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Educational: 4.5
Overall Design: 4.8
Ease of Use: 4.6
(4.0 = good, 4.5 = very
good, 5.0 = excellent)
The Cluefinder programs for the 5th and 6th Grade levels are of comparable quality to the program we are describing here. The order links are below.
Cluefinders 5th Grade
Cluefinders 6th Grade
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Program Description Commentary Who Is This Program For
Why We Selected This Program Computer Requirements
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The Clue Finders are a group of four "clue finding" kids - Joni, Santiago, Leslie and Owen - who travel to Egypt to embark on an archaeological adventure. They must find their professor friend who has been kidnapped by an evil archaeologist, who plans to steal the contents of an important Egyptian tomb.
The only clue left behind is an ancient scroll. This leads to a journey to Cairo, then to the Nile and finally to an ancient pyramid.
In Cairo an antique dealer guides you. You need to find specific clues to decode the scroll. You will find the clues in the various stores in the city. As you explore the stores and cafes, you are presented with puzzles and questions that use your skills in whole number addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, reading comprehension and map reading.
When you eventually get the clues required to decode the scroll, you are then off to the Nile kingdom where you encounter new challenges involving decimals, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Finally in the pyramid, you deal with word problems in math and science -- "Riddles of the Sphinx", and spelling -- "Chasm of Words".
The program allows each user to choose their own skill level and then adjusts upward as the skill of each player increases. There are 15 different learning challenges in the program and the specific questions are new each time you play. The Clue Finders themselves act as personal guides offering assistance when needed. If you are using the program in a classroom, the deluxe edition has performance tracking that lets you view the specific performance of up to 99 students. The program can also generate tailored workbooks and activities based on each student's level of performance.
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" It was really fun searching around Cairo to find the stores, where I could earn the "whatchacallits"; -- that got the first big clue from the scroll." - Penny age 8
"There was lots of parts to what you had to do. You had to answer all the questions, remember which stores to go to next to get more of the glyphs and keep track of how many glyphs I had collected. It was a lot of fun." Susan, age 10
" Boy, you had to keep going and going to get all 10 clues to get out of Cairo. It was a real challenge." Matthew, age 9
" I found the stories about the Egyptian gods really interesting." Larry, age 10
As is the case with Clue Finders' 3rd Grade Adventure, this program is equally appealing to both boys and girls. Because of the different types of skill testing challenges, it is attractive to the child who likes variety. The program is designed to help kids exercise and reinforce their existing skills.
The program is like a test in 5 major learning areas and their success in getting the answers builds their self- confidence. With 4 skill levels within the program, it effectively provides challenge for children in the later stages of grade 3, grade 4 and early grade 5.
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Our reasons as to why we selected this program are very similar to those we had for The Clue Finders' 3rd Grade Adventure. What we noticed with the Grade 4 version of this program is that it has the same strength of appeal and draw as had the 3rd Grade Cluefinders Adventure with the younger kids. This can become more of a challenge if you have kids who have experienced Nintendo as a basis of comparison.
By introducing education software to our kids at home we are often trying to get them away from the TV or video games and into something of a more productive nature. The Clue Finders series is an enticing alternative because it is like watching a great adventure story that you would see on TV, but in this case you are the director of the story and it is through your efforts and decisions that the story unfolds.
The kids we have watched use this program respond to it immediately, and really enjoy following the adventure story line to it's final conclusion. What this program does extremely well is interweave the development of the story with the exercises, keeping the interest level high for the user. The program provides tons of practice of what they know (or should know) - a total of 54 separate learning activities in all - and gives them the freedom to decide how they go about finding the clues - and encountering the different learning challenges - along the way.
Because the program provides new questions for each activity each time the program is activated, there is no possibility of encountering the same specific questions they may have encountered before. If re-enforcement and testing of existing skills and confidence building feedback in a very engaging program is of interest to you, this program is great !
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Pricing and Online Ordering
(or call toll free -1-800-250-9229 )
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Platform: PowerMac™ :, RAM : 16MB, Hard Drive: 20MB, Video : 256 colour or better,CD-ROM: 4X or better, Other: Requires a 100 Mhz PowerPC or better
Platform: Windows® 3.1,: CPU : 486/66Mhz or better, RAM : 8MB, Hard Drive: 80MB, Video : 256 colour or better, CD-ROM: 2X or better, Sound : Windows compliant sound device Mouse :
Platform: Windows® 95/98 CPU : 486/66Mhz or better, RAM : 16MB, Hard Drive: 80MB, Video : Super VGA (640x480x256 colour), CD-ROM: 4X or better, Sound : Windows compliant sound device
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or to see other multi-subject by grade programmes
Reader Rabbit 1st Grade - ages 5-7
Reader Rabbit 2nd Grade - ages 6-8
Madeline 1st and 2nd Grade - ages 5-8
The Cluefinders 3rd Grade. Adventures - ages 6-8
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