My fourth-grade classroom at Bethel School houses two computers and various software for student use.  In order to gain some hands-on experience working with software resources, I experimented with much of this software and developed an evaluation of one program in particular.  It was Math Blaster for ages 9-12.
     Math Blaster is an animated adventure game that seeks to incorporate math as the key to success in this adventure.  The program begins with an animated story.  The goal is to bring back the medallion to the money king to get off the planet that the unfortunate adventurer (the user of the software) has landed on.  Each section of the game focuses on a math aspect.  These include “crater crossing”- estimation of addition sums, “banana splat”- find the missing value in each equation, “bridge builder”- build a bridge using he designated number of fractions from the fractions given, “cube quest”- multiplication, and a bonus round, where the player arranges the moving pods into a bridge for baby monkeys to cross.
     I would say that Math Blaster’s strengths include:
 Appealing animation
 An adventure aspect that appeals to kids
 The use of equations- this varies from most problems my students see in their
 books.
 
The program also contains weaknesses:
 Some of the games seem to have no math content
 The program only includes arithmetic and spatial skill practice- this leaves
 out several other strands that could be covered.
 

My plan for teaching this software-
     I know that my portrait student has had previous experience in using this software.
After seeing her work with the program, I know that there are some aspects of the software that Crystal has never worked with.  I plan on taking her to a new adventure in the program and we will explore this aspect.  Crystal has never worked in the section called “Practicing Math Skills,” so we will go to this section of the program.  It gives a variety of skills for the player to practice.  I have chosen one on Crystal’s instructional level.  She will go into the “Banana Splat” game and work on a skill that is new to her but requires skills that she already has but has never applied in this context.  To complete the game, she must multiply three numbers to get a product greater than ninety.  The questions are posed in equation-like form with a blank to fill in the answer.  For example- 7x 1x____  = 56.   Crystal must find two numbers from the flying monkeys on screen to add together to get the missing factor.
This aspect will allow Crystal to concentrate on one math skill without worrying about advancing to the next level in order to complete the adventure.
     This evaluation, lesson, and the software itself will be used in my own classroom- I now know how to properly evaluate other software as it crosses my desk and the importance of software’s ability to assess and measure student performance and deepen their understanding of the specific material addresses. I will now be able to judge software quality accurately.