Interfact Weather

$14.95, Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)

Teaches: weather, earth science

CTR Review

The weather facts found in this CD/book combo are fascinating, covering topics like the layers of the atmosphere, global warming, types of clouds and weather instruments. The presentation, however, is unusually dull with minimal use of multimedia features like animation, speech and sound effects. Quizzes reinforce the concepts presented, but these, like the rest of the CD, could use some sprucing up. The 48-page book is the best part of the package with brief but interesting text, photos and illustrations presenting key aspects of weather. Disk Links connect the book to the CD, reminding kids to pay attention to quiz weather words, for instance, or directing them to CD activities that reinforce concepts. To sum things up, this book/CD combo isn't bad, but the CD adds very little to the package.