Sunbuddy Math Playhouse Presents the Bremen Town Musicians, 1997

School Science and Mathematics, Jan 1999 by McDonald, Jacqueline

Sunbuddy Math Playhouse Presents the Bremen Town Musicians, 1997

Producer: Sunburst 1-800- 321-7511, www.sunburst.com

Media: Mac/Win Hybrid CD-ROM

Program Overview

"An interactive theater experience with some math play included" is probably a concise description of this program.

Designed for K-2 students, the play is introduced by Hopkins, a pink rabbit who provides the narration (which is close captioned) at the top of the stage. The basic screen design is actually a theater with the curtains open. The story action literally happens on "stage." In Scene 1, Tiny the Elephant, begins his journey to Bremen. The authors have created original songs, which add to each scene. The age-old Bremen Town Musicians story continues on the main stage. At the end of each scene, however, the scene freezes, and the user can explore "clickables" on the screen. The clickables include some math-related concepts, including numbers, patterns, and geometry. The entire story is divided into 12 scenes, which the user can view in a continuous manner, stop at the end of each scene and explore the clickables, or explore in a random order by selecting the scene number. The Backstage Pass allows the user access to four mathematics activities, each with multiple levels of difficulty. These games include matching tasks, map reading skills, classification activities, and simple operations. Backstage, the user will also find a jukebox, which allows you to play the musical selections independent from the story.

Favorite Features

As a stand-alone piece of software, Sunbuddy Math Playhouse would be fun once or twice. It would be like going to see a play or movie repeatedly. I would enjoy it the first time but not as much after that. However, as one activity in a thematic and interdisciplinary unit, Sunbuddy Math Playhouse would be a wonderful addition or centerpoint for a unit. The teacher's guide, which comes with the program, suggests this latter approach and provides a variety of ideas for additional activities and extensions. The songs were fun. All the words are included in the teacher's guide for additional use.

Technical Features

This program is a Mac/Win CD Hybrid, and while running on a Macintosh G3 there were no technical problems. The graphics and sound are superb. In fact, external speakers allowing you to boost the sound would be a wonderful addition to this program. The support materials are excellent.

Next Version

The math games in the Backstage Pass area are not all of superior quality. In particular, the game Figure It Out With Hopkins is a rote drill and practice on addition and subtraction problems. A counting model or base 10 model could be incorporated to give this more substance.

Conclusion

A K-2 teacher who loves mathematics, loves music, and loves books would have a great time developing a thematic unit around The Bremen Town Musicians, and Sunbuddy Math Playhouse would be the place to begin!