The action occurs in your web browser, and the screen size will need to be adjusted to 800 x 600 as it’s impossible to scroll horizontally. A major gripe is that on my (not especially dated) PC it was painfully slow.

The 12 topics each include an introduction, an interactive activity, a test, and “need to know more” section. A few activities also use a graph plotter facility or results tables. The introduction is an audiovisual slide show (that is, a talking book - nice to hear non-American English on educational software).

Pupils will like the activities best, but the claim that they are as exciting as computer gaming is exaggerated. Interactivity is very limited and unlikely to encourage repeat performances. In one of the better activities (on classification), pupils work against the clock to ask three yesno questions to decide which animal group is hidden behind a screen. The tests comprise 10 multiple choice questions randomly chosen from a bank of 40 on each topic. Key words follow the literacy initiative. “Need to know” has references to the Letts key stage 3 Science Classbook, or provides the words to look up in the index of other textbooks.

The teacher support disc has Acrobat pdf files that can be printed or linked via laptop to a projector. The ideas for investigation are unlikely to be major revelations to most science teachers. A few of the worksheets included look useful, but the resource represents a pleasant diversion, rather than a mainstay of Year 7 science.

Ian Francis