Mystery Math Island- This is a CD-ROM produced by Lawrence Productions, Inc. in 1995. This CD sends users on a pirate treasure hunt. The user finds the treasure by solving a variety of math problems. Working through geometry, measurement, patterns, and other number challenges, children gain access to clues and points to buy the tools needed to reach the treasure. This CD has three levels of play and  is appropriate for grades 3 through 8. This CD works well with pairs playing as well as students working alone. This is a good activity to have students do when they have completed class work and are looking for something to do.

Math Stars- This is a shareware program for the Macintosh that helps students practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts in a fun and challenging way. Due to the increased use of calculators at an early age, some students are not mastering the basic facts. This program helps the students practice the basic facts in an interesting way. This software is appropriate for anyone who needs to review the basic facts. This program may be downloaded from the internet. The evaluation period is 30 days. At the end of the 30 days it may be purchased for $10. Another sharewre program to help students with the basic facts is Math Go. It can be downloaded from the internet. This program may be purchased for $16.

Cosmic Geometry- This is a CD-ROM to help students learn more about geometry. Polyhedral characters guide students as they explore Planet Geometry. The students learn about the attributes of shapes and solids, constructions and transformations, 2D and 3D coordinates, the relationships between length, perimeter, area and volume. This CD has very useful information in a game format. One drawback is that it is somewhat difficult to navigate in the beginning. This CD is geared toward grades 7-9, but it is appropriate to use with fifth and sixth grade students who are gifted in math.

Building Perspectives-  This is a software program produced by Sunburst Publications. This is an excellent way to develop spatial relations in students. Students are given four views of a city block. From these views they have to tell the heights of all the buildings. It starts out with a simple city block and then becomes increasingly difficult as many buildings are added. This game works well in groups as well as individually. I use this program in conjunction with 3D perspective drawings and building 3D objects. A strength of this program is that 3 or 4 students can play at the same time.

Mathematics Archives K-12 Teaching Materials-  This is a spectacular web site for math teachers. It has significant collections of math software for K-12 classes. It has links to sites where the software can be purchased or downloaded. This site also has an extensive collection of lesson plans which are broken into topics and general grade level (K-6 and 7-12). I found this site a great stepping stone to other sites. Due to its large content, it took a rather long time to get all of the information using a 56K modem. This site is a must see for math educators!