Amiga Computing 65

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Amiga Computing 65 / ac065a.adf / 1010.lha / README < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-06-11 | 24.3 KB | 517 lines

10 out of 10 Mathematics (Number) INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEMONSTRATION VERSION INTRODUCTION The Mathematics National Curriculum is split into five Attainment Targets. This 10 out of 10 suite of programs is aimed to cover some essential parts of the Levels set out in Attainment Target 2 - Number. You can see the exact areas covered by loading the program and selecting Player Information from the Main Menu and moving the cursor around the screen. Further details of of the Achievement chart and the National Curriculum are in the Parent/Teacher Guide supplied with the full version. 10 out of 10 Mathematics (Number) is a suite of six educational games designed to help children get to grips with 36 specific topics from the Mathematics National Curriculum Attainment Target 2. While covering these - and automatically recording the child's progress - it also covers many more areas essential both in real life and for academic success. The games are both educational and fun with many elements built in to keep children coming back for more. There are, for example, two ways that a child can see progress: * THE ACHIEVEMENT CHART. The child must aim to turn this completely green by gaining full marks at the various grades. * THE HIGH SCORE TABLES: In addition to the mark, these take into account many other game elements like speed and bonus. The ACHIEVEMENT CHART shows you at a glance how your child is progressing and you can see which topics need further practice. Also, as a further form of encouragement, children can print or display a certificate showing the Attainment Target Levels reached. The achievements can also be printed for your own information. Details of how to play the games follow. Following the playing instructions are some of the main points from the Parent/Teacher Guide so you will be able to customise the games to suit your child's needs. The manual supplied with the full version gives extra information and hints about how to get the most from the programs. GETTING STARTED When you first load 10 out of 10 you're presented with the Main Menu. At the bottom is the name of the current player - it's set to TEST to begin with. The first thing you should do is enter your own name. Here's how to do it: Move the mouse pointer to the red box on the right of New Player to highlight it in blue. Click the left hand mouse button and then just enter your name. Press Return and you'll go back to the Main Menu with your name at the bottom. The top six options on the Main Menu are the games themselves. Before looking at these, let's look at the other options: PLAYER INFORMATION When you select this you're presented with - table with the player's name at the top. This is called your Achievement Record and has on it numbers showing various parts of the National Curriculum covered by the games. To start with these numbers are all on a black background. They each change colour individually depending on what percentage of questions you get right (not the score - that depends how well you play the games too!). They go red if you play the game and achieve less than 50%, yellow if you score over 50% and green if you achieve 100% - that's your aim! If you can do that ten times it will turn blue - you prove you're a genius! CHANGE PLAYER This lets you alter the current player to someone else who has previously entered their name. If you ever want to leave the list of players without making a change, press Escape. REMOVE PLAYER Using this lets you remove names from the list. PRINT CERTIFICATE On the full version this lets you print a certificate (or save it to disk) when at least one of the boxes in the Achievement Record has been turned green. Screen is so that you can view the certificate while Disk is so that you can save it to disk and then load it into a paint program to print it from there. ONLY SCREEN IS AVAILABLE ON THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION. QUIT Use this option to exit from the program. NOTE THAT ON THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION, ACHIEVEMENTS WILL BE LOST and you will have to start turning the chart green again next time you load the program. THE GAMES When you select a game from the Main Menu you are presented with a Game Menu. All the games have similar options as follows: PLAY GAME Select this to play the game once you have set all the other features. While you are playing you can PAUSE the action at any time by pressing P. HIGH SCORE TABLE This lets you view the high score table - the current player's entries will be shown in red and a new high score will be yellow. Higher scores are obtained by playing the games at higher speeds, with timers on, at higher grades and so on. Note that ON THE DEMONSTRATION VERSION, HIGH SCORES ARE NOT SAVED TO DISK so your scores will be lost when you return to the Main Menu. NUMBER OF PLAYERS Click on the number with the mouse pointer to cycle through 1, 2, 3 or 4. If one is selected the current player's name is used. If more than one play, you are asked for their names the first time the game starts. If you want to change the names, change the number of players - return it to the same number if necessary. TIMER Click on this to cycle through various times and off. Lower times mean harder games and higher scores. GRADE When you first start this is fixed on Grade 1. Once you've reached yellow on the Achievement chart you can progress to Grade 2 and so on. Eventually you can cycle through six grades. On Cheers you can also select USER. This allows you to use a set of questions written by a parent or teacher. VOLUME Providing the sound has not been turned off, this lets you choose the volume of the sound effects (7 is loudest). INFORMATION This displays a small version of the Attainment record, just giving details for the particular game. EXIT TO MAIN MENU This takes you back to the Main Menu. Now that we've looked at the features common to all the games, let's look at the games themselves: CARNIVAL Here's a great shoot-'em-up to check your number skills along with your fire power. The question appears at the top of the screen with the numbers you must work out at the centre of the display. You must shoot the correct answer as it passes along the conveyor belt. Apart from the variety of options that all the games have this time you can also choose the speed of the belt and the maximum number of shots that you have. If the timer is on, you must take all your shots within the time or the game ends. Choose a fast belt to go for a bigger bonus and higher score! COVER UP This is a game of matching: match the items on the bottom half of the screen to those at the top. Click on any of the ones at the bottom and then click on the one that you think matches at the top. If you're right they both disappear and you move on to the next one but if you're wrong they remain. When you select more than one player, the first player keeps going until he or she makes a mistake. The timer counts down to the start of the question answering time: during that time you should work out as many answers as possible ready (with timer off the game starts straight away). You can also select doors open or closed. When they're open the numbers show all the time for you to answer the questions. If closed is chosen they close after the timer expires and it's a game of memory too. Whether the timer is on or off, the bonus ticks away between correct matches so be quick for the high scores. Finally you can select the number of rows - with four doors on each - that you want to match up. If you have more doors you can achieve higher scores! THE BIG BANG The temperature on the thermometer is moving fast - how fast depends on what you set on the menu. The only way to control it is by answering questions right. Every time you answer one correctly the temperature returns near to the ideal. Keep giving correct answers for as long as you can and you're well on your way to the high score table. But it gets harder as the game progresses - the temperature moves faster. How long can you delay the Big Bang? Eventually the temperature moves too fast even for the experts so you have to be really quick with the answers. The idea of this game is to keep going as long as you can and score as much as you can. For that reason it is best played with the timer off and questions set to loads. If you want a quick game you can limit its length by setting the timer or number of questions. Note: The mark remains at 0% until at least 10 questions have been answered. GRAB IT How fast can you grab? The answer to the question that is displayed is somewhere on the screen and once you spot it move the hand there and grab. Be quick though, the answers move around so it won't be in the same place for long. You can choose how fast the numbers move around and the faster you choose the higher you can score. This is a fast action game and, with larger numbers, it's best to try to estimate and grab! SILICON BRAIN This is a mathematics program where you don't have to work anything out: there's a big calculator provided for you to use. You need to use it quick and get the answers right if you want to reach the high score table. As you play, your button presses are recorded across the bottom of the screen. If you get an answer wrong and can't see why yourself, show the question and the order of the buttons to your parent or teacher so that you can find out where you went wrong. You'll soon be a calculator expert and on the way up the high scores. If you want to use the Silicon Brain calculator to help you with your homework, select Use Silicon Brain from the menu. You can then use it just like an ordinary calculator. CHEERS Here's a fast-action quiz game to keep you on your toes. You just answer the questions correctly for cheers and move up the board by the number shown on the dice (choose how many dice you want to play with from the main menu). On Grade 1, if you hit a ladder you move up while hit a tube and you go down - other grades have the same rules but different graphics. If the dice show a total that you don't want to accept (if you would land on a tube for example) you can re-throw them once for each question. To do this just click the mouse pointer on the dice. The bonus ticks away from the start of the game and you get points for correct answers. So answer correctly and reach the top as quickly as you can to get a high score. When you start Loads of questions is shown on the menu. This ensures you will have enough to finish the game. If you want to limit the number of questions it can be set in the same way as on the other games. The bonus ticks away all the time so answer as quickly as you can for high scores. THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE MAIN POINTS FROM THE PARENT/TEACHER GUIDE. NOTE THAT IT GIVES DETAILS OF "HIDDEN" KEY COMBINATIONS FOR PARENT/TEACHER CUSTOMISATION USE ONLY. THE ACHIEVEMENT RECORD - How to interpret it When you view an achievement record for a new player - by selecting Player Information from the Main Menu or Information from a Game Menu - all the numbers are on black backgrounds. As the child plays games, these change colour as follows: * Red: The child has played the game but achieved under 50%. Take the red as a warning: He or she needs help at that Attainment Target Level. * Yellow: The child has scored 50% or more so probably knows the facts but needs to practise them more. They can now go on to the next grade - but should return to the yellow one and try to turn it green. * Green: The child knows the facts and has proved it with 100% - the 10 out of 10 goal. * Blue: For the real experts, score 100% ten times or more on each grade of each game and turn the table blue. The child should be encouraged to first turn the whole table green and then go for blue. THE CHART CANNOT BE PRINTED FROM THE DEMO VERSION but on the full version you have several options to let you obtain a printout. Firstly, you can press Control+P and simply print a text list of the achievements. This will work on any printer and factors like the number of lines on a page is set from the configuration screen - see later. Alternatively, you can press Control+S. This saves the colour screen to disk for you to print out using an art package. On the full version you print the achievements of more than one child by pressing Control+M while any achievement chart is displayed. A list of names will be displayed and you should highlight the ones you're interested in using the Right Hand mouse button. Start printing with the Left Hand one. Note that the Achievement Record shows the progress of individual children and is only modified if the number of players is set to one. THE GRADES All the games have six built-in grades - each one aiming at a higher National Curriculum Attainment Target. When a player first loads a game it will be set on Grade 1. Progress to Grade 2 cannot be made until at least 50% has been achieved on Grade 1 (yellow on the achievement record). Progress up to higher grades also needs a percentage of 50 or more on the previous one. Parents or teachers can select any starting grade without going through the previous ones by using the Customisation Screen or function keys 1 to 6. THE SCORING SYSTEM All 10 out of 10 Educational Systems programs have two scoring methods - the achievement record and the high scores. Children should be encouraged to progress in both these areas. The former is the percentage of questions the child answers correctly. Factors like how fast the questions are answered are not taken into account on the achievement record. While taking into account the mark, the scores also take into account other facts like the grade it was achieved on, the speed of answering, bonuses and so on. To rise up the high score tables children have to become very proficient with their number skills - both accuracy and speed. The fun and game element of 10 out of 10 makes them want to keep practising until this proficiency is reached. Note that when two or more children play a game, they each aim for their own high score (which can qualify for the high score table) but the total percentage will be joint. No change is therefore made to the achievement record. On the high score table, to show that a percentage has been achieved by teamwork a small dot is displayed after the % sign. PARENT/TEACHER CUSTOMISATION Many features of 10 out of 10 are selected automatically by the software but the choice can be altered by a parent or teacher - either from function key combinations or from the Customisation Screen. If you press Shift+Control+C while the Main Menu is displayed you can set the following by highlighting the appropriate boxes on the display: * At the end of a game the child is awarded a rating and during the games some messages may be displayed. These have been chosen in consultation with many children as words that amuse/encourage them and keep their interest. If you prefer these messages not to be displayed they can be turned off from the Customisation Screen. * The achievement chart can display either National Curriculum Attainment Levels or numbers from 1 to 6 representing difficulty. You can choose which is displayed from the Customisation Screen. * Sound can be turned on or off from the Customisation Screen. Pressing CTRL+F10 on the Game Menus turns the sound off for that game and it can be restored by pressing the keys again. * The 10 out of 10 series uses six graded levels in each game. From the Customisation Screen you can choose whether the word Level or Grade is used to describe these. Note that, to prevent confusion, if the display of National Curriculum Levels is chosen, 10 out of 10 always uses the word Grade for the difficulty of the challenge. * To encourage children to work their way through and benefit from all the grades of 10 out of 10 they cannot progress to a higher grade until they have achieved yellow on the record for the current one. The starting grade is currently set to Grade1 but you can select any from the Customisation Screen. Also, pressing CTRL+F1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 while a Game Menu is displayed alters the starting grade for that game. Note that this sets the entry grade to the game and if a lower one is then selected within the game the child will not be able to move back up unless yellow has been achieved on lower grades. * The class number (1 to 64) is to allow over 4000 pupils to save their results - it is unavailable on the Demonstration Version. * When the achievements are printed out as text (on the full version only), the software has to be told the length of the paper and how much gap to leave at the top and bottom. Set these from the Customisation Screen (the three numbers should add up to your total paper length). * All the programs in the 10 out of 10 suite have three sets of graphics. These are automatically selected depending which grade is selected - lower grades use graphics that appeal to younger children. However, parents or teachers can select the graphics that will be always used from the Customisation Screen. (1=youngest, A=Auto-select) This can also be done for a single game by pressing one of the three keys CTRL+F7, 8 or 9 while the Game Menu is displayed. Once the parent/teacher has selected the graphics for a single program by this method they are used whichever grade is selected until another program is loaded. * Use the final option on the Customisation Screen - Default - to put all the other options back to their starting values. The choices you set on the Customisation Screen - and the code - are saved to disk and will be used every time a child uses the package. If options are set from Game Menus they are only used during that game. * To prevent children from altering any of the stored information, access to Change Player, New Player and Remove Player can be restricted by the use of an access code which is set to 0000 when you first load 10 out of 10. With it set to this, free access is allowed to all features and the code is not asked for. However, if you press CTRL+F10 and enter a new four-digit code, you will in future have to enter the code before altering players. On the full version it is saved to disk. * While a game is being played, pressing R will pause it and reveal the aim of the current challenge (including the National Curriculum Level if selected). Press Space to continue. * On Cover Up and Cheers you may wish to use the same screen layout as previously - you may, for example, want several children to play the game using exactly the same starting point. A game number is displayed as these programs are being played. To repeat a game at any time enter that number by pressing CTRL while the introductory graphic is displayed between selecting Play game and the action starting. CUSTOMISING THE CHEERS GAME You can use your own set of questions in the Cheers game. All your own question files should go in the Qfile directory and should not normally be called Q1 to Q6. When children use them the result will not be entered on the achievement chart but high scores will still be obtained. When you enter your own questions you MUST ensure that EVERY question and answer is followed by # and every question has ONE right answer preceded by !. Full instructions, including a list of several SPECIAL CHARACTERS you can use in your own Cheers files for powers and fractions, are supplied with the full version of 10 out of 10 Mathematics (Number). *** The 10 out of 10 Series *** There are several other titles in the 10 out of 10 range. All use similar scoring/recording techniques to motivate children. The following gives details of the content of two other packages. *** 10 out of 10 English *** For Children 6 to 16 Years Attainment Targets and Levels Covered by the six games: AT.Level Covers Topic Sniper 4.2b.1 Simple monosyllabic words Spelling 2.2a.1 Read & understand Signs, Labels Notices Words 3.3a .1 Capital letters full stops and question marks Punct. 2.7d.1 Retrieve information (Abbreviations etc.) Lang. use 2.7e.5 Literary devices (Proverbs) Speech. 3.8c.1 Grammatical constructions (Passive Tense) Verbs Cover Up 2.1b.1 Recognise simple words (adjectives) Adjectives 2.2e.2 Respond to poems (rhyming words) Sounds. 3.3e.6 Masculine to feminine nouns Nouns 4.3c.1 Awareness of word relationships (opposites) Pairs 4/5.5a Spell words of greater complexity Spelling 2.8e.1 Lang. change over time Lang. Use Word Fit 4.2c.1 Spelling patterns (blends) Words 4.3c.2 Awareness of word relationships (synonyms) Pairs 3.3a..1 Sentence structure Verbs 2.5e.3 Awareness of choice of words Sounds. 2.5e.3 Unconventional spellings Nouns 4/5.6b Common misspellings Spelling Grab it 2.2f.1 Read a range of simple material Speech. 2.2c.2 Phonic cues in reading Spelling 3.4d.3 Structures of English (Collective nouns) Nouns 3.6b.2 Use of the the Apostrophe Punct. 2.7c.3 Choose vocabulary Lang. use 3.7c.4 Lexical features Words Librarian 2.2c.1 Use initial letters to recognise words Spelling 4.2c.2 Spell a wider range of words (plurals) Nouns 2.3d.3 Appreciate links between words and sounds Sounds. 3.4e.2 Revise & redraft writing (descriptive words) Adjectives 2.7e.2 Use of literary devices Similes Speech. 3.7c.4 Choose a wider vocabulary Pairs Cheers 3.3e.6 Check for consistent use of comparatives Adjectives 3.3e.8 Simple use of past tense Verbs 2.5e.1 Word play Words 3.5e.1 Use and misuse of colloquialisms Lang. use 3.7b.2 More complex punctuation Punct. 3.8c.9 Poetical constructions Sounds. *** Early Essentials *** For Children Under 7 Years Subject Areas Covered by the six games Gnasher Recognise simple shapes and colours Shape/Col Learn the order of the numbers 1 to 10 Numbers Learn the alphabet with pictorial clues Alphabet Simple sequences including odd and even numbers Logic Discover properties of common objects Science Experiment with numbers and operations Table/Bond Link Up Match and link shapes and colours Shape/Col Learn to count up to ten Numbers Recognise the link between upper and lower case Alphabet Link two shapes to composite pattern Logic Match analogue to digital clocks Time Know a selection of simple words Words Artist Colour and coordination skills Shape/Col Counting with colours Numbers Number stories with coloured rods Table/Bond Following rules to recognise attributes Properties Pattern and symmetry through shape and colour Algebra Beginning a basic science vocabulary Science Grab It Check shape and colour knowledge Shape/Col Reading simple alpha-numeric look-up tables Alphabet Improving reading/vocabulary Words Recognising characteristics (size, shape & colour) Properties Reading and understanding two-way tables Logic Identifying scientific ideograms Science Stones Understanding number conservation Numbers Stepping through the alphabet Alphabet Patterns of growing and shrinking shapes Properties Learning to tell the time Time Practising number skills Table/Bond Using common sense to follow a sequence Logic Racer Understand the meaning of push and pull Science Following letters in alphabetical order Alphabet Associating words and pictures Words Elementary algebra - "find a number" problems Algebra Knowledge of everyday items Properties Accurate and rapid time recognition Time