A program for easy identification of invertebrates that are likely to be found in the locality of British schools, including school grounds, parks and waste spaces. The program is aimed at younger children or those with learning difficulties and uses large bright pictures and text with optional sound tips on all controls. It fulfils many of the requirements of National Curriculum Science, Life Process and Living Things, Key Stages 1 and 2 and some special needs. It has been created by a teacher for teachers and is artistically unique in using original full colour illustrations.
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The following are all actual reduced screenshots and pictures from a PC running Invertebrates UK. You can also download a short demonstration slideshow here.
The child friendly interface has a common format throughout with a bright central content box and large buttons on either side for simple navigation.
Just two small buttons at top centre provide teachers with access to help and allow control of the program features; there are no complicated menus or toolbars.
Page access is either by the "Back" or "Next" buttons or by means of the preview bar at bottom, move the mouse along it to see a preview of each page, click to go to any one. Return to a previous page with one click.
Audible and large text captions on the controls may be turned on or off and the delay and size of text may be varied
Full context sensitive help on using the program and reference details of all creatures with pictures and simple text description are available as separate windows.
Answer questions on the identification forms by clicking on the buttons with the best answers.
The complexity of questions has been reduced to be suitable for the targetted age range.
Clicking the match button on an identification form causes the database to be presented as thumbnail pictures with the best matches at the start. Partial or non matches are marked by orange or red bars.
The thumbnails may also be viewed without answering any identification questions, when they are presented in alphabetical order.
Click a thumbnail to open a full colour picture of the selected creature.
All the species are presented as large clear colour pictures. If an identification has been performed an orange or red mark indicates partial or non-matches.
The pictures may also be viewed in alphabetical order without answering any identification questions.
For each species there is a brief and simple description using large clear text.
For each species there is also an outline picture. When viewed, an outline is automatically copied to the clipboard from which it may be pasted into MS Paint or other paint program.
The outlines are of varying complexity but all use distinct areas to make them suitable for colouring by younger children using only the fill tool. Older children may refer to the full colour pictures to add realistic details or simply use their imaginations and make up some new species!
There are five interactive exercises. All use drag and drop on bright colour pictures.
Some of the interactives have different content that appears when the "New" button is clicked, the food web interactive, for example, has four different sets of creatures. On other exercises the "New" button rearranges the content randomly so a child will not be presented with the exact same task on a revisit.
A large text reference source on all the creatures is available as a separate window.
Complimentary resources are available for this program. Log sheets and worksheets are included on the CD and available through the teacher's help. Pocket Packs and Gatekeeper Guides may be purchased separately. Pocket Packs are laminated identification cards, one species per card. Gatekeeper guides are laminated identification sheets. Both are ideal for field trips.
Whenever possible, any updates we make to this program will be made available on our website free of charge to users of previous versions. Invertebrates UK has been designed so that content may be changed and new species plates, information or interactive pages added by downloading a self unpacking zip file containing text-based script files and pictures only. Updating the executable or modifying your system files or settings is not normally required.
Invertebrates UK comes on CD-ROM and requires an IBM compatible PC with equivalent of Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz processor or better, at least 250Mb MB RAM and 800x600 pixels high colour 16-bit display or better.
Operating system:
Note that the instal will detect service pack and direct you to the revant Microsoft upgrade page if necessary.
Disk space:
The Microsoft .NET Framework is required for many recent programs and it is likely you will already have it.
You may use this shopping cart to purchase Invertebrates UK online with a card or by email or to create a printable
form to post to us. Options will be presented when you view the cart. Schools may use their elcs for this product.
We are not registered for VAT.
| Description | Price Each | |
| Invertebrates UK CD in educational pack for installation on one machine | £20 |
| Description | Price Each | |
| Invertebrates UK CD in educational pack with ten user licence | £70 |
| Description | Price Each | |
| Invertebrates UK CD in educational pack with full site licence | £110 |