New Releases
Microsoft Offers Complimentary Educator Resource
Microsoft's new Teaching and Learning with Microsoft CD-ROM packet is now available. For just the cost of shipping and handling ($4.95/$7.50 CDN), educators get two CDs with templates for teachers, including grade books, tests, lesson plans and calendars. Also included are templates for students, including reports, lab sheets, graph paper and conversion tables.
Also included are self-paced guides for learning various Microsoft applications such as Office, Publisher, Outlook Express, FrontPage, PowerPoint and Windows 98. Classroom-tested lessons developed with Scholastic show you how to integrate these applications into the classroom, and curriculum-based 'SchoolKit' activities launch you directly into an application, providing all the necessary assistance needed to fully explore that application, with an eye to classroom activities. Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, www.microsoft.com.
Free Online Simulation Teaches Microbiology
Although not strictly 'software' in the material sense, Outbreak! is a free, Web-based game that teaches high school and college students the clinical diagnostic methodologies and skills used in microbiology. Players assume the role of a student lab technician, a senior lab technician or a medical technologist, and are assigned a sample from a patient with symptoms matching those of a current illness outbreak. These medical sleuths must then attempt to identify the organism causing the outbreak by choosing the appropriate culture media and biochemical tests and properly interpreting test results.
The game, or simulation, was developed by National Biotechnology Information Facility (NBIF) scientists and New Mexico State University students. It is available to all Web users at www.nbif.org/outbreak. Surprisingly, it requires no plug-ins or special software add-ons. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, (505) 522-9350, www.nmsu.edu.
Software Packages Selected by Top Educators
Teacher Street has announced their first Classroom Software Collections - all-in-one packages that include top-level, teacher-selected educational software from various publishers, grouped according to content area and grade level. Each software program is correlated to national educational standards. Also included are original curriculum activities, assessment strategies and Internet connections designed to assist teachers in integrating the software programs into their curriculum.
Teacher Street is a venture created by Christopher Werler and Annette Donnelly who, between them, have 20 years experience in educational software publishing and marketing at Tom Snyder Productions. The first three collections available are: Elementary Language Arts Collection for Grades 3-6, Classroom Publishing & Multimedia Collection, and Teacher Productivity Tools Collection. Collections are available in Win/ Mac hybrid packages, and may be purchased in 1-, 5-, 10- and 25-computer licenses. For more information and to meet the firm's Educational Advisory Board, please visit their Web site. Teacher Street, Medford, MA, (800) 4-TEACHER, www.teacherstreet.com.