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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. April 22, 1996: Frizzie and her brother Baxter, two members of the outrageous Fennel Family™, need kids to help them out of a predicament as five historical guests, such as Einstein, Cleopatra, and Attila the Hun, show up for an impromptu dinner party. The Fennels Figure Math™, a new CD-ROM title announced today by McGraw-Hill Home Interactive (MHHI), is the company's first narrative-based math title featuring a humorous story line, outrageous characters, an oddly perfect house and custom Fennel Figuring Machines. From the onset of the story, kids are in charge as they use everyday math tools to ensure that the party is a success. The product will be published for kids 8 to 12 for Microsoft® Windows® '95 and the Apple® Macintosh® and will be on store shelves in November 1996.
"We feel The Fennels will change the way kids view math," said Bill Nisen, president of MHHI. "Unlike most math products, The Fennels uses a unique combination of story-telling with real math tools and math-problem solving skills instead of the traditional drill and practice approach."
Kids assist Frizzie and Baxter with tasks and must use logic, skills, and strategies such as trial and error, hypothesis development and testing, estimation, and data analysis to make sure that everything is ready by 8:00 p.m. Throughout the house and behind every door are adventures and math predicaments. Kids explore rooms such as the Jungle Room, the Dream Room and Mission Control, to investigate math from a variety of perspectives. Using common math tools such as timers, protractors and a measuring tape, as well as custom Fennel Figuring machines, kids must help the perplexed pair overcome bizarre challenges in this fun math adventure.
Throughout The Fennels, children apply deductive and inductive reasoning, computation, estimation, and measurement (time, linear, capacity, temperature and weight) to solve problems in the Fennel household, where it seems anything can happen. To ensure continued involvement, the title provides different skill levels that can either be established by the parent or child, or determined by the child's progress. In addition, The Fennels reinforces school learning by providing progressive levels of difficulty as well as encouraging kids to communicate knowledgeably about math concepts—objectives which are set forth by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
The Fennels Figure Math was developed for MHHI in collaboration with ECC. The story is based upon an original concept and character set by Alan Silberberg who also wrote the script and has written extensively for Nickelodeon, Disney, The Muppets and The Simpsons, among other projects.
The Fennels Figure Math is expected to sell for $40-$50.
This title requires an IBM PC or compatible, 486/66 or faster or Pentium, 8 MB RAM, 256-color monitor, double-speed CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows'95, 8-bit sound card, speakers and a mouse. For the Mac, the title requires Macintosh System 7.x, 68040/33 or faster or PowerMac, 8 MB RAM, and a 256-color monitor.
Established in 1995, McGraw-Hill Home Interactive (MHHI) is based in Redwood City, Calif. The division is dedicated to publishing original consumer multimedia titles that equally emphasize education and entertainment in core subject areas such as science, math, social studies and language arts. MHHI's titles, targeted to children 8 to 14, engage their imaginations and stimulate their minds with entertaining narratives, while making parents comfortable with the educational value and proven experience of McGraw-Hill. McGraw-Hill Home Interactive is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, founded in 1888, is a leading information services organization serving worldwide markets in education, business, finance, the professions and government. Revenues in 1995 exceeded $2.9 billion.
Copyright ©1996
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