resources update issue 77

Continuing our series of tasters of our digital resource evaluations, we bring you a selection of history, maths, science, art & design, english, cross curricular and digital tool titles for primary and secondary: -

• BBC Active: Big Picture E Big Book: Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
• Cambridge - Hitachi: Mult-e-Maths - Solving Problems
• Crocodile Clips Ltd: Crocodile Physics
• Longman (Pearson): Sciencebox

• Spark-Space Ltd: Kidspark
• Corel UK Ltd: Corel Paint Shop Pro X
• Longman (Pearson): P.B. Bear's Interactive Adventures
• Taecanet: Taecanet Website Secondary Focus

Are chemistry teachers more knowledgeable than maths teachers? Where do geography teachers stand? Which subject area boasts most eggheads! Find out if teachers of your subject are the brainiest in Britain by taking this quiz, 12 questions on a variety of subjects.

Plus - there are two prize draws of £250 to be won! one to be drawn from all the entrants with full marks (or nearest) and one from all the others - so you don't have to be brainy to win, but it helps!

Please remember to complete your contact details at the end of the quiz in order to be entered into the draw.

Proceed to quiz - Prize fund of £500!

This E Book provides an excellent foundation for teachers to build exciting, research-based topics that help develop and guide children’s own learning at a number of levels, with cross-curricular links to many other subjects especially literacy where 15 different writing genres are included. Big Picture contains a CD-ROM, Big Book and a well-planned Teacher’s Activity Guide, bringing together the three distinct yet related periods of British history before the Norman Conquest, as outlined in QCA units 6a, 6b and 6c.
This is a great tool for increasing pupils’ self-confidence and motivation while giving them a sense of taking control of their own learning. Being suitable for either whole class or individual learning, particularly for more able pupils, this program has tremendous potential.

This is primarily an interactive whiteboard resource aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning of problem solving skills in KS2 classes. It brings the classroom alive with productive excitement, engaging learners and teacher alike and making learning fun. There is also scope to use the program on either individual or networked computers.

The program is most appropriate when the children are competent in a concept and need to practise applying the skills to solve a related problem. There are various questions on each learning objective, which could be used for differentiation or repeated use in assessing understanding, using a question per day matched to the progression of the week’s objectives. Support materials include a planning overview for teachers to match to their own planning and various good printable resources.

Paint Shop Pro X is a graphics program specifically designed for use with digital pictures. There are a host of features and tools to adjust and manipulate images which include the ability to crop, rotate and resize images; to fix, improve and repair pictures, and also a variety of ways to add effects and to alter how the image looks. It could be used in any lesson where digital images need to be improved or changed, and particularly in ICT lessons, to develop the skills and understanding required to fulfil a number of the objectives within the KS3 ICT Strategy. It’s simple, user friendly interface means that an in-depth knowledge of the software is not required although for more advanced users, it also has a multitude of more complex ‘professional’ tools and techniques that can be applied.

This is a simulator, covering many aspects of the physics syllabus. It has many possible uses within the classroom, including but not limited to: demonstrating experiments, simulating difficult or dangerous experiments such as changing the gravitational field strength or hurling impossibly large projectiles, illustrating concepts like charge on a capacitor which are very difficult to visualise, preparing for practical work eg carrying out preliminary experiments before an investigation and supplementing practical work for extension purposes. The teacher and/or student are completely in control of the simulation, choosing the components and setting it up, so it can be tailored to the individual user. The possibilities for this software are endless as differentiation is extremely easy and it can be applied to a wide range of key stages and ages. Overall, it is an extremely attractive and versatile resource.

This is an exciting CD-ROM, which includes five videos of P.B. Bear’s adventures, talking book versions and differentiated interactive activities. P.B. Bear and his friends are firm favourites with the under-fives and Foundation Year pupils.

The layout is clear, bright and easy to navigate. There is an option to see the story as a video, or have it read as a talking book. The video version has ‘hot-spots’ and clicking on these allows the user to take part in an activity linked to the text, which match some of the early learning goals for Foundation Stage.

This title has already delighted our new intake of ‘Acorns’ and has allowed an early introduction to using the ICT suite as the P.B Bear CD-ROMs can be used on individual PCs as well as a whole-class activity on the interactive whiteboard.

ScienceBox is a superb resource for supporting the teaching of the 12 QCA Science Units and Science NC at Key Stage 1. Each Unit presents both a teacher and pupil version of the same material. There are 2 animations per unit and images, which work well with an interactive whiteboard. The children found these fascinating. These graphics can easily be transferred into word processing and presentation packages as well.

Excellent print activities support the learning of key objectives. The activities help to develop investigation skills and provide teachers with fully-editable worksheets that can be differentiated for a range of attainment levels in class. The package comes complete with easy to read Teacher’s Notes, which explain how to use this resource clearly. This package will almost certainly prove invaluable to both scientific and non-scientific Key Stage 1 teachers.

The Taecanet web based service has a wealth of content and features. Covering every unit of the QCA scheme of work for science, history and geography at KS3, students can also access precursor KS2 units as an aid to transition. Students have access to learning journeys that introduce a specific topic or concept and take the learner to relevant web pages, explaining what they should try to find out and assessing their success with an instantly marked question. Once a whole unit has been completed, three other options are presented. Students can revisit the websites associated with the module, explore linked sites and post comments, or questions about their content, for others to read. The major strengths of this service are its flexibility, comprehensive coverage of the curriculum, low cost and ease of use.

• Check whether it’s suitable for whole- class teaching. Is it designed so that pupils can work with it on their own, with features like voice over on the text to help them understand and complete the activities? Will pupils need teacher support to get the best from it?
• Will the resource be compatible with other programs?
• Does the resource provide support materials for teachers? For pupils? Are there worksheets, teachers’ notes, lesson plans, differentiation activities?