FabLab ModelMaker gives students the chance to be thinkers, planners, problem solvers, designers, inventors, mathematicians and engineers.
The program is not only educational but also a lot of fun to work with. FabLab ModelMaker is a STEM Initiative product. Details Here
Knowledge Tree has searched the world over for the best animation and geometry software available for educational or home use.
Aspex Software (UK)
AspexSoftware was established about twenty years ago when it became a principle education software developer for the Acorn Computer system, the standard educational computer platform of the time in the UK.
By the mid nineties the growth of PC’s as an education tool in schools both in UK and North America had gathered pace and Aspex Software, in partnership with The Knowledge Tree Inc., shifted its focus to the development of educational software for the PC and Mac, starting with the design-and-make program tabs.
tabs became an instant success story and quickly found its way into thousands of classrooms in the UK, Brazil, Canada and the United States. In 1997 OSAPAC acquired a Ministry wide license through the Knowledge Tree Inc to promulgate the software throughout the Province of Ontario. The license was subsequently upgraded to tabs +V3 in 2002 and the Knowledge Tree Inc has outlined a new proposal for Ontario Schools to acquire the latest aspexTabsMST for 2006.
Since the original tabs the software has evolved to become a benchmark series of programs in the teaching of two and three-dimensional Geometry, vector-based drawing, as well as for use in Design & Technology. Today’s tabs products, aspexTabs, aspexTabsMST, and now FabLab ModelMaker, as well as aspexShapes&Nets, aspexDrawMST and aspexSpex+ are leaders in their curriculum area and continue to be embraced by a wider education community.
The primary purpose of educational software is self learning, and at Aspex we design our software so that the learning element just happens while children are having fun! Aspex educational software is ‘content free’ which means that the scope of each program is limited only by the child’s or the teacher's imagination, rather than by the completion of a list of set piece educational activities. Aspex Software has been supplying educational software to schools and home users since the early 1990’s.
Greygum is Australia’s largest producer of educational software, and our packages are used in schools and homes throughout the English-speaking world. We are particularly proud of the staying power of our software – one of our earliest titles, Goldfields, was first written in 1983 (for Apple II and BBC computers!) and it is still extremely popular and still being used in most Australian primary schools.
Greygum’s directors have extensive educational qualifications; David Smith has nearly 40 years teaching experience, mostly in secondary schools, while Anne Smith’s specialty is more with the younger children in primary. Steve Luckett’s technical expertise dates from the very early days of computing, and continues to grow. This combination of skills allows us to produce software that both works reliably (on both Windows and Macintosh platforms and across networks, with remarkably few calls for support) and is educationally effective.
We believe that software should not patronize children with mindless tasks followed by excessive praise, nor should it offer boring drill-and-practice exercises. It should challenge children, make them think and get them involved, and this is what we aim to achieve. The challenge though must always be in the puzzles posed by the computer, not in trying to work out how on earth to drive the software.
With both Math Circus and our other math and problem-solving software, and our early reading software, our aim is to guide children towards mastery and understanding of the subject matter, the acquisition of genuinely useful skills, an enthusiasm and love of the subject, and the desire to improve still further. To judge from teachers’ feedback, our software goes a long way towards achieving this.
Kudlian Soft was founded in 1990 by Gary Atkinson and quickly became one of the leading education software houses writing for Acorn Computers.
In 1996 he was joined by Roger Young ex teacher and IT Advisor and very quickly there was an expanding portfolio of software for first Windows and then the Macintosh platforms.
Kudlian’s software applications have been recognised as being of the highest quality and offer great educational value. Kudlian are continually enhancing a developing their software using the latest developments in technology. We also endeavor to build close relationships with customers, so that their requirements are fully understood and met, both now and in the future.
Our software is easy to use and tailored to the activity for which it was intended, we also ensure that there is additional depth and resources built into the software. This means that it can be used at different levels by children with differing needs. In recognition of this approach we received the prestigious Education Resources Award.
In addition, Kudlian has recently released a new animation program, I Can Animate, which offers would-be movie makers the opportunity to create movies using ‘stop motion’ drawn animation and special effects.
Also new for the North America is the popular iMovie plug-in for creating weather maps and interactive weather forecasts that can be included in a movie, ‘Weather Reporting & Geography’.
The Charting & Graphing plug-in offers students the opportunity to incorporate animated graphs into a movie broadcast, just like they might see on TV, giving their iMovie a more professional look.
Finally, the ‘Essential Tools’ plugin allows students to place video within video and with chroma key technology to actually have the reporter appear to standing in any location in the world. Each of the plug-ins includes additional resources for iDVD and music loops.
Here is the URL for Kudlian, http://www.kudlian.net. Products can then be ordered directly from The Knowledge Tree Inc. web site.
Our software covers a variety of areas of the curriculum and ages from Elementary right through to High school and much of it is truly cross curricular.
We have particular strengths in the fields of digital video and data handling and have released five titles specifically to aid in the rapidly expanding use of digital video across the curriculum.
Aspex Software (UK)
Greygum Software (Australia)
Kudlian Software (U.K.)