Title: Super Solvers Reading Ages 9-12
Overall Rating:
B
Source: The Learning Company
Playing Time: 15min.
Date: 2-9-99
Cost: $ 29.95 http://www.shoptlc.com
Number of Players: 1
Special Equipment/Facilities Needed:
Subject Area: Language Arts
Objectives: reading for main ideas, recalling
key facts, drawing information, and building vocab
Brief Description: A strange scientist
uses one of the five robot bodies to create mischief. It is your
job to find him out by seeking out envelopes with written clues, while
taking pictures of the robots as they come at you. You have to be
quick to get a picture of them before they run into you or you lose film!
Entry Capabilities Required: to be able
to read and use a mouse
Rating: (1-5)
Relevance to objectives: 5
Provides practice of relevant skills:
5
Likely to arouse/maintain interest: 3
(boring even the first time through it, not enough to stimulate interest)
Likely to be comprehended clearly: 4
Technical quality (durable, attractive): 3
(average, nothing grand)
Game: Winning dependent on player actions (rather
than chance): 2 (there were a couple of times
I didn't even read the selection but guessed at the answer and ended up
getting it right)
Simulation: Validity of game model (realistic,
accurate depiction): 4
Evidence of effectiveness (e.g. field-test results):
Nothing I am aware of besides this review here. I mean it says on
the cover that other teachers and students have tried it out in the classroom
and liked it, but how much of that is simply said to get a buy.
Clear directions for play: 4
(I wasn't really sure what I was doing until I got half way through the
game. I didn't know what I was looking for. I was playing and
I was doing fine but I didn't know what the purpose was until later.
Effectiveness of debriefing:
3 (sketchy)
Strong Points:
Use of letters, books, diary entries, posters, reports, and newspaper articles,
reinforces practical aspect of reading, a blend of reading skills and thinking
skills, hard words button - gives definitions of a word child may not recognize,
adaptability - change level of difficulty, character moves quickly
Weak Points:
Boring game, even for a future English teacher. If I am bored with
it I wonder how interested a student who doesn't even like to read will
be interested in it.
Reviewer: Heather Colbert
Position: undergraduate
Date: 2-12-99
Computer System Reviewed on: Macintosh
PowerPC 6500/250, 32mb ram.