Mindscape Zoombinis Maths Journey

not too long ago, zoombinis enjoyed the good life. Though they all looked slightly different--different eyes, noses, hair, feet--such differences meant nothing to the zoombinis. And so they lived happily on zoombini isle, making small, useful products, which were prized the world over.

adored by educators and parents alike, zoombinis maths journey challenges children to employ such basic fundamentals of mathematical thinking as organising information, reasoning of evidence, finding and making patterns and systematic testing of hypotheses. The journey follows four puzzle-filled trails, each exploring related mathematical ideas. The fundamental data and variables for all this work are the variations in the zoombinis' features. Their "feet", for example, can be shoes, skates, whirligigs or coiled springs (the sound effects for these items are particularly great), while their "eyes" may be heavily lidded, enhanced by glasses, blocked by dark shades, or limited to just a single eyeball. Sorting and arranging these variables in order to solve puzzles requires concentrated effort from the players, and the game rewards them well with inventive scenarios that evolve in fabulously curious ways as skills are gained. This may not sound like much, but when arno the pizza-eating tree troll, who has been yammering for the perfectly topped pizza his entire lifetime, suddenly demands a perfectly topped ice cream sundae, too, it is a staggering, giddy surprise.

the creators' promise that this cd-rom will "encourage kids to develop a lifetime habit of associating fun with learning" is dead-on. (Ages 9 and over) --jean lenihan