Despite an extensive round the world Save the Whale campaign, the battle to save the whale is far from won. Whales are still being killed. Every fifteen minutes, one large whale dies. So it is tremendously important that public knowledge about whales is increased.

In 1987, Friends of the Earth in Liverpool received an intriguing letter from a computer software company wanting to do just that. The letter was from Topologika and it said a series of computer programs were being written about whales and whaling and wondered if Friends of the Earth would be willing to help. The rest is history and that is how Topologika's Whales Project Pack started off.

The Whales Project Pack is the first conservation learning package with computer software to be published in the UK. It is far more than a few programs on disc. It is a truly substantial resource of books, posters, slides, an adventure game, a disc based whale encyclopedia, a simulation of whale migration, a computer based quiz and taped music. It is a package that is ideal for anyone at home or at school with an interest in whales.

Some of the material has been published for the first time by Topologika themselves while other bits have been collected together from sources around the world. Although available as a complete package it can also be purchased separately as a sort of mix and match set.

The best starting point to the pack is probably 'Saving the Whale' - an outstanding tape/slide presentation that will set the scene for the use of the rest of the material. Children and adults who have watched the presentation found it excellent. The 40 colour slides present a balanced view of the history of whaling and the fight to control it. The tape with narration by Sir Peter Scott, is just right for junior school use.

The package will of course work in any slide projector but the pre-recorded cassette has been pulsed for use with a compatible automatic slide projector.

The set of eight A4 sized 'Whale Activity Sheets', many of four pages, provide an ideal basis on which teachers can build a theme on whales. The sheets start with an introduction to mammals and then move to whales and their habitat. They also cover hearing, sound and their birth.

The format for each sheet is similar, with information, questions and things to do. Children I've seen using the sheets certainly found them stimulating. They are well laid out and obviously produced for the classroom by people who know what children respond to. Tedimen's Folio wordprocessor has been used to great effect combined with some excellent graphics. Teachers particularly liked how the sheets are cleverly linked into the 'Whales Facts' software.

As you would expect, the Whales pack includes an extensive bibliography of books available about whales. Public libraries and many schools will already have a number of those recommended on their shelves, but Topologika has included two offerings in the package that are unlikely to be available locally.

Gentle Giants Of The Sea by the Whale Museum in the USA is a real classic. Its 214 pages are packed full of fascinating material and activities ideal for pupils' classroom or home-based research. There are also notes for teachers and copyright free illustrations. This book has definitely been designed to be a teaching tool for a whole term's work.

The second book is published by Topologika. Realising there is nothing available on the myths and legends surrounding whales, Topologika commissioned David Forster to write one. It's a valuable collection of stories that have helped make whales through the ages mysterious, feared and loved.

The software component of the Whales Project Pack has three discs of software. 'Whales Facts' is a sort of Whale encyclopedia. It is a menu-driven databse made up of a collection of Mode 7 pages linked together. Children can move around the database by pressing single letters and it contains literally hundreds of facts about whales.

Graham Ragget, the author of 'Whale Facts' actually began collecting data to include in this disc of whale information in 1984 and he says it contains more information than a dozen books. Project work in school does throw up the most unexpected questions and 'Whale Facts' anticipates many of them.

Unlike some books, the information included is right up-to-date thanks to Friends of the Earth.

In addition to all the text that does seem to cover every conceivable fact about whales, the database also has some animated pictures of the Major Toothed and Baleen whales. Usefully, all pages can be dumped to a printer by just pressing the P key.

The second disc in the whale pack contains three programs. The 'Migration Game' is a quiz for up to ten players or teams. Each player controls a migrating humpback whale and answers questions to move it on an on-screen map of the world, along the ten main northern and southern migration routes. The first whale to reach tropical waters wins.

The game was designed as an ideal way to round up a class topic on whales although it could be used at any stage in a project. The program also has a useful utility which can be used by children to create their own datafiles.

Cetologists (people who study whales!) believe toothed whales can radiate sound in all directions and that they can focus this sound to 'see' things in much the same way as we focus our eyes.

The program 'Ears that See' has been designed to give children an idea of the same experience. It trains the children to use sound to recognise lines and shape and ends with a game that tests children's mathematical shape recognition skills - they have to guess the shape before the great white shark gets them!

The third part of 'Whale Games' is a simulation entitled 'Save the Whale'. As it is an arcade type simulation, it is far more appealing to children than the normal text only simulations. In the program, a school of whales is migrating towards the equator to breed. As well as natural hazards like beaching to be overcome, the whales have to survive some pirate whalers.

Throughout the simulation, the children take the part of the whale, steering them (usually in pairs) towards the breeding grounds at the top of the screen. The whales can dive and surface whenever they like. During the game, the whalers are ever present and determined to get their foe. When submerged, the whalers track the whales down with sonar and they have the help of a helicopter when the whale is moving on the surface. However, whenever a whale is threatened, the conservation ship Rainbow can be moved in to help.

This part of the package soon becomes popular but teachers quickly realise that its arcade style does alert the children to the problems that real whales suffer on the way to their breeding grounds.

The third software component, 'Whale's Adventure' has just been added to the pack. It is a substantial graphics adventure written in three parts supplied on two sides of a disc.

The adventure is loosely based on the story of Moby Dick and sets out to explode that myth and others, putting the children in the role of Queequeg, heir to the throne of Kokovoko, a beautiful Pacific island whose economy totally depends on whaling.

When Queequeg's father, the King, dies, it is tradition for his crown to be thrown into the sea. Unfortunately a white whale - Moby - catches the crown in his huge jaw and carries it away. Queequeg cannot succeed to the throne until he has tracked down the crown and convinced his people they can live without whaling.

The adventure provides opportunity for problem-solving of all kinds. It also provides experience of mapping skills, navigation, bearings and develops the understanding of conservation.

The Whales Project Pack is an outstanding collection of resources. It must be one of the best topic packs yet produced. Brian Kerslake, the pack's designer, has managed to amalgamate computer software, books, posters, activity sheets and a tape-slide sequence in a unique and useful way. There is no doubt that the package has been brilliantly conceived and executed. The emphasis is a sensitive treatment of what is at times an emotive issue. Topologika is to be applauded for developing such a computer-based conservation learning resource package.

This is just the kind of resource that schools need for real cross-curriculur studies, and I recommend it for children from lower juniors to the top of the secondary school. I hope Topologika will be encouraged to do more.

The Whales Project Pack is published by Topologika, PO Box 39, Stilton, Peterborough PE7 3AL. Tel (0733) 244682. The complete pack can be purchased for £65. It is also possible to buy individual components of the pack separately as follows: Whale Myths and Legends by David Forster and Gary Jones costs £4. Gentle Giants of the Sea by the Whale Museum costs £13. The Whales Of The North Atlantic poster by the British Museum costs £4. The Tape-Slide Set, Save The Whale, by the World Wide Fund For Nature costs £15 and the Whale Activity Sheets by Les Turner and Gary Jones costs £4. The Oceans Of Song: Whale Voices music cassette costs £8 from Pet Records and the computer software is available separately as follows: Whale Games by Tom Tuite: £18.40, Whale Facts by Graham Raggett: £18.40, and Whale Adventure by Tom Tuite: £22.

Topologika promises that Friends of the Earth will benefit by a donation of 5 per cent of every sale of individual items or the complete pack.