Cooties

“Cooties” is a software program designed for Palm OS devices.  “Cooties” is a simulation game that students can use to better understand the spread of diseases.  The teacher decides whom among his/her student’s characters (or coodles) will be infected.  The teacher also decides the immunity levels of the coodles, and the incubation time of the “disease”.  The students then transport diseases by beaming between their Palm OS devices.  The Cooties program tracks if coodles have diseases and whom all the coodles have met.  After the students are done beaming, the students can track and determine who was the initial spreader of the disease. 

The program is great for learning about the spreading of viruses, exponential growth and epidemiology, which is the study of the causes, control, and distribution of the spread of diseases in a population.  There is a free 7 day demo for the Palm OS PRC version 5.0 on the website, http://www.goknow.com/Products/Cooties/.  For purchasing information, call (877) 482-3439 or use their sales information request form at http://www.goknow.com/Products/Sales.php?t=cooties. 

Additional information on Cooties can be found at http://pie.concord.org/product.php3?id=29&PALM_Session=fa6c91d1d2a09e4990e5db4f02e3e7fc. 

Live Long and Prosper

“Live Long and Prosper” is a simulation game that deals with genetics.  Players get a set of chromosomes and are told to reproduce and to live as long as possible.  They are given certain information, such as how old they are, which generation they are in, and their total score.  The players must mate with other players to increase their generations.  When two players mate, the genes that are shown on the screen are no longer the parents’, but now belong to those of the offspring.  They age of the individual also decreases to zero, and the total points will increase.  When the individual eventually dies it will tell the total score, the age of their death, and the current generation they were on. 

The basic point of this game is to get a fundamental knowledge of basic genetics.  The five chromosomes on the screen represent five different traits.  The traits include sex, longevity, and the presence of childhood diseases, aging rate, and fertility.  During the course of this game, the players figure out which chromosomes do what, and whether they are homozygous dominant or homozygous recessive or heterozygous.  There are many good uses for this game.  It can be used to explain the differences between phenotype and genotype.  It also can be used to help discuss and explain mating crosses, population genetics, and probability. 

This game is designed for the Palm OS.  For information about downloading “Live Long and Prosper”, go to http://education.mit.edu/pda/download.htm. 

Astro Info

What is Astro Info and what does it do?

Astro Info is an astrological almanac program designed for the PalmOS.  It is very handy for stargazers in that it displays many things, such as the Moon and Sun phases, Sky maps, magnitudes of stars, star charts, and location of the other 8 planets and their moons.  Astro Info is a must have for the astronomer inside all of us.

Astro Info can be downloaded for free at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=8793

Requirements:

Astro Info must be installed on the PalmOS 3.0 or higher.

Installation of Astro Info:

Astro Info installs the same way as any other Palm Application. 

1. Download the .zip file from the free download link, and extract the files to your desktop computer.
2. Sync your Palm with your desktop computer to which you have extracted the files.
3. Move the files to your Palm and install them the same way you would any other Palm Application.

For specific file information of the individual files that come with the Astro Info software, please visit: http://astroinfo.sourceforge.net/installing.html

Configuring Astro Info:

When you first run Astro Info, a General Options screen will appear.  Here you can set your date and time, location, and many other options that come with the Astro Info software. 

In the future, if you need to change your options, you can always go back to the General Options from Astro Info’s Main Menu.

For further configuration information please visit:

http://astroinfo.sourceforge.net/options.html

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