Bounce Back 7 - designed to support Springboard 7
This is a very easy to follow set of programs which includes teaching, consolidation and practice of topics. Each topic is brief enough to be accessible for its stated content and easy to find within the CD.
The visual demonstrations are good and appealing, being just about the right length of time to keep the concentration of pupils. Following given tasks, pupils are given feedback about their success and there are help facilities available where needed. Tests (which can be personalised) at the end of each topic show the success of pupils.
The CD provides an independent teaching aid, which enables pupils to work at their own rate. Homework tasks are available in printed form if wanted.
I particularly liked the work on co-ordinates and the attention to detail within the program. Users are not allowed to input co-ordinates in the form 2 7, or even 2,7 but must include the brackets and type in the correct form of (2,7).
I think that this will be a very useful aid to supporting pupils and encouraging them to gain greater confidence with fundamental concepts.
Debbie Adams
Bounce Back 7, the title grabbed me straight away! It‘s always been my firm belief that Springboard children can bounce back to the level of working they should be at but in order to do so they need to enjoy mathematics. A low- key approach is unlikely to help. What they really need is a dynamic teaching programme that fully involves them.
I was relieved that the software was easy to install on the hard drive. A picture came up resembling an old- fashioned telephone dial with the 15 unit numbers in the dialling holes. Just a quick click on one of the numbers and I was in to the unit. Each topic includes lesson activities, homework and teaching notes which explained how the topic could form part of the teaching programme. Now to find out it was any good.
I was immediately struck by how clearly the concepts were explained in each unit. The ideas were built up in small steps which children would find easy to manage. They could start to feel proud of their success in learning.
The colourful graphics are excellent. I have always been jealous of literacy with its colourful big books but now there can be colour in the maths classroom. Take away those miserable black photocopied sheets. Illustrations such as those of the first ten square numbers provide powerful images which children are likely to remember.
The use of moving images is a neat touch. I loved the flying pig in the probability unit and the lottery machine that randomly throws out coloured balls is a great way of getting children to answer probability questions. Who would have thought you could have a plane lifting off to demonstrate vertical, horizontal and diagonal or a robot walking round the edge of a rectangle to illustrate perimeter. Not to mention the bouncing ball that shows children they are doing well. Even the fastest teacher could not compete with the speed with which the visual images such as number lines and hundred squares are displayed and taken away again.
During the learning activities children interact with the machine either typing words in or moving prepared answers to the correct places. At the end of each part of the unit they are tested and the answers are corrected so that they know how well they are doing. The homework then consolidates what they have learned.
There are some quirks however. I found I dropped a word into the wrong answer space and it could not be moved from there so I had to fill up all the answer spaces which allowed me to finish and go back through the activity again moved. I, also, found that using the pad for the number line requires good motor skills and I always ended up with a wavy line. In the sequences unit I pressed the stuck button twice expecting to get help and ended up in a test- freaky! There is sometimes too much on the screen e.g. in the area and perimeter sheets and some of the homework. I could imagine a child gasping in horror when they looked at them.
As a numeracy Consultant I feel I must get on my high horse about a few issues. Four types of triangle are described , equilateral, scalene, isosceles and right angle but a right angled triangle could be scalene or isosceles.The written procedures were very well described with the need to approximate first stressed in the notes but there were no approximations on the screen with the calculations. I feel that it is unlikely that Springboard children are ready for the traditional algorithm for division as it is impossible to explain in terms of place value. Chunking would be a safer option for them.
Overall, I would give Bounce Back 7 an enthusiastic thumbs up. Each unit can be put on a separate floppy. The licence covers all the purchasing school‘s computers. A separate licence can be bought so that software can be copied for the child to take home. Children could also access homework from the Bounce Back 7 website which is now [June 2007] unavailable. Above all the children are likely to enjoy coming to the mathematics lessons.
Tessa Benie
Numeracy Consultant
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