Algebra Action

Client:

Houghton Mifflin Company

Audience:

Middle-school students

Goal:

Provide supplementary interactive software to support the leading middle school Algebra I textbook. Among many other features, the product includes an expert system help utility that guides students through the simplification of randomly generated linear equations.

Role:

Concept development; creative and technical design; script writing, illustration, and animation; programming, testing, and project management.

. . . ALGEBRA ACTION Courseware for Algebra 1 is a 4-disk software program designed to supplement a first-year algebra textbook. The courseware is correlated with the algebra curriculum, but is not intended to replace the texbook. Through tutorials, review, practice, and games, the program highlights the main topics of algebra.

Each disk contains two types of presentations:

• FOCUS - For each topic, tutorials explain and illustrate the concept, repeating or advancing in accordance with student direction. This mode also includes some guided interaction with the student.
  
  
• ACTIVITIES - The student may practice applying the FOCUS concepts by trying randomly generated exercises in the Practice Problems for each topic. Similar problems are also incorporated into games and other activities that allow the student to improve both speed and accuracy.

-Teacher's Manual