Animal Genius (Macintosh/Windows)
© 2008 Scholastic, Inc.
Can you collect all 25 animals? This fun, easy-to-use animal quiz game introduces children to animals from five habitats (rainforest, arctic, grasslands, ocean, and woodlands). After children select a habitat, they then play one of five games: Creature Collector (a concentration-style sorting game where children must pay attention to specific animal attributes), Scratch and See (move the mouse to "scratch" off the gray area from the computer screen), Maze Munch (a fun fly catching maze game) and Matchomatic (a fast-paced quiz that reviews all the animal facts). There are 10 games per animal, making a total of 250 rounds of gameplay; plenty to keep a child busy and learning for several months. Additional content includes photos of animals, trivia questions, and bonus rounds where you can earn extra points towards animals for the habitats. There are also random animal alerts during gameplay to challenge your animal knowledge. For either home or classroom use, this is a wonderful addition to any software library. Note that there are similarly designed versions for the Nintendo DS and Leapster. Also note that the disc must be in the disc drive in order for the program to run. Created by Scholastic (Carolin Frasuer and Shira Ackerman) and Artech Studios, with images and footage provided from National Geographic Digital Motion, iStockphoto, Fotosearch and Thought Equity Motion.
$20, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: life science, problem solving, classifying & sorting
CTR Rating: 96%