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This newly rejuvenated site is one of the best references on biology education software available. Run by a group in England that is paid to look for good educational materials, it includes up-to-date listings on hundreds of education programs covering every field of biology. Each listing has a short description of the program, and relevant details about what system you need to run it, where to get it, and usually a web link to the developer's web site. You can also search the database, and search CTI's newsletter for reviews and articles on biology education. Check this site out!
This is a consortium of software developers and educators which have gotten together to produce a CD full of really good biology education software. Their programs are described on this web site. Before putting a piece of software on their CD, they subject it to a pretty rigorous peer review process, and make sure its been tested in many classrooms. I think that this is some of the best stuff out there, and well worth the price (which is quite cheap - under $100 last time I checked for all of their programs for a single user, more expensive for a site license).
In addition to software, the BioQuest group has developed a whole philosophy of education, which they use to guide their development and selection of educational software. This philosophy revolves around the three Ps - Problem-posing, Problem- solving, and peer-Persuasion. They describe this philosophy better than I can here, so I will let you get ahold of it yourself. It is well worth reading their material, even if you do not end up using their software.
To get more info on BioQUEST, look at the BioQuest Web Page or email bioquest@beloit.edu
To order the BioQuest CD, check the web site or send email to cdaves@harcourtbrace.com,
This site is maintained by an Australian group that is paid to search for good science curriculum (similar to the CTI group above), and includes hundreds of programs in all fields of biology. Along with information about where to get each program, what platform it runs on, the price and so on, there is also a one paragraph evaluation for most programs. You cannot browse the database, only search it, so its a bit less easy to use than the CTI site, but still contains enough information that it should definitely be one of your first stops. This is especially true if you are from the Australian side of the world, as there are quite a few listings of programs specific to Australia. Check it out!
The Quarterly Review of Biology is one of the few sources for academic reviews of software interesting to biologists. Each issue includes a few software reviews, not all of educational software, but quite a few are. The reviews are generally written by an expert in the field, and are pretty good (much more thorough than those here).
Almost every issue of American Biology Teacher has a review of some piece of educational software, and they also occasionally print an interesting study on whether using software in different ways aids students in understanding biology.
Last update 12th of June 1998