Most easily overlooked is version 5 of Crocodile Physics (pound;190 Crocodile Clips), which gains a new wave section to help understand refraction, interference and diffraction. Here you have sources that send out 2D waves, including one that you can propel across the screen. You can add an obstacle such as a mountain to see what happens to TV signals and then there are detectors to measure how they go. What you gain is a wonderful ability to create models, add pictures and endlessly change variables.

But, as I said, there’s a lot of new software, and not the least of it is the credible model worlds of waves and forces created by Immersive Education, whose Krucible series has been upgraded to show full-screen images and be whiteboard-friendly. In Solar System (see website for pricing details) you can investigate eclipses and the seasons. You can even work out the right moment to launch a rocket to Mars using the earth as a “sling-shot”. In Floating and Sinking you re-create Archimedes’ bath-time experiment. Fable Multimedia and Sunflower Learning also have very distinguished waves titles that merit hands-on play.

If placing science in context is the way you like to go, see Motion-time Graphs (pound;95 from Fable). Taking the motion idea to the max is a 3D race game where in a split screen you see the car’s speedo and live graphs of the race - all with the sound of the track. You cannot only hear this, you can see the thought that has gone into making a winning tool for learning. See also Simulation Insight (Logotron, pound;89) where pupils can create graphic models.

Sunflower Learning, which landed two awards last year with a highly interactive suite, now fills a need for pupils to use resources at home.

The need takes shape as an accessible learning management tool where you can set and monitor assignments. What’s remarkable is that rich content is at last connecting with ways to sort out what there is to know. Those with an eye for what makes e-learning tick will head to CogBooks where this atomising of concepts helps provide a personal learning path. In essence it has digitised a science curriculum concept map to make a new tool (around pound;200) that can help pupils find their way through a subject and approach the “e-thing” from a fresh angle. For an example of how “atomising” looks in practice you might care to see my own chemistry software (IT in Science, reviewed p73).

The new science GCSEs (age 15-16) trigger a new generation of online resources to enhance printed media so a visit to book publishers Hodder Murray, Nelson Thornes and Heinneman is a must. For ages 12 to 14 you’ll find assessment packages based on the KS3 Science Framework. Particularly look at Hodder and Nelson Thornes for impressive attention to detail in a learning management setting. Do also see Exampro (from pound;50 for Exampro - Testbase) a tool to create customised test papers with aplomb.

For primary science, Simulation Explorer (from pound;49 Granada Learning) offers an accomplished half dozen experiments around forces, habitats and tooth decay. It’s well matched to the curriculum; all the more likeable for letting you choose between two or three variables to play with. Beside this, Ponds Streams (from pound;34 Spiny Software) is my favourite, with a clever minibeast identification key and lovely drawings. For science TV on your PC there’s Seeing Science for ages five to seven years (pound;50 from Channel 4).

For colleges and teacher education OATmedia has the tutorial-style Essential Physics - Electricity and Magnetism that’s attractive and competent. You move pretty quickly through so it’s a handy way to catch up on what there is to know. Channel 4 extends the Clipbank mix of TV programme and lesson resources on CD. New for secondary schools are several titles about oil, rocks, polymers and limestone offering film and clips about these industries (from Pounds 65).

Finally, try Caspian’s walk-around science environments. Here pupils explore habitats, respiration, photosynthesis, earth and space, moving around these “worlds” to gain knowledge from various characters within (Caspian Learning pound;399 each). The novel approach merits a walk-through and a comfy seat, too.

Don’t miss

Crocodile Physics Major waves upgrade Crocodile Clips Stand D74 Tel 0131 226 1511 www.crocodile-clips.com

Motion-time graphs on a race track Fable Multimedia Stand M64 Tel 0870 701 0012 www.fable.co.uk

Simulation Explorer for primary science Granada Learning Stand E40F40 www.granada-learning.com

Other contacts

BBC Stand F30 www.bbc.co.uk

Birchfield Interactive Stand Z56 www.birchfieldinteractive.com

Cambridge-Hitachi Stand A20 www.cambridge-hitachi.com

Caspian Learning Stand C100 www.caspianlearning.co.uk

Channel 4 Stand D42 www.channel4.comlearningshop IT in Science Stand SW44 www.rogerfrost.com

CogBooks Stand S14 www.cogbooks.com

ExamproDoublestruckTestbase AQA Stand A40 QCA Stand Y36 www.exampro.co.uk

Gridclub Stand C90 www.gridclub.com

Harcourt Education Stand Y10 www.heinemann.co.ukscience Hodder Murray Stand X28 www.hodder.co.uk

Immersive Education Stand D70 www.immersiveeducation.com

Nelson Thornes Stand C70 www.nelsonthornes.com

Neptune Computer Tech Stand H70 www.neptunect.co.uk

NESTA Futurelab Stand Y30 www.nestafuturelab.org

NETWORK EDUCATIONAL PRESS Stand PZ3 www.networkpress.co.uk

Newbyte Stand M63 www.newbyte.co.uk

OATmedia www.oatmedia.com

Physics Concepts Stand SW141 www.physicsconcepts.co.uk

Plato learning www.platolearning.co.uk

Sherston Stand E60 www.sherston.com

Logotron Stand B30 www.logo.com

Spiny Software www.spinysoft.co.uk

Sunflower Learning Stand Q24 www.sunflowerlearning.com

Topologika Software www.topologika.co.uk

Virtual Image Stand SW4 Tel: 0161 480 1915 www.virtualimage.co.uk