Gus Goes to CyberStone Park
© 1996 Modern Media Ventures
Children join dog Gus and Rangers Jackie and Rick in colorful CyberStone Park. Their task is to explore the five areas of the Park, find hidden CyberBuds and learn about nature and the great outdoors along the way. If you find all the Buds (little characters that reveal interesting nature facts), you are invited to the big campfire finale. Kids learn about a variety of topics ranging from bees to cloud formations. You can even get tips on how to construct an outdoor toilet for your campsite. As they explore, children stumble upon six learning activities, many of which are multilevel. These activities are, for the most part, engaging, covering basic addition and subtraction skills, spelling and rhyming. There is a maze game where kids help Gus dodge "dog-eating plants." Children can also sort animals into three habitats or help "write" campfire stories by adding picture icons to blanks in story frames. Although engaging and filled with lots to do, the program has many drawbacks. The biggest complaint was that kids' games are not saved, forcing them to start all over each time in finding those elusive CyberBuds. Testers had difficulty with ambiguous navigation icons and experienced problems with responsivity in the spelling activity. Directions were given for a puzzle activity, when in fact the child was playing a turtle-jumping game. Strengths of this program are its content-reinforcing feedback and the many levels of activities. Overall, the program represents a significant improvement over earlier products in the Gus series.
$24.95, Mac CD-ROM, Windows CD-ROM (multi platform)
Teaches: matching, trivia, history