This is an interesting package of programs which might be used by a number of departments in a secondary school for a variety of purposes. The uses within biology and geography are the most obvious but there is also the flexibility to make them useful to historians and those involved in teaching wider social awareness courses.

The programs have three options, you can study the growth of populations in an unlimited way, a limited fashion or the growth of human populations. The basis of the programs is a graphical representation of the populations against time. In the first two options we also see the actual organisms in a little circle on the screen. In option two the size of the colony is restricted so that after a short while there is an increasing death rate and a diminishing birth rate, both of which are displayed on the screen.

It is the third option that is likely to be of most interest however and here there are another three options to choose from. You can display either genuine data from 1700 to 1980 in England and Wales, hypothetical data stored within the program or you can enter your own data (the rates for Sri Lanka are included in the manual). This makes the program very flexible and it might be possible to use it for forward planning in a hypothetical situation.

It has to be admitted that this program is little more than a moving graph drawer or animated blackboard but I feel that a number of schools will find its facilities attractive and will use it over a number of curricular areas. The booklet provided has reproducible worksheets and full program information.