Title: Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?

Publisher: The Learning Company

Date Published: This software has been around for a while, and it gets updated every so often. There are also other versions of the game, such as “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

Platform: Windows and Macintosh

Content Area: This program can be used in many different subject areas, such as Geography, Social Studies, and U.S. History. This software teaches U.S. Geography, critical thinking skills, and the criminal justice system all in one game!

Range of Grade Levels: This software is appropriate for any students from second grade through adulthood.

Content Description: This is an electronic program that allows you to travel around the United States in search of a crook by following clues that you can get from local people of the town that you are in. The local will give you a clue about the city that the crook is in, and you have to choose the right city and state to travel to, otherwise you will get sent back to your original location. With this game, you can also use clues to develop enough information about the person, so that you can eliminate all other suspects and obtain a search warrant for his/her arrest. The goal is for the player to not make to many mistakes in his search, so that when he does reach the crook, then he will have an arrest warrant for the correct person. You keep moving up in rank if you solve so many cases correctly. You can continue playing this game; the cases get more and more difficult as you move along in rank, though. You can use this game in the classroom in many different ways. I do not think that it would be as productive if you did it as a class, but you could break the class into small groups and have each group start with a new case.
You can even have the children work on this individually.

Instructional Type: Problem Solving, Game, and a Tool

Strengths: This software starts out at an easy level, and you move up to the next level based on your mastery of the previous search. This game has great graphics; displays both video and 3D capabilities; students find it fun, and they are learning a lot at the same time; and it is also an interactive way to support the learning that is going on in their geography class.

Weaknesses: The database could be more forgiving in giving out information for clues. I think that some of the clues can lead the children in the wrong direction, and it is not very forgiving because when you get to the wrong place, you are sent back to where you came from, and the search has to be completed in a certain amount of time, or you fail.

How would using this software add to a lesson or a classroom? I think that this software would be beneficial in a classroom. It gets the students interactive in what they are learning. You can learn geography from studying it out of a book, but this game helps students add relations to what they are learning about geography. Students are more likely to remember something if they have something to associate with it, and this game gives them that association.

Would you use this software with your students? Why or why not? I would definitely introduce this software in my classroom. I know that children nowadays are fascinated with computers and all that they can do, so I think that we should use them as a learning tool. This game should not be use to teach the foundations of geography, but as a tool to emphasize what the students should know.

Rating: I would rate this software an 8. I gave it this rating because I do recommend that teachers use it in their classrooms, but at the same time, I think that it can be forgiving in some of the clues that it gives out for the search. I think that students would enjoy playing this game, and they are learning at the same time, so  I think that it would be great to have it in the classroom.

User Comments: I actually used this game when I was in school and tutoring students that were in the fifth grade. Their teacher used the game as an incentive for the students to complete their other work, and when they were done they could play the game. The teacher found this to be a great way for her to get her students to complete their work, and then they moved on to the game, which was another learning activity. She thought this was a great game and found it to be very effective in her classroom. This was a fifth grade class, and all of the kids liked playing with the software and thought it to be helpful. They would remember the facts that it taught from time to time so that they could proceed to the next level, if they weren’t able to at first.

Links: The following website provides the public with a review of this game: http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/reviews/carm.htm