Reviewed by Molly Perkins
SCHOOL SUBJECTS: SCIENCE and PROBLEM SOLVING
GRADE LEVEL: Lower elementary
PLATFORM USED FOR EVALUATION: MACINTOSH
HARD DISK OR CD-ROM?: Disk
TIME TO PLAY: NO DESIGNATED TIME
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM: Sammy's Science House is a very interesting program. When it opens up you are greeted by Sammy, a large snake. There are five different places that you can click on to do different things. There is sound throughout the entire program. If you click on the garbage cans, you are brought into a room where you play a game where you classify different animals or other objects pertaining to science. An example would be to put rocks in one can or spiders in another, or put animals with horns in one and animals without horns in the other. This part of the program is fun for the children and it teaches them a lot about how animals can be different.
Another activity that can be done in SammyÕs Science House is to make a picture. If you click on the work bench, a work bench appears with different parts of a picture pegged on the board. You can piece the pictures together and then color in the wonderful picture that was made. One option that was very interesting is to click on the window outside that shows the view of Acorn pond. This will bring you to Acorn Pond. Here, a student can learn about the different seasons at Acorn pond and the animals that live there. If the owl in the upper right hand corner is clicked, the owl will come down and ask a question. An example would be, who lives in the pond? and three or four animals would appear on the screen and you could choose between them. This is a fun way for a child to learn about different animals and their traits. There is a notebook located in the lower right hand corner and if that is clicked, a notebook will appear with one animal per page that lives at Acorn pond and tell all about it. This one part of the program can teach students a lot about animals and their habitats and how they live.
One activity that is fun to do is the weather. If the GO button is clicked, a screen comes up and you can create your own kind of day. An example would be to make a windy day with heavy snow. Once the temperature, rate of wind, and rate of precipitation are chosen, a little cartoon will come on and demonstrate the day that was designed. If the bear is clicked he will come and ask you to make a certain type of day and then the cartoon will come on showing the type of day that was asked. The last part of the program is the movies. If the camera is clicked, then you get to choose between three frames, and when they are put in the right sequence, then the film can be shown, both forwards and backwards. These films have to do with science, for example, one was of a caterpillar that went into a cocoon and then turned into a butterfly.