The encouragement, support, and participation of parents is a vital element in the motivation of students, especially in low-income and immigrant populations, where the parental literacy may be inadequate. This program will develop an interactive bilingual science and mathematics computer program to facilitate parental involvement in the pupil's education and stimulate the learning process for both. It will apply the latest interactive computer technology which is extremely easy for the uninitiated to use, and employ multilingual voice and text, graphics, animation, and sound effects to build excitement and maintain interest. The computer program will also stimulate the parents toward better English literacy, and promote computer literacy for all participants. The content will be based upon the California Frameworks for mathematics and science, integrated in the curriculum, and developed in cooperation with the Long Beach Unified District elementary schools. Materials will first be developed for Spanish speaking students in the third grade. In Phase I sample lessons will be generated for mathematics and science and preliminary development testing conducted. Plans will be created for full development including the lesson content, and supporting student/parent and teacher guides. A plan for test and evaluation of the system will be established, and dissemination methods will be examined. In Phase II, the program and supporting text material will be completed and initial tests conducted in the Long Beach Schools, for both Spanish and Khmer (Cambodian). Commercial avenues for dissemination will be evaluated and selected.
