ADAM: The Inside Story

Screen Shot

See also:
Parent's, Teacher's, and Kid's Reviews and the
Comparative Ratings Table for Anatomy Software

Reviewed on:
Pentium PC w/8Mb and 2XCD

Ease of Use
Installation on the PC was typical, with two twists: First, you were given the option of installing the entire CD on your hard drive, a whopping 500MB. Don't do this unless you want to use the computer only for ADAM! Second, you are asked at time of installation if you want "modesty" fig leafs to appear over certain anatomical features in the drawings. Leaving them off might provide a basis for answering some of your children's questions, but the choice is yours.

ADAM has three major components: an anatomical drawing section, a "family scrapbook," and a collection of animations. All three sections are fairly intuitive. The anatomical drawing gives the user a choice of torso or full body, front or back views, male or female, skin color, and then 12 different body systems. Each view can be seen with or without labels. The scrapbook contains a folksy, pseudo-textbook set of descriptions of the various body systems, with audio descriptions. The animation section includes several dozen short presentations of various body functions and potential maladies, ranging from ulcers (causes and treatments) and sprained ankles, to nerve conduction and phagocytosis. (See, there are things in here you can impress your friends with!)

Balance of Fun and Education
ADAM: The Inside Story has very clear drawings and descriptions. Although based on work the people at ADAM Software had previously done for higher education, this software is not a textbook or reference replacement -- its simply too uneven in its coverage of the body systems. That said, it is a wonderful supplement to a textbook for a child studying human anatomy, physiology or biology. One notable shortfall as an educational tool, is that the software does not provide a print function for its many drawings. ADAM told our reviewers that this feature was available in the more expensive school version of the software. Is it fun? Yes, if your child is interested in really learning this subject.

Overall
The Inside Story is an excellent piece of software for 7th to 10th or 11th graders interested in learning about the human body. With over 4 hours of animations and dialog (clipped into small pieces on different subjects), this program is fun to explore. And if your friends don't know what phagocytosis is, you can tell them it's the name for the process the body's macophages use to eliminate foreign bodies and cell debris.




ADAM:
Inside Story
Ease of Install * * *
Ease of Use * * *
Manual Utility * * *
Technical Support n/a
Fun Factor * * * *
Educational Value * * * * *
EDITOR'S RATING * * * *


See also:
Parent's, Teacher's, and Kid's Reviews and the
Ratings Table for Anatomy Software

System Requirements
PC:
386/33 min, 486 or higher recommended, Windows 3.1 or higher, 4MB RAM min, 8MB recommended, 5MB hard disk space, 256 color SVGA monitor, 2X CD-ROM, MPC-compatible sound card


Mac:
68030/16 or higher, or PowerMac in native mode, System 7, 8MB RAM, 5MB hard disk space, 9 inch or larger monitor, 256 color display, 2X CD-ROM


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