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Educational: 4.3
Overall Design: 4.5
Ease of Use: 4.3
(4.0 = good, 4.5 = very
good, 5.0 = excellent)
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Mia - Just In Time
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Publisher: Kutoka
Learning Areas: Exercises basic math skills and knowledge involving number recognition, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, number sequencing, geometric shapes, angles and basic equations.
Age Range: 8 -12 Grades: 3 - 7
Minimum Reqs: Windows 95 or better, Mac, Power Mac, OS 8.1 or better
(see detail below)
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Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
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Program Description Who Is This Program For
Why We Selected This Program Computer Requirements
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Mia Just In Time is a 3D animated story involving a young girl mouse called Mia and her family who live in a grand old victorian house. The program is a sleuthing adventure where you help Mia unravel the mystery surrounding the fire that burned their house to the ground as well as help her rebuild a time machine that will take her back to before the time of the fire and to prevent the fire from ever happening.
The program opens with a short animation that introduces Mia, tells of the story of the fire, their narrow escape and sets the stage for the journey. The story has two major stages, the first being the exploration to find the parts to rebuild the time machine and the second, a further series of adventures that allows Mia to go back in time and prevent the fire from ever happening.
The journey begins in a shed outside Mia's home. Your challenge is to find a clue in the scene that will allow you to find a vital part for the time machine. By moving your mouse to the left or right, Mia will move around the scene following your directions, as you look for the clue. By clicking on Mia, she will give you suggestions to help in the search. By clicking on the many objects in the scene, you will find the clue that will then lead you to a game that will test your mathematical abilities. If you succeed in answering the questions, you will gain one of the four parts you need for the time machine.
The math activities - with four levels of difficulty to choose from, when you start - involve solving simple equations, adding and subtracting, number sequences, fractions, identifying geometric shapes and other early math knowledge and skills. One of the more interesting activities is figuring out what the time and day will be from now when you are given the current day and time and the number of days and hours you are going to go ahead on the time machine. (See the Time Machine Clock at right)
The full program is a two CD set which has allowed Kutoka, the publisher, to create a lengthy story line, lots of skill testing activities and sleuthing along the way. The activities and the story development are tightly interwoven, so you are learning more about the larger story as you progress through the various scenes looking for clues and finding the various parts of the time machine.
The story culminates with the discovery of who was the culprit behind the fire and the setting of a trap to catch him. We won't say more, other than to say that the story has a good ending.
If you register with Kutoka the publisher at the time of installation, you can go the Kutoka site and download a free Mia MP3 player which comes with the original songs from the story and can be used to play any MP3 songs. The Mia character on the MP3 player will move to the beat of the song you are playing.
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Starting the Journey
The 'Time Machine"
The Time Machine Clock
Seeing Number Patterns
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The suggested age range for Mia Just In Time is 6 - 10. Even at the easiest level of math activities, we would suggest that the appropriate starting age for this program be 8 and go up to 12, given the level of math knowledge and skills required to do many of the exercises. We found this out with our testers and were able to gauge this with our knowledge of math skills taught by grade. We would also suggest this age range, given the level of challenge that is involved in the sleuthing aspect of the program.
Mia is suitable for either boys or girls, though given the female character of Mia, it will generally have greater appeal for girls. This is a challenging program in terms of the patience and determination required in sleuthing around to find clues. This is not for a child with a limited attention span.
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In comparison to other educational software available today, you won't find a higher quality program in terms of the visual quality of animation and story line development, than in this Mia program. The animation quality is not just there in the animated story parts of the program but also in the way Mia moves and responds to you as you guide her through the various areas of the story.
As you travel through the various scenes, there are all kinds of little side trips and events to keep your interest up and a whole host of engaging animal characters that you meet along the way. The math activities are well designed visually and are solid in terms of skills and knowledge exercises. We will warn you that there may be some exercises that are going to require some parental assistance as they can be above the knowledge or skill levels of the publisher's suggested age range. As well, the program sometimes uses technical math terms where there is no need to, and some of the basic algebra is a bit on the high end of reasonable expectation for 8 and 9 year olds.
With these provisos about some of the math exercises, Mia is an excellent program for the right child.
- Kevin Dempsey teaches Grades 3 and 4 in Fort Ware, British Columbia and is a Learning Village reviewer.
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Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
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Platform: Windows® 95 or better, including XP, Pentium 233 MMX Processor, 64 MB of RAM, 640 x 480 Video Card with 256 colors, 16 bit Sound Blaster Sound Card or another that is 100% compatible, 6x CD-ROM drive, 40 MB of Hard Disk space
Platform: Mac OS 8.1 or better, G3 233 MHz Processor or iMac, 64 MB of RAM, 640 x 480 Video Card with 256 colors, Standard Macintosh Sound Card, 6x CD-ROM drive, 40 MB of Hard Disk space
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or to see other math learning programs
Disney Ready For Math with Pooh - ages 3-6
On Track Math Series - ages 3 -9
Reader Rabbit's Math - ages 6-9
Math Workshop Deluxe - ages 6-12
Carmen Sandiego Math Detective - ages 8-14
Neufeld - Understanding Math - ages 10-16
MathTrek Grades 7 & 8 - ages 12-14
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