JumpStart facts for kids

Quick facts for kids JumpStart
Series logo used from 1996 to 2011.
Genres	Edutainment
Developers	Fanfare Software (1994–1995) JumpStart Games (1995–present)
Publishers	JumpStart Games
Creators	Barton Listick
Platforms	Windows, Macintosh, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, Wii, DS, Mobile app
First release	JumpStart Kindergarten November 14, 1994

JumpStart (known as Jump Ahead in the United Kingdom) is an educational media franchise for children, consisting mostly of educational games, produced by JumpStart Games. The series originally consisted of a series of educational PC games but has since expanded to include workbooks, direct-to-video films, mobile apps, and other media, including a massive multiplayer online game located at JumpStart.com, that were launched on March 10, 2009.

Design

Plot and gameplay

The purpose of the bulk of their games is to drill young players in specific subjects and skills, as required by elementary and secondary school curriculum. These drills are often embedded within entertaining gameplay. The storylines typical involve one or more animated characters facing a problem and asking the player for help; therefore, the games are goal oriented. The storylines are, by design, shallow and keep the player focused on gameplay.

Art

The art and animations for Fanfare Studio's early games were virtually paperless, being rendered with a mouse and tablet. Additional artwork was done by Knowledge Adventure's in-house and contract artist Ann Pickard for their first three games and, previous to the advent of 3D compute graphics, for their early games, Maurice Kimball drew the backgrounds.

During the mid-90s, former musician and BigFins band member David Rees joined Knowledge Adventure as Art Director and music composer until his leave in 2002.

Vivendi Universal Games artist Marcela Cabrera did the illustrations for the games around 1998 and directed the art for the games developed the following year.

The backgrounds for the JumpStart World games were sketched and lined by the lead artist and illustrator Maurice Kimball.

The backgrounds for the JumpStart SpyMasters games were sketched, hand drawn and inked by Brian White while animator Brian Reynolds worked on the flash animation for the background objects and characters.

Educational goals

The concept behind the JumpStart Learning System was to keep track of a student's successes and struggles, all while teaching an entire grade or subject through a proper balance of puzzles, games and education.

To cater to different audiences and student goals, Jumpstart binned their products into three categories:

1. Grade-based products, covering all topics typically taught in a single year of elementary or secondary school
2. Subject-based products, focusing on specific topics
3. Learning products, teaching basics while exploring a whole new world

The series' "rigorous methodology" includes input from kids advisory teams, family testing, child development specialists, teachers, and educational experts.

In addition, Knowledge Adventure developed three techniques behind their products:

1. JumpStart Assessment Technology -To customize individual skill levels.
2. JumpStart Adaptive Learning Technology - To customize program difficulty levels to coincide with a user's abilities.
3. JumpStart Tutor Technology - To help a user overcome any obstacles.

In 1995, JumpStart claimed to be the first educational software series to cover entire curricula by grade level, and that this was achieved through reinforcing classroom lessons with cartoon guides. For instance, in JumpStart First Grade, "children ages 5-7 learn 92 educational skills in 18 modules teaching math, geography, science and reading comprehension from eight interactive books with 52 illustrated stories". These "curriculum and skills products" introduced several innovative edutainment features, such as Progress Reports (allowing parents and teachers to track progress) and Adaptive Learning (allowing the game to automatically change in difficulty based on the player's performance).

The developers believe it is vital to achieving the proper balance between education and entertainment. Diana Pray, the senior producer of JumpStart titles, said "we give [the player] enough story to make them feel like they are in a game", while offering reward-based incentives to encourage progress. While noting that the "dominant theory since the infancy of the [edutainment] genre has been to sugarcoat the academic drudgery and make learning child's play", The Washington Post reporter Don Oldenburg, the newspaper noted that JumpStart was more "overtly educational" than most, offering grade-specific, curriculum-oriented products, adding that Knowledge Adventure had "got the jump on the industry" by being the first mover in the summer of that year. In 2011, Knowledge Adventure President and CEO David Lord said that "JumpStart and Math Blaster have already helped millions of English speaking students and English Language learners discover that learning can be fun".

Products in the franchise

Compilations