Animals UK is aimed at furthering the education of pupils in National Curriculum Science, Life Processes and Living Things Levels 3 to 7 and in Information Technology.
The core of the program is a system for identifying common animals that are likely to be found in the locality of British schools, including schoolgrounds, parks and waste spaces.
Pupils identify an animal by answering questions about the observable features. A flexible matching system is used which recognises that variations occur in nature, that some criteria are less reliable than others, and that it is not always possible to answer all questions. Matches are presented in decreasing order of closeness to the answers given. The identification forms may also be used for selecting animals that simply conform to specific characteristics, for example, one may view all black insects.
There are eight selectable databases:
Every species in the databases is presented individually as a full colour plate of original artwork, together with basic details about the appearance, habitat and characteristics of the animal. A text description is available from a button on the form. Every species in the databases may also be accessed directly from textual and graphical browsers. The order of presentation, whether by number of legs, size, colour or other characteristic, is user variable.
Additional material is available, some on a context sensitive basis, on general topics related to animals such as adaptations for water dwelling. The program also includes interactive exercises on important key stage topics such as making keys and food webs.