High School Advantage is an educational software suite published by Encore. For this review, we only considered the science content—sections on biology, chemistry and physics—contained in the learning suite. These sections function like basic high school textbooks in these subjects, and they are aimed at students in grades 9-12 (ages 14-18). The content is suitable for high school students interested in learning basic biology, chemistry, and physics. Quizzes, animations and other exercises enhance their learning. This application would work well as a stand-alone course for a student working at her own pace, or it would be useful for a student who wanted to supplement his science course in school.
We should note that the content for High School Advantage was developed by HomeworkHelp.com, the same group that provided the content for our best educational science software. The content of the two applications is nearly identical, with just a few differences. High School Advantage offers an additional section dedicated to physics, as well as some extra learning exercises, while our number one product boasts a slicker interface, more quiz questions and a greater capability to track student progress. With excellent educational content, High School Advantage comes in a very close second with our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.
Much of the learning materials in High School Advantage are text-based, and the application feels very much like an interactive textbook—with some added features. The concepts are complex enough to challenge most high school students, but the text is written in clear language, and the explanations of difficult ideas come across as clear and uncomplicated.
Each chapter is split into several lessons, which breaks the text into manageable chunks all centered on one subject. The written material contains a large amount of diagrams, charts, photos and other visual aids to increase students' understanding. These lessons also include additional content, such as animated lessons, real-life examples, journal writing prompts and other exercises to reinforce what students are learning from the text.
This educational science software provides a quiz at the end of each section. If students answer a question incorrectly, they are shown what the correct answer is and a brief explanation of why. Students can take the quiz as often as they want, and the application keeps track of the most recent score for each chapter quiz.
The developers of High School Advantage are aware that students need to be able to do more than just read through information once, they need to be able to find it again when they need it—to make connections, review material, write reports, etc. To that end, there is both a searchable index and a bookmark feature that let students find and review what they've read.
The packaging indicates there are study materials available that are compatible with the iPad and iPhone, so students can take their studying with them on the go. This is a fantastic feature in a piece of educational science software, but be aware that currently these study materials are limited, and there are no iPod-compatible study materials for the science sections of the application.
High School Advantage includes science content in biology, chemistry and physics. Each section of this educational science software is designed to cover the topics of any basic high school science class in biology, chemistry or physics.
The Biology section has the following 12 chapters:
- Introduction
- Basic Chemistry
- Biological Compounds
- Cell Structure
- Cell Metabolism
- Cell Reproduction
- Genetics
- Evolution
- Diversity of Life
- Ecology
- Human Biology: Systems Structure and Function
- Classification of the Animal Kingdom
The Chemistry has 25 chapters. Some of the chapter titles include:
- Structure of the Atom, Compounds
- The Mole Concept
- The Periodic Table
- Chemical Reactions & Bonding
- Chemical Equations
- Chemical Equilibrium
- Oxidation-Reduction Reactions
- Stoichiometry
- Thermodynamics
- Gases
- Solids and Liquids
- Solutions
- Acids and Bases
- Electrochemistry
- Metals
- Organic Chemistry
- Nuclear Chemistry
The titles of the 8 chapters in physics are:
- Physics Essentials
- Balance Forces—Sitting Still
- Linear Motion
- Motion in a Plane
- Law of Gravitation
- Work & Energy
- Collisions & Momentum
- Energy, Heat & Temperature
Installation of High School Advantage is pretty straightforward, though it was a little time consuming. We installed and ran the application on Windows 7 and had no significant issues.
The nuts-and-bolts operation of the application is rather easy as well. The interface is not as slick as our pick for best educational science software, but the controls are very similar. On each screen there is a main learning area where the text and graphics are displayed. Surrounding this area are icons that help students navigate and access the application's various tools. From here they can navigate to chapter quizzes and other lessons, as well as open the searchable index and bookmark tool. Above the learning area are the navigation buttons that will bring up the animated lessons and other learning supplements. Users are alerted to when these features are available for a lesson by text appearing in the navigation button.
Our one complaint was that there is no way to navigate from the learning area to the subject's main menu. If we wanted to see the list of chapter titles again (which are only listed on the main menu), we had to exit the application and start again.
High School Advantage comes with a brief installation guide, but it lacks any built-in help; the help button on the main menu directs you to a website with installation information. The Encore website proves to be more helpful, with contact options and technical support. You can submit a request for technical support or search the knowledgebase for a solution to your issue.
While our top product has a slicker interface and better tools for tracking a student's progress over time, the educational content in the science sections of High School Advantage is top-notch for any student wanting to learn basic high school biology, chemistry or physics. A variety of teaching tools and exercises guide students through even the most complex topics in these subjects, and chapter quizzes help students test their learning. Plus, this educational science software offers a content section dedicated to physics, which some of the other learning suites we reviewed do not.
