Title: "The Graph Club"

Publisher: Richard Abrams/Tom Snyder Productions

Date Published: 1998

Platform: Macintosh, Windows

Price: $79.95; $199.95, Lab Edition (5 computers); $349.95,'Lab pack (10 computers); $599.95, Network version; $799.95, Site license (includes Network version)

Installation: With a Mac, system needs to be 6.07 or higher, 1 meg of available RAM, black and white or color monitor, hard disk for floppy version, and CD-ROM required for CD-ROM version. With Windows, system needs to be 3.1 or later, 4 megs of available RAM, VGA or better monitor, and (optional) large-screen projection device, and external speakers.

Note: To hear sounds you must have a Windows?compatible sound card.

I installed this software on Windows 98. It was very simple. I simply placed the CD in the CD-ROM drive and an icon came up. I double-clicked on the icon and the program started. "The Graph Club" provides a simple introduction to walkthrough the program to get you started.

The instructions for Macintosh were very simple to understand even though I did not try them.

Content Area: The primary content area is math. However, science is combined by allowing students to learn to graph the data they have collected from observations and experiments. They also learn to analyze, interpret, and compare data and graphs.

Range of Grade Levels: "The Graph Club" software can be used with grade levels K?2. Students among the ages of 5 yrs. to 8 yrs. will thoroughly benefit from this software.

Content Description: "The Graph Club" is not only a game program that enhances graphing skills but it's educational in that it gives students practice using and creating graphs. It's purpose is to engage students in graph interpretations, creativity using graphs, converting data from one type of graph to another, and making graphs out of data gathered by the students themselves. Kindergarteners can begin to study graphs through this program. There are twenty activities that range from 1 to 5 in difficulty with 5 being the most difficult. Kindergarteners would chose the first game within each activity to be sure they are capable of handling the task. It also allows students in first and second grade who have gathered data through a scientific experiment or observation to create graphs that compile and represent their data. This program not only allows them to work with their own data, but they can explore ways that the same data can be presented in different types of graphs such as, picture graphs, bar graphs, line graphs, and pie graphs. For example, in the match mode students make a match of the given data on the left in the graph on the right. There are icons on the bottom of the screen that change the type of graph shown still representing the given data.

Even though this program focuses only on math and science, there are ways to integrate language arts with it. Versatility is added when students are able to graph the information they find in picture books and make sense of the "real" graph. Students can create their own graphs in the "create" mode.

The program has a "playground" for students so that they can play games.

There is not a time limit with this game. The program allows students to retry the task as many times as needed until they succeed in accomplishing the task.  Therefore, the students may play and explore as long as he/she or the teacher ,
wishes.

This program can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used with individuals to strengthen his/her knowledge about the parts of a graph, as well as, creating graphs that represent his/her own data. Moreover, the program provides a feature that allows small group work and keeps the group members engaged with a "Random Student Picker." Students in a group get picked by the computer to do specific jobs such as, entering data, answer a question, interpret a graph, and offer his/her own opinion. This option can also be used in whole class work and keeps the kids on their toes because they don't know who will be picked next.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
Strengths: Builds individual knowledge about graphs.
Allows for small group work, as well as, whole class work.
Integration of Science and Language Arts is simple.
Gives students who may not have much prior knowledge of graphs a visual
stimulus of graphs.
Provides a question mark at the top of each window for students to click on for
directions about the task.
Incorporates technology skills

Weaknesses: This program is not cost efficient according to the funds given by most school systems. Students must have prior knowledge of computer skills such as using the mouse to drag, highlight, click, and doubleclick, how to get around open windows, and wherethe keys are located on the keyboard. Without this knowledge, students would be unable to enjoy and learn from this software.

Rating: I give this software a rating of 8 on a scale of 1-10. As you can see, the strengths of this program are in abundance compared to the weaknesses. I feel that students can benefit from using this software, but I also feel that there are other things that I can spend the money given and donated to my classroom for materials that are of necessity to everyday learning. Technology is such an important part of everyday life now that I would try my best to hold fund raisers for materials such as this because it gives students experience using the technology that is available to us today. I also believe that a lot of the games on this computer can be reproduced manually and played manually without a computer and still enhance students' knowledge of graphs. I really enjoyed reviewing this software and I feel that if I had the money to spend I would gladly invest in "The Graph Club."

User Comments: California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse Publishers and Producers have said, "It is a cross-curricular approach to graphing that involves a number of skills including basic number concepts; collecting, comparing, sorting, ad organizing data; visualizing; communicating; writing and reading."

Links: http://clearinghouse.kl2.ca.us/c/@7VNzPRue__Stfw/product.html
This is a review about "The Graph Club" that gives excellent integration ideas for the classroom. http://www.kidsdomain.com/down/mac/graphclub.html
This is a website where you can download a free 90 day demo to learn about "The Graph Club."

Why and how I would use this software in my classroom: I would use this software in my classroom because it is versatile enough that I could integrate it into the literature, science, and math that is currently being learned. As they used this software, the students would be not only building knowledge about graphs, but about computer skills that are needed in the Information Age.

I could use this software for whole class tasks with a large screen projection device and external speakers. The student picker feature of the program would keep the students involved in the task. A task that could be used in this manner would be graphing the weather that has affected all the students within the week, month, or school term. This would allow for group discussions about graphing and provide a venue to introduce new types of graphs to the class as a whole.

I could use this software for individuals. When students are not all on the same level of understanding about graphs, working with this program individually will meet the needs of every student. If a student needs help in a certain area, they can choose the game levels that challenge them at their level of understanding.
 

Review #1: "The Graph Club" Review

California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse Publishers and Producers is the author of this review.

The source of the review is the Clearinghouse Product by Stanslaus County Office of Education in California.

I would be interested in trying this software from reading the review. The review tells us that "The Graph Club" can be used for many things including language development. This was probably the facet that drew my attention the most. It was stated that the graphs can be printed and taken home for vacabulary review. This holds the students' interest because they contain information about themselves. The program also "bridges the gap between real and representational graphing." I believe that it is important that students have something that they can hang onto. Their own life experiences stay with them longer than just taking numbers out of thin air and placing them on a graph. The real life data taken by the students adds meaning to the graph for the students.

Review #2: "Kid Pix Studios"

The author of this review is Tina Velgos.

The source of the review is The Review Zone.

Based on this review I would love to try this software not only in my home, but in my classroom as well. Velgos mentions that it is a multimedia "studio" that gives you six different projects to create art and animation. They include Kid pix, Wacky TV, Moopies, Stampimator, Digital Puppets, and S1ideShow. But, that is not the end! Students will be able to create shows that represent findings, reports, data, and projects! What a neat way to get students interested in doing presentations. The pictures and information can be saved in digital format and then can be brought back up and shown on an overhead screen projector! This is a creativity and painting program that kids will enjoy playing with but will also be learning about computer technology and how to give presentations!

Review #3: "KidSpeack 10-in-1 Language Learning"

The author of this review is The Review Corner.

The source of this review is The Review Comer.

I found this review to be very thorough, understandable, and enticing. I definitely want to try this software in my home and in my classroom. First of all, this particular program provides 10 different languages for kids to learn. The languages are: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean, and Hebrew. Students learn alphabets, pictographs, numbers, animals, school supplies, colors, food, clothing, transportation, time, age, dates, months, and greetings. The program uses "MUSIC" to enhance learning. I feel that music is one of the most important tools in learning anything including foreign languages. Each of the languages have 40 or more interactive activities, and there are 700 and more words and expressions that are produced in authentic, native speech. For the teacher, there are 12 printable activity sheets that extend the activities in the games and include word searches, scrambled words, connect the numbers, and alphabet puzzles.

One of the most important aspects of this program is that the words are not translated. The students will be immersed in the language just as they were when they were learning their first language.

The program also allows for self-exploration. It does not overpraise, nor does it give remarks such as "No that's not it." Instead, it repeats the task directions or mentions a keyword in the language that the student is learning. Students get as many trys as is necessary to accomplish the task.

I believe this could be a learning tool not only for the students but also for the teacher. The teacher could use some of the ideas of music in the classroom without the computer. But, using the computer to learn the languages also builds important computer skills.