Back To School Plans
Big Note Music Speller 1.5
College Calculus 1.0
DNAid 1.8
Express Yourself 1.0.1 (HyperCard)
Graf 2.3.6
graph3D 0.5
HyperSmart 1.0
Japanese Prelector 1.2
Lattice Maker 2.6
Lesson Planner 1.5 (ClarisWorks)
Lifemaker 2.0
MACroEcon 1.10
Math Flashcard 1.0
Math School 1.3
Moon Tool 1.0.1
Schedule Maker 3.0
Talking Piano Teacher 1.5
Teacher's Aide 2.2
xFunctions 2.3
Back To School Plans
Category: Education
Author: Charles Doe
Every teacher, whether novice or jaded, faces the challenge of
inventing lesson plans which will keep their students engaged
and involved. New teachers must create from scratch, whereas the
experienced must keep reinventing their style, or go stale.
Both will benefit from "Back to School with SchoolHouse Mac",
a collection of intriguing lesson plans sure to catch students'
attention -- and hold it. Included are over 50 lesson plans, mostly
involving science and history. (Sorry, English teachers: looks
like you're gonna just have to make 'em read Ivanhoe again.) The
science plans are the goofiest and, therefore, the best.
SchoolHouse Mac has a library of over 3,000 lesson plans: a catalog
is included. Wow 'em your first day back!
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: back plans school docmaker lessons learning education science
history teaching schoolhouse mac freeware
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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Big Note Music Speller 1.5
Category: Education
Author: David Bagno, Educational Computer Resources
Educational Computer Resources, a New York-based shareware firm,
has produced another utility to teach about music. Big Note Music
Speller is a flashcard-like program specially geared to children,
and with its large, color display and interactive sound its sure
to attract anyone interested in learning to read music.
Basically, the program has one function: it flashes a note on
a grand staff, and the student's task is to play that note on
the virtual piano keyboard below the staff. The note plays, and
you are told whether your choice was correct or not. Score is
kept, and records can be viewed, exported to the clipboard, or
printed.
A few useful options are noticeably missing from Big Note Music
Speller. For one, there's no option to teach note spelling in
an active way: that is, to allow the user to type in the note's
name for approbation. Instead, what this program really teaches
is the beginning keyboard skill of note reading. Also, this program
suffers from some of the same flaws as others by ECR: a heavy-handed
approach to resource management, mildly gaudy colors, an enigmatic
timer, and a questionably non-standard interface. Still, it's
fairly stable, offers speech encouragement (for those users with
MacinTalk or Speech Manager), and could find its place among a
music student's suite of instructional materials.
Version 1.2 adds microphone support (to allow students to record
their own sounds) and some additional sound input/output options,
such as MIDI control. Version 1.4.1 "kidproofs" and improves the
interface. Version 1.5 fixes a bug that disabled the "File" and
"Edit" popup menus on 13" and 14" monitors.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: BIG NOTE MUSIC SPELLER CHILDREN KIDS DRILL QUIZ STAFF
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $20
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College Calculus 1.0
Category: Education
Author: G. Labisi
Cramming for your College Calc exams? Take a look at Bo Labisi's
study guide, a collection of formulas, quizzes and instructional
aids to guide you through the vagaries of Integral and Differential
Calculus, with an additional section devoted to Differential Equations.
The author has accomplished a difficult task in many places --
formatting equations in HyperCard -- and has likewise included
a nice "flashcard" function which lets you peek at exercise answers
for a short, adjustable time. Complete instructions on using the
stack add a welcome element of user-friendliness to an already
mind-breaking subject.
Note that some of the hypertext links haven't been realized, and
so clicking on "Functions and Combinations of Functions" (for
example) fails to bring up the expected set of exercises. These
links are fully realized for those who pay their shareware fees.
(And you *were* planning on doing that, weren't you?) But even
before you do, the information's there for much of the stack,
and should give you a good study guide to supplement your textbooks.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: education stack hypercard math study university quiz flashcards
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $10
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DNAid 1.8
Category: Education
Author: Frederic Dardel
Hey kids -- let's play God! Well, O.K., DNAid doesn't exactly
let you play God, but it does give you additional insight into
the much-vaunted "building blocks" of life, DNA. In it, you can
describe genetic sequences using standard single-letter IUPAC/IUB
codes to show nucleotides, along with the standard four (A=Adenosine,
T=Thymidine, G=Guanosine, C=Cytosine). These sequences -- which
can be created either from within the program's text editor or
imported from another text program -- can then be analyzed for
various qualities (such as molecular weight and codon usage),
searched for repeating patterns, converted between DNA and proteins
(where applicable) and otherwise manipulated to analyze the composition
of the string. Besides reading simple text files, there is an
option to accept the input of the Pharmacia ALF DNA sequencing
machine, together with a utility to strip out those characters
which are meaningless to DNAid: in effect, a translation between
the data collector and its interpreter.
Finally, there's speech. Sequences of simple nucleotides can be
read out to you using the Mac's internal speaker. The pace is
rapid, but just about right for dictation purposes, should you
need to write the sequences down. (It's also possible, of course,
to cut and paste segments of molecules between DNAid and other
programs.) There are one or two features missing that would be
welcome -- on-screen plotting would be welcome, for instance --
but given its flexibility and elegant interface, DNAid is a winner.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: DNAid education science GENETICS PROTEINS MOLECULES MUTATION
BIOCHEMISTRY SPEECH FREEWARE
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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Express Yourself 1.0.1 (HyperCard)
Category: Education
Author: American Civil Liberties Union
Say you're a high-school student. Say you have a favorite hat
you like to wear. Say the principal tells you not to wear it anymore
or you'll be expelled. What can you do?
Modern American youth are appallingly restricted in freedoms,
but there are remedies. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
has compiled this HyperCard stack, "Express Yourself", to educate
and inform all of us of decisions which affect school-age people.
The stack includes several highly engaging vignettes describing
civil rights issues which affect youth, mostly focusing on First
Amendment issues such as censorship. There's also a fairly good
(although not terribly deep) reference area, with the California
State Constitution, the Bill of Rights, notes on important civil
rights court rulings and so forth. A "Notes" area and a "Bulletin
Board" area are especially useful for schools which run these
stacks on dedicated machines for access by many students. (An
excellent idea for public-school teachers, by the way.)
So why did I give it a rating of only "4"? Despite its excellent
content, it's a bit drab: now that HyperCard supports color fairly
well, there's no good reason to produce a black-and-white stack.
Also, it would have been nice to see more reference information,
especially as the extra pages (for more court cases, perhaps)
would not have taken much disk space and would have inspired advanced
students to delve further. Still, this is a valuable addition
to the oeuvre and deserves wide distribution.
NOTE: The "Read Me" document accompanying this stack gives instructions
for decompressing the file as though it's a self-extracting archive:
the file has been converted to the standard StuffIt format for
quicker downloading, and can be unstuffed in the same manner as
any other file downloaded from ZiffNet/Mac, using the eWorld application.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: express yourself aclu stack education hypercard rights youth
school speech dress sexuality gay lesbian music publishing
Requires: HyperCard 2.x or later
Price: Freeware
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Graf 2.3.6
Category: Education
Author: Ralph Sutherland
For scientists, mathematicians, and others with data-intensive
graphing needs, Graf is perhaps the most complex plotting tool
available as freeware. Unlike most data visualization programs,
Graf uses a text-style editor to gather data instead of a spreadsheet-style
one--and it's not a bad text editor, at that. Once data is entered,
you have a wide range of options as to how the data should be
plotted: line style, layout, data point connection, and other
options are controlled either through pop-up menus or well designed
dialog boxes. Data can be plotted dynamically--that is, the plot
will automatically update itself as data change--and updates are
made quickly in the background. Note that the plot will not automatically
indicate limits which will include your data (as most such programs
do), so make sure to set plotting limits as soon as you enter
the plot window.
This program is extremely System 7-savvy, with features like Publish
and Subscribe, hierarchical menus, tearoff menus and background
operation. The help document is well-organized and comprehensive.
Getting data to plot is a lot less intuitive than it might be,
mostly due to the author's insistence on using a text-style editor.
But even this flaw has an up side: Graf is not only an intricate
graphing utility, but could stand alone as a solid piece of freeware
for its text editor alone, so you're getting two programs for
the price of one. And since the price is free, how can you go
wrong?
Version 2.1.1 fixes a crashing bug which was invoked when selecting
a plot window when data window palettes were showing. Version
2.3.5 overhauls the interface, adds a full-featured find/replace
(including GREP), improves plotting and fitting, and fixes several
bugs. Version 2.3.6 fixes bugs.
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Keywords: graf graph education math calculator PLOTTING DATA FREEWARE
graphs graphing SCIENTIFIC calculations text GREP
Requires: System 6.0.2 or later
Price: Freeware
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graph3D 0.5
Category: Education
Author: Christopher Moll
Computers, as the name implies, are at their best when given a
task of straightforward computation. One problem that's frustrated
users for years has lay in how to present the computational results:
whereas the machines manage numbers best, people appreciate a
visual representation to make sense of those numbers.
And that's where this application comes in. You enter a mathematical
formula--including geometric operators such as cosine, sine and
tangent--and graph3D will quickly produce a visualization of that
formula. What makes this program special is in the output options
available: the graphic can be viewed as a wire frame, as a graphically
shaded object (with a movable light source) or with shading defined
by height, as is done on maps. You can graph Cartesian, cylindrical
or derivative formulas, or the program can plot an imported data
set. And here's the good part: completed graphs can be exported
either as bitmaps (ho-hum) or object-oriented PICTs, capable of
being edited in drawing programs like MacDraw. Black and white
and FPU preferred.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: graph3D graph 3D education GRAPHING math calculations DEPTH
VARIABLES FREEWARE
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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HyperSmart 1.0
Category: Education
Author: David Seidman
One difficulty students often encounter -- especially young students
-- is in memorizing rules. With complex and confusing sets of
guidelines governing math, English and history, it's surprising
more people don't walk around saying "I before E except after
Tippicanoe and Tyler, too."
One way to keep all those rules organized is to use HyperSmart,
a HyperCard-based stack which features categorical filing and
speech synthesis which allows your rules to be read back to you.
It's an extremely simple interface, implemented by an (admittedly)
beginning programmer, but its potential is quite wide: any discrete
item of knowledge -- such as a recipe, reference, or math rule
-- could be well filed here.
Since this is (ostensibly) a stack to hold educational materials,
the author should have checked his spelling: "category" and "mathematical"
will rankle and alienate teachers who want to use this stack for
their students. Still, HyperSmart is a fun implementation of HyperCard's
speech capabilities: the first thing I did once I figured I did
after I figured out how the program worked was to create a "Gilbert
and Sullivan" category, just to make the synthesized voice sing
"I am the captain of the Pinafore, and a right good captain, too."
And if that's not worth a buck plus a few minutes download, I
don't know what is. NOTE: As HyperCard's speech synthesizer doesn't
recognize (or say) some punctuation, be careful when inputting
mathematical formulas: when HyperSmart reads "a-b=a+(-b)" out
loud, it skips all the minus signs.
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: HYPERSMART SMART EDUCATIONAL TALK SPEECH REFERENCE RULES FACTS
Requires: HyperCard 2.0 or later
Price: Shareware $1
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Japanese Prelector 1.2
Category: Education
Author: Michael Wildoer
Japanese Prelector is the single most useful system I've ever
seen for learning Japanese language. Its complexity, attention
to detail, search and study options are clearly the product of
months of conscientious work. Designed around a HyperCard-like
format, it stresses two important areas of Japanese language --
vocabulary and Kanji (the complex Chinese-style written forms).
There is also a dictionary, options for showing Kana (the alphabetic
writing system), study aids for grammar, and ways for teachers
to direct course content. The searchable dictionary is worth the
price alone, which includes a package of services which rivals
the standard for commercial applications.
Unbelievably in-depth documentation is provided in TeachText and
Microsoft Word formats, and the menus are clear, despite the plethora
of options available to the user. If you have even the slightest
interest in Japanese language or culture, download Japanese Prelector
now: the wealth of well presented information it contains is invaluable.
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Keywords: japanese prelector EDUCATION LANGUAGE JAPAN vocabulary Kana
Kanji dictionary
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $45
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Lattice Maker 2.6
Category: Education
Author: Peter Hardman
Because they rely on machines which are well-structured to handle
numerical data, scientific programs have traditionally been in
the purview of minicomputers and PC-compatibles. But one area
that these machines fail is in graphics; at this, the Macintosh
shines. And so when it comes to modeling atomic structures, chemists
often turn to one of the three most popular Mac chemistry programs:
Ball and Stick, MacMolecule, and Chem-3D. But each of these programs
has its weaknesses, particularly when it comes to building large,
repetitive structures.
Lattice Maker fills the gap left by these programs, by providing
a utility to combine the "Unit Cells" which make up these large
structures. It can output to the three popular chemistry modeling
programs listed above; unfortunately, it's not possible to display
the finished molecule from within Lattice Maker itself. The program
has its own weaknesses: for example, the system for building Unit
Cells via a text editor is arcane and never fully explained. However,
for professional chemists using any of the three listed programs
to build large molecular structures (particularly bulk structures
or super-structures of crystal lattices, Lattice Maker will save
you a lot of time.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: lattice maker education science CHEMISTRY MOLECULES ATOMS BALL
STICK MODELING CRYSTALS STRUCTURES
Requires: System 6.0.4 or later; Ball and Stick, MacMolecule, or (preferably)
Chem-3D
Price: Shareware $30
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Lesson Planner 1.5 (ClarisWorks)
Category: Education
Author: Megan on AOL
Lesson Planner is a simple ClarisWorks Draw template designed
to enable teachers to quickly plan their day, copying and pasting
common titles (such as Lunch, Meeting, Science, Math) into a pre-arranged
grid. There are five pages: two blank "grids," two pages of pastable
titles, and a "Thematic Planning Matrix" to encourage you to plan
class "themes" a month in advance.
I wish that I could say more nice things about this well meaning
document, but I'm afraid that it's just not as elegant as it could
be: the whole thing could have been done in the spreadsheet part
of ClarisWorks, for example, and thereby allowed more flexibility
and a more professional-looking output. Then again, spreadsheet
programs are less accessible to most people than draw programs
are, and I'm probably just being a snob. The point of education,
after all, is to enable others to find new solutions by building
upon knowledge they already have: in that light, this is an eminently
useful and appropriate document for teachers with a minimum of
computer knowledge.
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: education teacher teaching student plans classes time schedule
appointment
Requires: ClarisWorks 2.0 or later
Price: Freeware
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Lifemaker 2.0
Category: Education
Author: Jesse Jones
Finally, the meaning of life! Well, O.K., not quite. Lifemaker
is a simulation program that animates a series of numerical theories
about population growth and shrinkage. This field of mathematics
studies the way groups of life-like individuals -- called "cellular
automata" -- reproduce and die on the basis of simple mathematical
rules. For example, one model ("space") states that a cell will
divide when it has one neighbor, remain at rest when it has none
or two, and die when it has three or more.
Lifemaker does a splendid job of letting the user explore different
"spaces," and gives insight into the history of cellular automata.
A few dozen spaces are included, along with a file of intriguing
"seeds:" starter populations which will interact in particular
ways. The help text is terrific, especially for serious students
of CAs, as it summarizes some of the field's significant experiments
and provides bibliography for further reading. It's not the speediest
simulation around -- at its fastest, it makes about two or three
cycles per second -- but it's fast enough. It's pretty stable,
but note that changing variables in the middle of a simulation
(such as choosing a different calculation mode) may cause it to
crash.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: LIFE CELLULAR AUTOMATA SCIENCE REPRODUCTION Math simulation
Requires: 68020 or greater
Price: Shareware $25
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MACroEcon 1.10
Category: Education
Author: John Lindal
Economics is a study that seems deceptively simple: you exchange
money for goods or services, or do the same in reverse. But as
diverse factors enter the mix, it becomes more complex: that's
where MACroEcon comes in, offering models to predict the direction
a market economy will take when various factors are manipulated.
The program is run in four windows: a "macroeconomy" window in
which there are graphs of different aspects economy's current
state, several of which you can change; a "circular flow diagram"
window which offers an educational model of the United States'
flow of money; an "explanation" window which gives help, status
reports, and descriptions of the different players in the "circular
flow diagram" window; and a "scenario" window, which records changes
you make in the "macroeconomy" window. You can switch between
all of these windows with a key click, but a large screen is best
to see changes as they happen.
The program has several strengths: it's obvious that its programmer
is thoroughly versed in the field of economics, and his knowledge
is well exploited, especially in the graphing functions. But he
doesn't seem to know who his target audience is: while he gives
brief descriptions of the players in our economic system, there
aren't enough clarifications for most users. In addition, the
original program was obviously done on another computer, and the
Mac version lacks a real Mac "feel." Nonetheless, if you already
comprehend the variables involved in a macroeconomic model, you'll
find MACroEcon an enlightening tool.
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: MACROECONOMICS GOVERNMENT INFLATION EDUCATION SIMULATION
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $25
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Math Flashcard 1.0
Category: Education
Author: Sid Wirtz
Most math drills available for the Mac are HyperCard-based; and,
if we're honest with ourselves, most of them aren't very good.
They typically try to do too much, and do it badly, or are the
victims of bad HyperCard programming. That's why it's so good
to see Math Flashcard, a stand-alone math drill which was programmed
from the ground up, has clear and intelligent options (albeit
not many of them), and is extremely fast and stable.
While this isn't as chock-full-o'-variations as, say, Dan Schulman's
MacEmatics, the choices available to users are the most useful
ones. You can pick being quizzed in any of the four arithmetic
functions, from between two to five operands per question, timed
or not, and so forth. In addition, you can set the range of numbers
presented to you, thereby setting a skill level in an easy-to-understand
manner.
The one feature common to most HyperCard-based math drill programs
which I miss in Math Flashcard is the ability to keep a record
of a student's scores -- a "high scores" screen or data export
might give the user a reason to do better. Still, this is a simple
program, and that's its strength: for what it does, it does very
well.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: MATH ARITHMETIC flash cards ADDITION SUBTRACTION MULTIPLICATION
DIVISION DRILL QUIZ EDUCATION
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $5
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Math School 1.3
Category: Education
Author: David Bagno, Educational Computer Resources
"Flashcard"-style math programs such as Math School are popular
among educational programmers, and with good reason: as math phobia
is such a common syndrome, flash cards don't allow the student
to get scared before answering. Math School is a fairly flexible
program with a beautiful interface, through which you'll learn
to do math quickly and accurately -- if you can get past the program's
bugs and quirks.
As with the shareware program Math Flashcard, you're allowed to
choose the number of operands you'd like to be tested on, and
their range. (For example, the expression "63+17" has two operands
in the range of 1-100, whereas "6+7+3+4" has four in the range
of 1-10.) And there are a variety of more distinguishing features,
most notably in adjusting the "user-friendliness" of the interface:
for example, Balloon Help clarifies not only through words, but
through icons in the menus. The interface, as mentioned before,
is beautiful, with color, sound, and -- for those of you who have
MacInTalk or Speech Manager -- speech.
Unfortunately, Math School is terribly buggy, both in its programming
and its content. First, an example of a content goof: when given
four choices from which to pick the correct answer, occasionally
two (or three) of them will be the same number. There are minor
punctuation and spelling bugs as well: forgivable in a general-purpose
program, less so in an educational program. The programming rankles
more: it intrudes on system resources (most notably the sound),
is erratic and occasionally crashes.
Nonetheless, the attractiveness of the interface and the basic
goodness of the content are so great, that it deserves consideration.
If you're looking for an educational math program, give Math School
a try, as its features are unique.
Version 1.3 is System 7.5 compatible, has a 'child-proof' feature,
and large colored menu icons.
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: MATH SCHOOL ARITHMETIC flash cards ADDITION SUBTRACTION MULTIPLICATION
DIVISION DRILL QUIZ EDUCATION
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $20
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Moon Tool 1.0.1
Category: Education
Author: Richard Knuckey
The first use of the word "lunatic" comes from the Latin word
for moon: it was said that crazy people became so due to its influence.
Moon Tool keeps its influence close at hand, and welcomes lunacy
with grace. I can see this application on the desktop of every
scientist, moon-gazer and romantic in the world: not only is it
beautiful, it offers information about the day's astronomic statistics
that I've never seen presented in any other Mac utility. First
off, the basics: Moon Tool gives you the current time, the date,
a picture of the moon in its present phase, and the time of the
next new moon. But Moon Tool stands out in the other information
it also gives you: the current lunation (based on a standard date
of 70 years ago), distance from the moon to the Earth (in kilometers
and Earth radii), distance from the sun to the Earth (in kilometers
and Astronomical Units), Julian date, subtends, moon age, and
much more.
The display can be minimized (or "iconized") so that only the
graphic is displayed, without the statistics. Remarkably complete
and educational Balloon Help is available by clicking on a check
box. With so much going for it, Moon Tool could turn anyone into
a lunatic.
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Keywords: MOON TOOL PHASES ASTRONOMY DATE DISTANCE JULIAN EARTH freeware
Requires: System 7 or greater
Price: Freeware
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Schedule Maker 3.0
Category: Education
Author: Patrick Gormley
Schedule Maker serves a single function: setting up parent-teacher
conferences. And it does so in a very direct, single-minded way:
after opening a new conference file, the user has few enough choices
that it's difficult to go wrong. Two of the menus -- Edit and
Special -- direct most of the action, while the other three menus
control font styling of the letter to be sent to parents.
There are quite a few moments of non-standard interface: for example,
the check boxes used to schedule conference starting and ending
times don't behave like check boxes, and windows which have the
same look may not act the same. The help documentation -- both
online and in a separate document -- is very good, although I
do have to say that the multi-colored text nearly gave me a headache.
NOTE: Some features are disabled until after payment of the registration
fee.
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Keywords: SCHEDULE MAKER EDUCATION TEACHERS STUDENTS PARENTS CONFERENCES
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $25
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Talking Piano Teacher 1.5
Category: Education
Author: David Bagno, Educational Computer Resources
Aimed at music teachers and students, Talking Piano Teacher is
an music application that teaches note reading. Using the Apple
Speech Manager, it asks you "(Your name), what is this note?"
After you identify the note it compliments your choice. If you
get it wrong, it may tell you not be silly and try again. Written
by a concert pianist and music theorist, it covers the bass and
treble clef note range, and diatonic and chromatic notes. You
can set the note range it uses, as well as the note types. You
can also isolate the bass and treble clef, if you like.
This program is another in the giant series of educational programs
from David Bagno's company Educational Computer Resources. As
with the others in the series, its graphics and sound are wonderful,
the options available are well thought-out, and Balloon Help is
plentiful. Also similar to his other programs, there are bugs..
but we'll get to those in a moment.
You can feel safe in knowing that Talking Piano Teacher will teach
the piano keyboard's layout fairly well. A graphic simulation
with middle C highlighted keeps the mouse on track, although it's
certainly no substitute for the real thing. And, as mentioned
before, the graphics are beautiful, it's MIDI-compatible, and
the speech option (for those machines with that capability) add
to the program's impact. But as for those bugs.. little things
like having the sound turned all the way up when the program is
first launched (ouch!), a timer that counts weirdly, and self-resizing
windows is distracting. What's annoying is that they could have
been easily avoided with a little beta testing. Regardless, its
faults are merely annoying, not fatal, and Talking Piano Teacher
would be well at home on your hard drive between a MIDI driver
and Finale.
NOTE: This beta version will only allow sessions of about 10 minutes
at a time: pay your shareware fee for an unlimited copy.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: music piano instruction note reading
Requires: Speech Manager
Price: Shareware $15
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Teacher's Aide 2.2
Category: Education
Author: Ryan Koopmans
Whereas most grading programs replicate teachers' paper grade
books with a spreadsheet analogy, Teacher's Aide utilizes the
database format, giving instructors a new and convenient method
for tracking students' grades. You start out by creating a class
in any of eight categories, such as music, art, math, science,
and so forth, and the program assigns an appropriate icon to it.
Next, you define a list of students in your class, including student
IDs. You're then ready to begin grading, entering grade criteria
(such as number of questions and weight) along with the grades
themselves. Don't worry if these instructions seem vague to you:
an excellent help text (in Rich Text Format) gives you tips, and
a prepared class will let you learn by example.
The options available are just about right in their complexity
and usefulness. Grades can be grouped together in sets, so that
grades all extra-credit projects, for example, can be compared.
You can print a wide variety of reports (by student, by grade,
with or without student names), and a text export can be made
of almost every window -- essential if you'd like to transfer
data between programs. It's not perfect -- it would be nice, for
example, to be able to choose multiple, non-contiguously listed
student names to print reports -- but Teacher's Aide about as
close as you'll need to come, and much better than many such programs.
And it's free!
NOTE: eWorld member E DOIRON reports: "In Teacher Aid 2.2, there
is an option to "drop lowest grade". Users might be confused into
thinking (as was I) that this option will drop individual lowest
grades. Rather, this option drops the grade with the lowest class
average overall for all students, thus penalizing those who did
well on the assignment." So take heed!
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: TEACHERS AIDE education STUDENT GRADEBOOK CLASSES SCORE DATABASE
freeware
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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xFunctions 2.3
Category: Education
Author: David Eck
Mathematics is a dynamic field of study: unfortunately, the nature
of mathematics textbooks is to be dry. One way that the subject
can be enlivened is through the use of graphs: not only is can
a 3-D graph be illustrative of a function, it is often beautiful
in its own right, and can entice young people to learn more about
its underlying structure. xFunctions is an excellent calculation
program which, besides performing many essential and difficult-to-program
functions accurately, also allows the user to see and print a
variety of graphic representations of those functions.
There's an abundance of on-line help which will guide even the
most naive user through the program. (How many programs do you
know of which explain the Apple menu?) The graphing utilities
included definitely make up this program's strong suit, and its
most attractive feature: Dynamic displays of derivatives, Riemann's
sums and Parametric curves are among the goodies. All graphs are
in color and are fully interruptible.
The author has obviously produced this program with education
in mind, and in that he has succeeded admirably; and while XFunctions'
level of precision may not be adequate for serious engineering,
the author warns of this in the on-line text. All in all, XFunctions
is a gem which should be on every math student's Mac.
Version 2.3 includes a few bug fixes and some new features: zoom
in, zoom back, display as table with cluster point, and clone
function.
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Keywords: math xFunctions graphing calculator education color FREEWARE
Calculations
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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This page was last updated on Monday, February 09, 2004 at 3:06pm CST.
All contents copyright 2005 by Tom Geller.
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