News from the Ontario Software Acquisition Program
Details of all of the latest issues surrounding the Provincial licensing of software for use in our schools is available at the OSAPAC web site.
MATH CIRCUS ACT ONE & TWO
Math Circus is a collection of puzzles, all based around the theme of a circus. The puzzles are “mathematical”, in that they require reasoning, but they are not just drill-and-practice exercises. They are problem solving activities, designed to stimulate the user and provoke clear thinking in an enjoyable and challenging manner. There are twelve puzzles. Every puzzle has five levels of difficulty. Together, these cater to wide ranges of ages and abilities. Controls allow the teacher or parent to set certain problems and levels of difficulty for a given student or group, and then monitor the progress of each individual or group.
Math Circus is suitable for use in schools at a wide range of levels. It provides an enjoyable way for the teacher to approach problem solving - how to tackle a new problem for which there is no obvious technique. Students have to use their initiative, and learn by experience. However, the problems are easy enough to ensure that success, and a consequent boost in confidence, is reasonably easy to achieve if the right level of difficulty is chosen.
The software is likely to prove most useful in the middle and upper levels of elementary schools, and in junior high years. However, the easiest levels of most puzzles are suitable for even younger age groups, though very young children may need to use the program's speech facilities to understand the instructions. Most puzzles have very little text. The hardest levels may give even experienced math teachers a difficult time, and so are certainly suitable as challenging activities even in senior levels of high schools. However, even the hardest puzzles can be solved using only elementary mathematical techniques familiar to all elementary students.
WordPerfect Suite
The Ministry of Education and training has licensed French and English language versions of Corel WordPerfect Suite 7 for Windows 3.1 (Academic Edition) and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 for Windows 95 (Academic Edition) for use in all Ontario Schools.
More than 2.5 million students will have access to French and English versions of CorelDRAW 8 Academic, CorelDRAW 5 Academic and CorelDRAW 6 for Power Macintosh Academic.
Click to read the details from the Ministry of education and Training web site.
New in March
New in February
Mathville VIP (Grades 6-8)
Mathville VIP transforms the virtual village of Mathville into a
multimedia environment full of sights, sounds, and activities
that integrate mathematics with everyday experiences. In
Mathville, a citizen works, shops, and plays, exercising math
skills that are an integral part of these activities.
Mathematics is a part of life in the virtual village of
Mathville, just as it is in real life.
Mathville VIP is designed to integrate a broad range of thinking and mathematics skills with everyday life in a virtual village. The activities, which incorporate a wide variety of curriculum topics, are imaginative and engaging for the student. While reinforcing the math skills learned in school, the program is designed to empower learners to develop creative problem solving-skills and a real sense of math confidence.
While the problems in Mathville VIP span a variety of topics and difficulty levels, they are not grouped by type, or presented in a sequential or hierarchical fashion. Such a subject-specific approach leads to a predictability that is inconsistent with Mathville's real world, problem-solving orientation. The math that we see in the world around us is not grouped into Algebra or Arithmetic, or arranged in order of difficulty, and neither are the problems in Mathville. In terms of curriculum coverage, Mathville VIP is targeted to Grades 6 and up. However, the flexibility in the program and the everyday math focus allow learners outside that grade range to discover styles of exploration that are suited to their abilities.
NETWORKING ALLOWED. Teachers may borrow a copy for lesson preparation purposes.
Virtual Tiles (Transition and
Senior Years)
Virtual Tiles is a software program which gives students of all
ages a concrete model for operations with integers and
polynomials. It is a computerized version of the algebra
tiles manipulative used by many teachers. he evaluation of
an expression, combining like terms, solving equations, the
distributive property, multiplication of polynomials, division of
polynomials, and factoring, all have concrete models using tiles
which are extremely effective. Virtual Tiles allows a
student to construct her/his own meaning for many complicated
concepts. Students can then factor expressions with Virtual
Tiles that very few students in high school could do using any
other techniques. This software provides all the benefits
of working with algebra tiles or blocks with many significant
advantages.
NETWORKING
ALLOWED. Teachers may borrow a copy for lesson preparation
purposes.
(dp)
|
|