Microsoft and Scholastic Entertainment Heat Up the Summer

Children Will Have a 'Lava' Fun Learning About Science With Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Volcano Adventure Activity Center July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Volcanoes have intrigued people of all ages for many years. And while the volatile Mayon Volcano near Legazpi, Philippines, continues to be a threat, on the other side of the world picturesque Mount Rainier in Seattle has been dormant for more than 150 years. Dormant and active volcanoes have many different elements, and now children ages 6 to 10 can learn about these and other volcanoes through Microsoft Corp.'s newest science software, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus(R) Volcano Adventure Activity Center. The software encourages kids to scale a mountain of intriguing information about volcanoes on land, under water and in space.

In a fun, interactive way, children journey through games, experiments, trivia and creative activities, all designed to help them learn. They will discover that with the right mix of ingredients, a dormant volcano can blow its top. Or they can read about the Ring of Fire, a fault line where all the world's earthquakes and volcanoes are found, including Mount Kilamanjaro, Mount St. Helens and Mount Fuji.

"Through science experiments, videos, photos and a variety of facts and figures, children will have so much fun they won't even realize they're learning," said Jaynie Degnan, product manager of the Learning Division at Microsoft. "Ms. Frizzle(TM), Liz and the rest of the class from Scholastic's The Magic School Bus will lead them on a new and exciting science adventure."

"Through our continued relationship with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), we hope to provide science learning to children in a fun, engaging and easy-to-understand way," said Leslye Schaefer, senior vice president of marketing at Scholastic. "Our goal is to instill an interest in science at a young age."

An Eruption of Fun
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Volcano Adventure Activity Center transforms Ms. Frizzle's magic bus into a helicopter that hovers above volcanoes to reveal interesting tidbits of information. Children can learn that a newly formed island near Iceland, named Surtsey, was actually created by a volcano that raged for more than two years. Or they may find that although destructive, volcanoes also provide fertile soils and valuable mineral deposits, such as copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver, as well as geothermal energy. Ms. Frizzle describes the exciting job of a volcanologist and how they can actually predict when a volcano will blow by using scientific tools, such as the tiltmeter. This device measures the size of a growing volcanic mountain, while a seismograph measures the quick movements of the earth beneath the mountain, a telltale sign of an upcoming eruption.

At the back of the bus, in the Volcano Observation Station, children can race against the clock in Rub A Dub Sub, a game in which they navigate their sub toward the volcano research ship while avoiding red lava, black smokers and underwater chimneys. In Volcanic Videos, they can click to see amazing photos of real-life volcanoes, including rivers of magma and molten lava, as well as underwater chimneys that blow black ash into the ocean. By clicking on the globe in the bus, young scientists can create their own volcano with the Make Your Own Volcano activity, which lets them experiment with different types of magma, gas and pressure, creating a different eruption each time.

Continuing a Long-Standing Learning Tradition
Since 1993, Microsoft and Scholastic have teamed up to create the Scholastic's The Magic School Bus software series. Based on the Emmy Award-winning television show and the successful children's science book series, the award-winning software titles feature science teacher extraordinaire, Ms. Frizzle, and her inquisitive students, who take virtual field trips around the world on a magical school bus. Over the past nine years, the software has won such prestigious awards as the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval and the ComputED Learning Center Education Software Review Awards.

Pricing, Availability and System Requirements
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus(R) Volcano Adventure Activity Center, made for the PC and Apple Macintosh, is available now from retailers nationwide for an estimated retail price* of $19.95. To learn more about Scholastic's The Magic School Bus CD-ROM series, parents and kids can visit http://www.microsoft.com/kids/ . More information on Scholastic's The Magic School Bus(TM) can be found at http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/ .

* Reseller prices may vary.

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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.