations	Excellent to Good	3rd Grade and up, but better for junior high and up	-Use to make connections, to receive information, and use as a resource. Use to compare different stories or beliefs about creation. -Understanding of time for connections between culture differences... -Super activity book for teacher to guide student of program: What things to focus on and how to make connections -This would be the research the children do for being experts on something. -Super timeline -Story tellers: Children like to do things (grab attention and interest) -This software would work well with a unit on Native Americans. I would use this as a supplemental tool in my classroom, but not necessarily as the basis. -Native American history, homelands, researching for reports, specific Indians tribes, etc.
Ancient Lands	Very Good	4th - high school	-I would use it as a research device. Allowing students to explore freely, gathering information they would find useful. -I think I would use this software as a research source in a unit on Ancient civilizations. It has good informaton , but may not be the most entertaining program.
How the Leopard Got His Spot	Excellent to Very Good	K-5	-About animals, culture, and Africa, tec. -Learn how to play games and listen and read a story -Reflect in a journal -If I was teaching about Africa, music, different cultures, I would put this in a center with 2 kids listening -Kick off for study of animals, Africa, the desert, and myths -Read the book then allow students to use this CD as they want; great games
Explorapedia	Very Good to Poor	K-4	-Let them explore, then focus on search -This could help kids find ideas for individual and class projects. -I would use it to help kids find ideas ro something interesting to write about. They could use this o find topics and for basic information on a topic. -I would have students research using this software. -This would be a good supplementary guide for kids.
Cinemania	Excellent to Very Good	All Ages	-Great for studying history or film -This is a really great program--which I would use in a Fine Arts or Dramma unit--or just for the kids to play around. -I would use this for entertainment purposes in the classroom. If kids finish regular computer work then can use this. -I think I might use this as a way for students to explore critics comments on movies. It is a good way for them to see how people review media sources. Also, it is an entertaining program.
Microsoft Dinosaurs	Excellent to Very Good	All Ages	-Introduce dinosaurs, introduce different time periods, explore features of different dinosaurs -Showing clips of movies to see what life was like -I would probably have it as a resource center when studying dinosaurs. It has a lot of information with good pictures that will make the kids want to research more. (One problem I had was maybe there was too much information to sort through.)
Chicago Art Institute	Excellent	All Ages	-This is a good program which explores artists, and art teachniques. It also arranges the art pices by time and countries, so if you wanted to look at art from a particular time period or country you could. It means art fun! -This is an excellent tour of the Art Institute via computer--many incredible features help students recognize regions, times and proportions relating to art pieces--and would us this for culture/country studies or time studies--to integrate art into curriculum.
Frank Lloyd Wright	Very Good to Good	4th-Grade and Up	-Would be great for a unit on architecture. It does a nice job of discussing structural elements. -You could have the students create a model of a house-Mapout and do mathematical equations. -Geometry, history, architecture
Microsoft Bookshelf	Very Good to Good	4th-Grade and Up	-This is an excellent resource for teachers/parents and secondary students, but it is too complex for elementary students. -When writing reports, it could be a source for non-written material. -I was looking up information on the constitution of the U. S. The information is easily understood and straightforward. Students could use this to find out different information about the constitution. It is very easy to locate information on a topic. THe color coded boxes explaining the type of information is very helpful. The software is nice, but I just prefer working with encyclopedias and other books for finding this kind of information.
Musical Instrument	Very Good to Good	All Ages	-You could use it in a unit of other culture. This is good to see what music is used. Could do a study of music in instruments and this would be a good resource. I would love to have this as a resource in the class.