Search For The Mary Rose - And Discover The Direction Software Should Take

At last! Mary Rose is the type of program that should show the way forward to prospective programmers of educational software. It fulfils the criteria that the micro should not be merely an electronic blackboard. This is a decision-making program, involving considerable work and research by children away from the micro.

On the surface of it (if you'll pardon the pun), the program is concerned with the search for the wreck of King Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, off the coast of Southsea, and the subsequent excavation of its artefacts before raising the hull.

The first part of the program involves the search for the Mary Rose. The superb graphics and sound capabilities of the BBC Micro are used well. A map showing the coastline adjacent to the search area is presented on the screen.

A knowledge of compass bearings, lines of longitude and latitude, co-ordinates and the ability to fix one's position by triangulation are required.

However, these are fully explained in the excellent documentation that is part of the whole software package.

The various clues and artefacts presented in the search for the Mary Rose, can be marked with buoys.

Whenever a clue to the position of the ship is discovered and a marker buoy is "dropped", compass bearings of that position are automatically given which can be plotted on work maps away from the micro.

Obviously, these clues and the hull itself can be found in a haphazard way but with careful teaching the idea of a systematic sweep search of the area can be introduced.

The BBC Micro is used as an under water sonar detector (and very realistic it sounds, too). The lower part of the screen is filled with a picture of the sea bed. When a discovery is made, you drop a sonar marker buoy — but make sure you position it accurately!

> This part of the program is really superb and well within the capabilities of children age nine and over. It gives scope for much work away from the Micro and the program can be returned to many times by individual or groups of users in their search for the Mary Rose.

The second part of the program assumes that you found the correct position, and begins by placing your search ship right over the Mary Rose.

This is the more difficult part and I would suggest that Ginn, the publishers, are somewhat optimistic when the advertising literature states that the program is suitable for children age nine and upwards.

> Let me put it another way: I, as well as "experts" from my local MEP centre, have not yet successfully achieved any really satisfactory result from this part of the program. But then, how many times have we seen that children are far quicker at solving these problems than adults? Remember the Rubik cube!

The user is now a diver with various search facilities at his disposal. Before diving he must go through a check list of equipment to ensure his safety. It is suggested in the documentation that each diver, or group, devises a 3D model of the search site by using unicubes or layers of squared acetate film, one for each half metre depth of dive.

The user now has to think and work in three dimensions and clear the site of mud. Apart from the difficulty of thinking in 3D terms, the other main dif ficulty is to ensure that the mud the diver clears from one position is not transferred to a position he has previously cleared.

> Again, a considerable number of artefacts, such as cannons and combs, are there to be uncovered and raised to the surface. These are illustrated in an excellent pack of resource materials produced by the Mary Rose Trust, and the computer refers the children to them when they have made dis coveries.

A continuous read-out of duration of dive, depth of dive, remaining air supply, and so on is given, but the main problem is orientation!

All results of this search are to be logged in the user's own site map or model and should also be saved on a separate data cassette or disc so that on return to the computer, time is not wasted going over old ground. Results of searches by individuals or groups may then be shared.

> All this, of course, presupposes a fair degree of competency in computer management on the part of the class teacher.

A program of this nature can, indeed, last for many weeks when used as part of an overall class project, and will easily diversify itself across the whole curriculum.

At £32.50, the program may at first seem expensive when viewed in the light of present educational spending stringencies. Nevertheless, it is supplied with commendable documentation and support material.

> With the current interest in the Mary Rose I can easily see this program becoming a classic among educational software, as Pac-man and its ilk were to games software. Overall, I consider this program to be well worth the in vestment, and I look forward to review ing the other software from the Ginn stable.

Richard Jones