Advice and software reviews to help choose useful resources for science

For the last 18 years Roger Frost has reviewed all software destined for a science lesson. He writes an annual summary in The Guardian, TES or ECT magazine. Below is a summary of the state of play. Use 'contact' for a quip of advice.

The state of science software (2008)

Here's an odd question: is your software made by a book publisher or a software publisher? The odd question comes from a professional lifelong interest in promoting useful products. If you buy a mediocre product the wrong people are encouraged to make more. It queers the pitch for everyone.

Since prehistory, every remarkably good science software resource has come from a specialist software maker. That's not to say that specialists will often get things right but to date there has not been a-good CD from a book publisher. Book publishers make CDs to support their books. The budgets are tiny, the sales mediocre and they do the job as good as can be got away with.

In 2006 we reviewed the range of 'CDs that go with the book' ( below) and were mostly underwhelmed. The 2008 range of book publisher CD's for KS3 continue the trend. Just now I am reading the marketing about a CD being interactive / engaging / relevant. And I can't find an honest picture even of what's on the disc to match the claim. I can't help but conclude that a book publisher is dedicated to books and a software publisher is dedicated to software. One hopes this could change, but ten years on it is not happening.

My advice is for caution when looking to buy a CD tied to a book. What's actually become imaginative is the marketing: you'll see a demo showing a few best bits on the CD. They know you can't look at everything - so check out a review, check the full contents list and try to see a quarter of the content before you buy. Anything that isn't in the shortlist for a BETT Award needs extreme caution.