brightsparks... how to play
the range of quizzes
The instructions on the screen will guide you through the various subjects, levels, and quizzes available.
For each subject and level, there are four different quizzes.
For Primary Science, each quiz contains 120 questions covering biology, chemistry, environment and physics.
The secondary level quizzes focus on the individual subjects biology, chemistry and physics.
For Levels 1 (ages 11-14) and 2 (ages 14-16), the quizzes contain 40 questions. For Levels 3 (AS, HSC, GNVQ, etc) and 4 (A2, SYS, GNVQ, etc) they contain 20 questions.
how to play
Start the quiz by double-clicking on the Brightsparks icon.
this is in your Start menu and/or on your Desktop.
You'll now see an opening credits display (just like you get when starting Internet Explorer or Microsoft Word). The screen will then fade to a dark blue background and the opening credits then fade in. After a few seconds these will be replaced by the start window.
Type your name in the box. (This can be any combination of letters and numbers, the idea is to uniquely identify yourself.) Keep it short - no more than 8 characters. If two of your pupils have the same name make sure they give themselves something unique for Brightsparks!
Press the return key, or click on the Start button.
Clicking Start takes you to a window that asks you what you want to do next…
Clicking on New lets you select a new set of questions to answer.
Clicking on Replay causes Brightsparks to re-present the LAST set of questions played.
If this is the first time you've run Brightsparks, click on New.
choose the subject
Clicking New takes you to a window that offers you a choice of subject:
Select your subject area by clicking on one of the subject buttons.
Primary Science is (as the name suggests) intended for Primary School users.
Biology, Chemistry and Physics are intended for Secondary School/FE users.
now choose the level
The subject buttons will now fade out - except for the one you selected - and the level buttons fade in... If you select either Biology, Chemistry or Physics, you may choose a level at which to play.
The labels under the buttons tell you what level the questions are aimed at.
- Level 1: Lower Secondary School courses
- e.g. ages 11-14 - Level 2: Upper Secondary School courses
- e.g. ages 14-16 - Level 3: AS, HSC, GNVQ, etc
- Level 4: A2, SYS, GNVQ, etc
now select the quiz
When you select your level, the level buttons fade out - except for the one you selected - and the Quiz buttons appear...
Click on a Quiz button to choose your quiz
loading the questions
(if you have chosen the ONLINE OPTION)
When you've chosen your quiz, the program will begin the process of connecting to the web site and fetching the question data.
The progress bar under the "Loading..." message indicates the progress of the download. Please be patient if your internet connection is slow. If you're connected to the internet by an ordinary telephone line, it may take up to a minute to establish the connection and get the question data.
Once the first question has been fetched, you can begin answering the quiz as subsequent questions will be fetched while you are reading and answering the current one.
As the questions are fetched from the web site, they'll be saved in a folder on your hard disc - the 'Brightsparks cache folder'. (The next time you select that particular set of questions, they will be fetched straight from the cache folder, so that you don't need to connect to the Internet at all.)
When the initial loading is complete, you'll have the option of continuing, or going back and changing your selection....
Clicking on Back will take you back to the 'What do you want to do?' window.
Click on the Play button to carry on and do the quiz. This takes you to....
the information window
This confirms which question set you've selected, tells you how many questions there are to answer, and gives you some basic instructions.
Click on the Play button to continue, or Exit if you've changed your mind and don't want to do this particular quiz