ScienceMania KS2

• Product Names: ScienceMania
• Manufacturer/Publisher: Topologika Ltd

With Science Mania you can have fun revising Science skills

Suitable material for learning and revising Science makes ScienceMania a motivational piece of software to help pupils who may struggle to grasp the concepts of this subject. The topics covered include four levels of difficulty which are linked directly to the National Curriculum and the QCA Scheme of work objectives.

There are different mazes in various styles and four main topics along with a Lucky Dip which the pupil can use to improve their Science skills. By answering the multiple choice questions they move around the maze gaining points.

The topics include:

• Scientific enquiry where the questions are about equipment, fair tests and working safely
• Life processes and living things is about life cycles, keeping healthy, micro-organisms and habits to name but a few
• Materials and the properties covers rocks, soils, solids, liquids, gases and their changing state
• Physical processes includes magnets, forces, sound, friction and other subjects
• Lucky Dip category will select questions from all the topics as well as using new questions added to this section using the Custom Question Writer

Mazes can even be created to make this program even more fun and suitable for revision. This will encourage design and creativity in Science!

To vary the learning process there are six puzzles available to play. Again these have four levels of difficulty to encourage further learning:

• Feel the Force explores how the correct amount of force can move objects
• Laser Lab uses mirrors and blockers so that the laser can escape the lab, used to develop an understanding of angles
• Living Pinball answering the questions correctly reveals the name of the organism. This is used to help the pupil understand the defining characteristics of different types of organisms
• Mixture Magic allows the users to discover how filtration systems can work by arranging the filters available in the correct order
• Short Circuit introduces circuits as a concept. Can you light the bulb by completing the circuit using the components available?
• Thinamajig is a card game about scientific equipment to encourage correct naming and memory skills, based on the traditional 'pairs game'

All these puzzles can be played against the clock if desired thereby encouraging children's motivation to beat their own times. If the speaking version is loaded the pupil can hear the questions and puzzle instructions read aloud.

The benefit of this program is to reinforce what has been learnt in lessons and with printable worksheets available it makes an excellent revision tool. As the software can be set at different levels it is suitable for all abilities and can be easily tailored to suit an individual's need.

You will need:

• Windows 95 or later