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BBC Favourites Quad Pack (PC)

Avanquest Software
GCSE Bitesize Revision: Science

BBC Multimedia

The Science GCSE Revision CD from the BBC's Bitesize Revision series is an excellent resource for study and preparation for exams. Installable on a PC operating with Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or 98, it presents you with a full regimen from which you can organise effective revision over any period of time. Multiple users are supported, each able to keep track of his or her own progress. There are plenty of practice questions and "revision bites", and you can highlight areas on which more study is necessary. Work from the CD can be printed in PDF format to take away from the computer, and you can pace your progress in several different ways, coming back to the desired place on subsequent sessions.
Science topics include all items dealt with in GCSE standard, with study divided by tier (Double or Single Award Science, Foundation or Higher) which is selectable at the start of revision. Topics cover extensively several subjects, including all the current themes taught in the disciplines of Chemistry, Physics and Biology, all clearly illustrated with examples and plenty of factsheets and diagrams. Reference tables and summaries are available, and you can keep your own fully organised and personalised notebook alongside lessons. A full and realistic examination paper culminates the study process. --Wilf Hey
Key Stage 3 Bitesize Revision English

BBC Multimedia
GCSE Bitesize Revision: Maths

BBC Multimedia

The Maths GCSE Revision CD from the BBC's Bitesize Revision series is an excellent resource for study and preparation for exams. Installable on a PC operating with Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or 98, it presents you with a full regimen from which you can organise effective revision over any period of time. Multiple users are supported, each able to keep track of his or her own progress. There are plenty of practice questions and "revision bites", and you can highlight areas on which more study is necessary. Work from the CD can be printed in PDF format to take away from the computer, and you can pace your progress in several different ways, coming back to the desired place on subsequent sessions.
Maths covered include all items dealt within GCSE standard, with study divided by tier (Foundation and Intermediate) which is selectable at the start of revision. Topics cover several subjects extensively, including probability, data handling and algebra, all clearly illustrated with examples and plenty of diagrams. Reference tables and summaries are available, and you can keep your own fully organised and personalised notebook alongside lessons. A full and realistic examination paper culminates the study process. --Wilf Hey
Walking with Dinosaurs

BBC Multimedia
The Human Body - Your Body

BBC Multimedia

Tied in to the BBC TVdocumentary series, and similarly narrated by the lugubrious-but-magisterial Lord Winston, The Human Body is an all-singing, all-dancing National Curriculum-compatible CD-ROM that serves as a guide to the subject that fascinates us above all others: ourselves.
The format is at first mildly perplexing, but on greater acquaintance hugely absorbing. Using the special Life Stages 'navigation ball' the viewer can scroll through six stages of human existence, from womb to wheelchair, taking in some highly involving videos, stills and sound recordings of important bodily processes, like blood circulation or hormone replacement. An authoritative medical dictionary allows you to understand difficult terms, or cherry-pick subjects of special interest; there's also a section, "YouWatcher", devoted to personal health, and offering dietary advice, lifestyle options, even a personal fitness programme based on questionnaires.
But perhaps the coolest bit is the interactive "Bodylabs" section. Here you can play some nifty games with, for instance, your on-screen sperm ("hit that ovary in sixty seconds"), follow the destiny of a meal as it's devoured and digested, and implant the egg you fertilised in the wall of a virtual uterus. You can also make your cyber-self hiccup, sneeze, cough, yawn and belch--a pretty much ideal antidote to that eaten-too-much-turkey post-Christmas dinner feeling. --Sean Thomas
Attenborough`s Antarctic

BBC Multimedia

Attenborough's Antarctic is a deliberately ingenuously titled CD-ROM, since of course the Antarctic is the world's last great unexplored territory. A continent in its own right--and, according to Graham Hancock, the home of a lost civilisation--vast swathes of the Antarctic remain largely unknown. Nevertheless, this package still goes a long way towards developing an understanding of the history and nature of this remarkable place.
The range is very diverse. There are detailed and well-illustrated field guides of some of the sturdy creatures who survive down here--top marks to the regal King Penguins--as well as a series of historical and natural historical quests to keep the user's interest, tours of 6 regions narrated by the mellifluous David Attenborough, and a retelling of the stories of some of the explorers--Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton--who became famous for their obsession with the uttermost part of the earth.
Attenborough's Antarctic has been very well put together. The graphics and video shots are beautiful, the topographical maps give an unexpected sense of perspective to the "white continent", and the CD-ROM will be of much use to people putting their own Antarctic presentations together, coming with software that allows you to compile your own presentation using its text and illustrations. It is both a useful and an interesting package, which seems destined to have a long shelf life. --Toby Green
Spark Island Reading Games 5-7

BBC Multimedia

Spark Island Reading Games is an excellent set of interactive reading games for children aged between five and seven, which will help to consolidate work that is being done by children in the Literacy hour at school.
Children choose activities from a map and are introduced to the games by a range of helpful characters from Sparklantis, a submerged city. Children are rewarded with megahops at the end of each activity and they can keep track of their score and also print out a certificate.
There is a choice of six games that develop a range of skills. Photo fun requires children to put a set of named photos in alphabetical order. This is also a very good activity for developing children's control of the mouse, as they have to click and drag the photos to the correct place on a list. Children have to distinguish between vowels and consonants when playing Letter Bubbles. Seaweed Supreme challenges children have to complete words by finding missing pieces. This activity consolidates reading and spelling strategies. Younger children may need adult support with this activity. Syllabubbles tests children's knowledge of the number of syllables in a range of words. Pinball Pairs involves the children finding pairs of words with the same meaning. Children can try to outsmart the Wise Wizard, by choosing an animal and then answering a range of questions, so that he can guess which animal they have chosen.
There is an outstanding guide for parents, which goes through the games listing the skills that children will be developing and how parents should approach the activity with their child. Ideas are given for follow-up activities and there are even materials that can be printed out and used with children to consolidate and extend the activities.
All, in all this CD-ROM would be an excellent purchase for children aged five to seven. --Amanda York
Result BBC Sports Quiz with Desmond Lynam

BBC Multimedia