Body in Focus_ The
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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The Body in Focus comes on two disks. The first contains tutorials, and the second presents questions based on the tutorials. Eight vital body systems are covered-including the circulatory, respiratory, endocrine, skeletal, nervous, digestive, muscular, and integumentary (skin, that is). A tour of each system takes 10 to 15 minutes.

To illustrate each body system, the disk contains three "body closeups": a closeup view of each system within the head, torso, and arm. The closeups let you strip away the body layer by layer, going deeper and deeper. It's like a graphic dissection. If you find one of the screens particularly interesting, there's a "tell me more" key which calls up a more complete discussion of what you see.

Body Trivia

The second disk contains a library of more than 200 questions based on the tutorials. If you think you already know a lot about the human body, try the "body I.Q. test" before using the tutorials. Do you know how many taste buds there are on a human tongue? Or how long it takes your body to pump 3,000 gallons of blood? Or why you get goose bumps?

The Body in Focus is very simple to use. Which key do you press to view the digestive system? Or the skeletal system? You don't have to memorize these details-a soft plastic keyboard overlay lists all the key functions.

Another strong point of the program is its use of sound. With some software, you can often tell that sound was added as an afterthought. But with The Body in Focus, the sound is very functional. You quickly learn the different sounds for "your turn" and "that key doesn't do anything." Sounds are used intelligently for getting your attention at the right time and for signifying right and wrong responses.

As a parent, I would recommend The Body in Focus for a youngster who is taking biology. As a teacher, I probably wouldn't use The Body in Focus as part of the curriculum because it is not sequential (some students may choose not to press "tell me more"). However, this program is exciting enough that I think students would invest their own time to travel through The Body in Focus. It would be great for enrichment.


http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue72/review_body_in_focus.php
