The Most Popular Program in the lab

The most popular program in the lab this week is Math Blaster. I like Math Blaster because it's aligned to Standards and entertaining to the kids. Stealth learning at it's best. It also has some unattractive features, but that's for a different post.
At this point, all the students from 2nd grade on know how to find the icon of "The little man with the star":

Math Blaster has eight games: Juice Booth, Time Travel, Number Zapper Arcade,Animal Arena, Dunk Booth, Pie Throw, Roller Coaster, and Roller Coaster. Each one teaches a different mathematical skill.


The two most popular games are the Number Zapper Arcade and the Dunk Booth. In Number Zapper Arcade,
Here, you learn your basic math facts by shooting them down along with the rogue meteorites that are attacking your home base. It's interesting to note that a common problem in the lower grades is not in comprehension, but in the physical ability to shoot down the math facts. It requires real hand eye coordination.

The second most popular game is Dunk Booth. Here you have to discover the hidden pattern in a list of numbers on
the top of the screen. Every time you find the pattern, you use a sling shot to hit the target that shows that pattern to light up one of three bulbs also near the top of the screen. When you do this three times, the character in the middle of the screen falls into vat of water underneath. I am amazed that the kids never tire of doing this; it seems like every time the experience is as exciting and fresh as the first.

Parents often ask me where they can buy the software the kids use in the lab.

If you're a windows family, you can download a free trial at ZD Net downloads. There's no free download for Macintosh, but it's widely available on many websites for both platforms for approximately thirty dollars.
If you have an Intel Mac, be sure that you buy a version that says it is compatible with the newer Macs; many of the older games like Math Blaster only run in Classic mode on OS X. Classic is no longer supported by Apple...Which reminds me, in the Windows world, the same applies to Vista-it won't many of the older programs either.