Title: Cluefinder’s 5th Grade Adventures

Publisher: The Learning Company/Mattel, Inc.

Date Published: 2000

Platform: Mac or Windows? Both

Content Area: What is the primary content area addressed with this software? The primary content was the Fifth Grade curriculum.

Range of Grade Levels: What range of grade levels is appropriate for this software? The software will be challenging for Fifth Graders and 6-8th graders should find the problems challenging enough to be entertaining.

Content Description: Include an elaboration about the specific content, purpose, flexibility/versatility, games levels, description of game with examples, player description, time needed to play, and best use (individual, small, whole group).
The point of the game is to use curriculum level skills to help two pre-teens find two captured friends/the Captain (and Grandpa) and crew of an ocean vessel.  There are special kryptiles (tiles with an unintelligible word on each) that signify status, trading power, and advancement in the game.

Included skills are:  Math (Adding/Subtracting/Fractions), Language Arts (pre/suffixes, synonyms and antonyms), Geography (Maps), Vocabulary, Electric Circuits, Reading Skills, and Navigation.
The game software claims to adjust to the level of the student playing, and I could tell this in the fraction cave with the tube worm.  I didn’t understand the instructions or that I could click on the preteens for instructions so I was playing pretty poorly.  The fractions went from numbers like 2/3, 1/6, 2/8, 3/7, and 1/9 where fractions with different denominators had to equal one when stacked on top of each other to having fractions like four ¼ and 3 1/3 together with 2 ½  and some extra fifths.  As I got the hang of playing, the fractions got harder, replacing 5 1/5s with 2 1/5 and a 3/5.  The battery circuitry tasks also got harder the more I did correctly.
The average player would be a student who loves to play on the computer and has a great deal of patience and time as the game is extremely lengthy and difficult to navigate.  The best use of this program would be to explain it to the group or post directions beside the computer and then let students experiment with the software in pairs.

Instructional Type: (Check all that apply)
__X___ Drill and Practice                    ______ Tutorial
_____ Simulation                                ___X__ Game
___X__ Problem Solving                      ___X__ Tool

Strengths/Weaknesses: Note the ease of play, as well as specific strengths and weaknesses of the software.
This is a game that encompasses many skills that 5th grade students need to practice and uses 5th grade vocabulary regularly.  The adventure is interesting and none of the tasks are too hard for the students to accomplish given understanding of the task.  The game is brightly colored and complex enough to hold the attention of many different types of students.  The game can be played repeatedly without becoming boring.
However, this game is poorly explained, has an incredibly obnoxious sound component that is vital to the game (that would disrupt class or require headphones to play), and leaves the player at a loss to understand the task at hand or how to get to the next task.  The software is built with a lot of time wasted in explaining the adventure (up to 5 minutes in the beginning) that it is impossible to bypass.  When tasks have to be repeated, the words used are always the same and can be a rather large frustration factor.

How would using this software add to a lesson or a classroom? (That is, why use it, rather than just teaching without it?)
This software is of use in practicing the specific skills built into the game “tasks.”  In a lesson about adding/subtracting, fractions, building words, vocabulary, sequencing parts of a passage, understanding electrical circuitry, or knowing states in the United States, this lesson would be really fun support for concepts taught in class.  In any other lesson, the game would be totally out of context and helpful only in gaining unconnected skills that will be useful to know on the End of Year tests.  The software, if used in computer time, or free time, makes mediocre use of the students’ time in some portions and excellent use of their time in task portions.
Note:  The software claims that other math/literature/geography/science/problem solving skills are covered, but one has to get to the level in which each skill is covered and the game takes such an incredibly long time to play that it hardly matters (in the classroom) that those skills are covered.
Would you use this software with your students? Why or why not?
This software would have limited use in my classroom.  I would use it to teach computer skills (especially navigation skills) and I would use it in specified times when students experiment with several different choices of educational software in an attempt to teach computer skills and curriculum skills in the context of fun games.  I say I would use this software, but the music and voices are so obnoxious, and the directions so badly explained that I’m not sure I could tolerate the sound of students playing the game in my classroom or the “how do I do this?” questions that would undoubtedly result.   The reviews I have read on the web seem to back the software 100%, giving it 5/5 stars in many interviews.  I would have to see if students actually liked this game.

Rating: Rate the software from 1 to 10 with ten being the best. Explain why you rated it this way.
For the reasons above, I would rate this software a 5 out of 10  (Good educational instruction mixed with bad graphics, few directions, an emphasis on listening and music, long periods of no instruction).

Links: Include at least one link related to this software that would be useful. Examples include other reviews, catalogs/sources, and lesson plans.  Be sure and briefly describe the link.
www.cluefinders.com offers parent and teacher support for the cluefinder software that includes where to buy the software and who has the lowest price on it, and how to get school editions with binders of accompanying information.  The site also has a secret clubhouse (with passwords, adventures, etc…) for kids who enjoy the software.