Reviewed by Luke Janka, Humanities Preparatory Academy

July, 2002

"For students who are already friends of math, this will be a treat. For students who are adverse to math, this will disarm them and allow them to fell comfortable as they learn math in the process of learning about classical history/literature and astronomy."

Viewed as a supplement to a regular math curriculum

"It makes a terrific supplement to whatever unit the teacher is on...and would no doubt be the best part of the unit, allowing students to finally gain a practical use for math that they can see and use when they leave the classroom and look up into the sky, or flip through their history textbook, or bring with them to their English class if studying mythology."

As to its integrated format

"In addition to the material itself being engaging, fun and interesting, the program offers good active cross-curricular components: froom for writing activities to emerge, which is important in NY Schools which mandate English standards and literacy across the board. It also incorporates the use of technology, which is important, and also very engaging since the computer is fun for almost everyone, especially students."

Suggestions for making the product stronger

"As a current member of the NY City Writing Project's Advanced Writing Technology Summer Institute, allowing the students to create something using the knowledge gained from the program would be a better and more authentic way to assess whether the students are learning. Technology is at its best when it does what traditional instructional materials can't do...challenge the students to demostrate their ability to accept, think, process and create something new with that knowledge." Also, "the challenge to instructional materials technology is to stay current with new ways to deliver information so that it makes use of the latest animation to create interactive and dynamic opportunities for students to learn."