Title:  The Magic School Bus Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs
Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc.
Platform:  For Macintoshes and PC’s
Price: $19.99 at www.amazon.com or $25.95 at www.bn.com
Installation:  It was very easy to install.  I simply inserted the CD-ROM and it came right on.
Content Area:  Science- specifically, dinosaurs
Range of Grade Levels:  Appropriate for ages 6-10 or grades 1-5
Content Description:  This purpose of this software is to teach students about dinosaurs from three different periods of prehistory. The format is choose- your- own- adventure.  When it begins you are in an elementary school classroom, filled with several students and many different objects.  Almost anything you click on will do something.  For example, the children will give information about what they’re doing or standing near, filing cabinet drawers will open, paintings will change, etc.  At one end of the classroom is a window through which you can see the magic school bus parked outside.  You click on the bus to get in.  Once inside the bus, the teacher, Ms. Fizzle, gives you instructions for driving the bus and selecting a destination.  When you click on the steering wheel, a map of the world appears in the windshield.  By clicking on a colored bar on a gauge on the dashboard, you select a time period (Cretaceous, Jurassic, or Triassic), and dots of the corresponding color then appear on the map.  Then, you click on a dot and the bus takes off through space to the destination you’ve chosen.  A few of them include Arizona, Tanzania, and Canada.  Once you’ve landed, you click on a window gauge inside the bus to go outside and explore.  There are an average of three different screens per location, each of which includes the other students in the class and plants and animals.  The students will talk briefly about the dinosaurs around you and the dinosaurs themselves will roar or move a little.  The bus is always included in the screens as well, and it can be clicked on at any time to get back inside.  Once you’ve explored as many of the locations as you wish, you can “pull” down a red lever on the dashboard to return to school.  I think this software would work best for individual students or small groups, because there is a lot of decision-making involved and a whole class would have to take time to vote on every decision. Also, the variety of choices makes it easy to customize each experience with the software to an individual’s interests. Because of the flexibility and versatility of play, as little or as much time as a teacher is willing to spare can be spent with it.
Strengths/Weaknesses:  Overall, this software is very easy to use.  You are given explicit instructions from Ms. Fizzle about how to navigate the bus and use the various gauges.  The items that can be clicked on outside the bus while exploring are common sense and easy to find.  They are things that children would immediately begin trying to click on, anyway.  The only part that was difficult was the very beginning when you first enter the classroom. The first screen is only the first half of the room, but you have to discover that for yourself.  As you begin clicking on different things, they expect you to click on an object in the lower right hand corner, which moves the screen over and puts you in the second half of the room.  It is there in the second half that you are able to see the bus out the window and continue with the game.  It actually took me several minutes to figure that out.
 The information that a student receives from this software is rather superficial.  There is only a spoken sentence or two about each animal that is encountered, without any options for elaboration.  They do identify which dinosaurs are herbivores and which are carnivores, but not consistently.  The only other bit of information they give is in the form of a little side activity that you can do before or after you enter the classroom called the Dino-Sizer.  There is an image of a basketball hoop, and four buttons with drawings of different dinosaurs on them along the bottom in a row.  You are supposed to identify which dinosaur was about as tall as the hoop. When you click on a button, a dinosaur walks onto the screen and you can see whether you were right or wrong, according to it’s relative height to the hoop.
 One thing that I liked about this game was that there was a goal you were supposed to try and attain while you were exploring in the different locations.  Before you take off on the bus, Ms. Fizzle shows you her photo album from her last journey through time, and it includes pictures of dinosaurs.  She tells you that one photo is missing, and gives three clues as to which dinosaur it is a picture of.  Then, while you are exploring, you can click on her camera to take a picture at any time, if you think that the animal from the missing picture is in that screen, and she’ll tell you if you were right or wrong.  You can also click on her album at any time to review the clues.  This makes use of students’ problem solving skills and provides a fun goal for the duration of the use.  When you’re finished you have the option of saving what you’ve done so far, so that you can come back to it and pick up where you left off.  This is strength in my opinion, because a student will not experience frustration due to having to start over every time.
 Another strength I’d like to mention is the fact that before you get in the bus, you have to get a driver’s license.  They don’t make you pass any tests, but you get to type in your name and choose what kind of face you want on the picture.  This addition to the game is fun, it gives the students ownership of the learning that’s taking place, and in some small way may reinforce the idea of responsible driving.
Rating:  I give this piece of software a 7 out of 10.  While the facts being learned are not very in depth, I don’t expect them to be.  I don’t believe software should be used as a sole form of information anyway, or even a major one.  The information contained should be used as a fun supplement only, and for that reason, it doesn’t bother me that the facts are contrived, because my students would be learning in-depth through various other sources in a unit.  The graphics are colorful and appealing, and it is easy to use.  I would like it if there were more destination options, but overall, I like the software.  It’s a good supplement for a dinosaur unit, and provides an opportunity for students to practice computer skills at the same time.
User Comments:  I was unable to find any user comments for the Magic School Bus
CD-ROMs.
Links:  I could not find any written reviews for The Magic School Bus software, but it did receive a customer rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars at www.bn.com.  The lowest rating that any Magic School Bus software received was 3(Magic School bus Explores the Human Body) out of 5, while most of them were between 4 and 5.  For more information about all of the Magic School Bus products, www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/index.htm is a good resource.  It allows you to order any of them and provides brief descriptions of each.  Also, www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/games/index.htm gives classroom activities and teaching ideas to go along with several of the CD-ROMs and books.