Educational Media Reviews Online

This CD-ROM contains 4 extensive interactive courses which can be used on a trial basis and purchased separately. All four courses make effective use of visuals, audio, and in particular, animations. Though the various units obviously build on each other, the units do not necessarily need to be done in a linear fashion. One can call up any unit with two mouse clicks from any where in the program.

Navigation is generally intuitive, which is especially helpful since the content is very rich and contains many levels for each course. The one criticism is that advancing to the next page in sequence is done by one of three actions at any given point, so careful attention is required to make certain no information is missed. A single, universal way of advancing to the next page should be used.

This courseware would work particularly well at an accelerated or Advanced Placement high school level. A pull-down calculator, quizzes with feedback, notepad for note taking, periodic table, and many other tables enhance the learning experience. Going through each entire course is not for the faint-hearted. Over 200 study hours are involved in each course. The MCH Multimedia web site at http://www.mchmultimedia.com/home.mv provides excellent information on their product line and allows downloading of the full-featured version of each product for a time-limited evaluation.

The Introduction to Chemistry course provides very broad coverage in 25 units, including general chemistry, quantum mechanics, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and nuclear chemistry.

The General Chemistry course has 18 units, some of which overlap with the Introduction to Chemistry units. This follows a more traditional high school or college 101 course focusing on basic principles such as bonding, acids, and inorganic chemistry.

The Organic Chemistry course contains 13 units. Given the vast expanse of organic chemistry, this clearly is a challenging but introductory approach to the topic. Six categories of organic compounds (alkenes, ethers, aromatics, aldehydes & ketones, carboxylic acids, and amines are covered. The final unit is devoted to biochemistry.

The Physics course provides a good survey of this field. Calculus and non-calculus versions are provided. It includes a math review, classical physics, and the newer quantum, nuclear, and relativity approaches to physics.