Special effort has been taken to create Fish Trek's intuitive interface which makes it possible to use the software immediately without ever having to consult a manual. Just by clicking the buttons, students and teachers should quickly understand how the program operates whether they are working in the Practice/Testing Area, playing one of the games, getting material from the Print Options page, or doing anything else in the program. A lab that is full of students can be asked to start the program, and typically with no further direction they will soon be involved in the game and learning about articles.

To get the most from Fish Trek, however, there are some tips and ideas that can help bring the power of the computer to bear on both learning and instructing. What appears here is what can be considered the Fish Trek 2.0 Manual. Below you will see (in the form of FAQ's) the rules of play and explanations of new and improved features in the program. You will also see tips and ideas useful for both students and teachers.

THE NEW VERSION
FAQ: How does Fish Trek 2.0 differ from the earlier version?
Answer: Windows users will find the Fish Trek 2.0 game completely new and far more involved than the earlier version. Macintosh users have been familiar with the layout of this  game for a number of  years but there are major improvements in the program that will be new to Macintosh and Windows users alike. These include a completely redone practice area, a new testing feature, an expanded and improved Print Options screen, and an on-the-fly mistakes viewer. In addition, Fish Trek 2.0 now runs in native mode on Mac OSX and Mac OS 7-9 as well as on any Windows Platform from Windows 95 to the more recent operating systems like NT and XP.

RULES OF PLAY
FAQ: What are the rules of play?
Answer: You begin with five fish and lose a fish each time you choose an incorrect answer. (However, when you reach Level Four, all of your mistakes are forgiven, and you are given back all of your fish!) When you have lost all five of your fish, the game is over.

PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL
FAQ: I'm playing Game J and I see questions from Game A. Why?
Answer: Remember; all the games in Fish Trek are comprehensive. Fish Trek does not allow users to forget any aspect of article use as they move to higher levels of play. Game B includes the material from Game A, and Game C includes the material from both Games A and B. When you play Game J, you are practicing all of the material in the program at once.

FAQ: There is a new mistakes viewer in Fish Trek 2.0 and a button on the main menu named Show Answers with Mistakes. What is the button for?
Answer: Mistakes are automatically shown with their correct answers in Fish Trek, but you can easily change this default by unchecking the Show Answers with Mistakes button on the main menu. If this button is unchecked, players will still be able to see the mistakes they have made, but the answers to those mistakes will no longer be visible. This option is provided because some people may feel it is cheating to be able to see the answers to mistakes during play.

PRACTICE AREA
FAQ: If the games are comprehensive, how can I focus on just one part of The Article Book?
Answer: Go to the Practice/Testing Area accessible from the Menu screen. There you can practice the new information introduced in each game. Each Game in the practice area represents one of the Parts A-J of The Article Book.

FAQ: Do the Games in the Practice Area exactly match the Parts in The Article Book?
Answer: Yes.

FAQ: What has been improved in the Fish Trek Practice Area?
Answer: A lot. In addition to the new testing feature, there is an on-the-fly mistakes viewer (now included throughout the Fish Trek game). In the new practice area, you also get a more truly random presentation than before and you can even combine games to practice more than one part of The Article Book at the same time. For example, in the Combined Parts Mode, you can practice Parts A and J together or Parts A, D, and E together. Any combination is allowed. This is especially useful when work is needed in several specific parts of the book.

TESTING
FAQ: Explain the new testing component in Fish Trek 2.0.
Answer: First make sure you haven't missed out on the power that Fish Trek has always had with regard to creating custom quizzes for single users or entire labs full of students. Fish Trek records every mistake the users make, and these mistakes can be printed out as study sheets with the answers included or as custom-made quizzes that focus on the very aspects of article use that each student needs the most practice with.

To create a study sheet, students need only play the game and afterwards go to the Print Options screen (accessible from the main Menu) to print their mistakes with the answers.  To print out a custom-made quiz, students simply print the mistakes without the answers.  Fish Trek requires students to enter their names whenever they print these mistakes, so in a lab setting it is conveniently clear whose quiz or study sheet is whose.

Here is a step-by-step procedure for teachers who are working with students in a lab and want to create study sheets and custom-made quizzes for their students:

1. Have the students play the game or work in the practice area.

2. After they have played or practiced, ask them to stop and go to the Menu and click Print Options.

3. On the Print Options screen, have them click Sentences You Missed. For a study sheet, the students should choose the option to see the mistakes with the answers. For a custom-made quiz, they should choose to see the mistakes without the answers.

4. Students can print at this time, but it might be good to number the mistakes first. Have the students click the Number button before they print. All of the items will be numbered.

5. Finally, the students click the Print button. They will be given the option to double-space or single-space their print-outs. Either is fine. Single-spacing saves paper, but the double-spaced option creates a less cramped layout and is preferable if there aren't a large number of mistakes to print. The students will then be cued to enter their names before printing begins.

FAQ: Great, but what about the new testing component in Fish Trek 2.0?
Answer: The new testing component is included in the practice area. At any time, you can choose to take a test by clicking the Testing Mode button and selecting the option for either a single-part test or a combined-part test. In the Combined Parts Mode, any combination of parts is allowed for the test. During the test, students are not allowed to see explanations, view their current mistakes, get explanations, or access the Rules and Explanations. These options are disabled until the test is completed. Afterwards, a click on the 'View Test' button reveals a completely corrected test with the tester's name and score ready to copy or print. This corrected test is also available on the Print Options screen. (Only one test at a time is held in memory.)

FAQ: What is the Make a Quiz option for?
Answer: The Make a Quiz button on the Print Options screen is a convenient way to print out a neat, 20-point, double-spaced quiz ready to hand out to a class. The quiz prints with a title and a place for the student's name. Each Quiz is unique and comprehensive; in game B, for example, 20 random questions are selected from the 50 questions in Game A and the 40 questions in Game B. In later levels, there is a smart feature that prevents randomization from including too many questions from earlier levels of play. In other words, the Fish Trek Make a Quiz feature deliberately 'spikes' the quiz with a reasonable number of questions from higher levels of play so that chance doesn't create a Game J Quiz with, say, 20 questions from Game A. This smart feature assures a good quiz every time.

EXTRA FEATURES
FAQ: What is the High Scores screen for?
Answer: Mostly for fun, but the High Scores screen also provides a competitive element to the use of Fish Trek in a lab. It is handy when teachers want to give recognition to the 'winners' in the class. At the end of a Fish Trek session, the students can all be asked to go to the High Scores screen and the teacher can quickly see who has done the best.

FAQ: What is the Context Game?
Answer: The Context Game (accessible from the main Menu) puts the 650 context paragraphs of Fish Trek into a game setting. Students at higher levels of English proficiency will find this presentation more challenging as they have more than a single sentence to read.

RECORDS
FAQ: Does Fish Trek record every mistake that is made?
Answer: Yes. Even the mistakes made during practice sessions, on tests, and in the Fish Squares Context Game are recorded. You can see the mistakes by clicking the Mistakes button whenever you are practicing or playing a game. You can also print or copy the mistakes to the clipboard by going to the Print Options screen accessible from the main Menu. Whenever there are mistakes saved in memory, an Erase Mistakes button will appear on the Main Menu screen. Clicking this button will clear all of the mistakes from memory so that  another person can play without viewing the previous player's mistakes. The Print Options screen is another place where you can erase the mistakes from memory. Just choose Print Option #1 and the Clear Mistakes from Memory button will become available.

FAQ: Does Fish Trek keep a record of my work after I quit the program?
Answer: No. Fish Trek reverts to its original state each time it is launched. This fresh start is especially important in a lab setting. The Print Options screen provides an excellent way for you to keep records of your work. Take a moment to print your tests, mistakes, and high scores whenever you wish, or copy them to the clipboard and paste them into any word processing document. Remember, on the Print Options screen you can print or copy any data you see in Fish Trek.

TECHNICAL STUFF
FAQ: I have a Macintosh. Is the Windows version of Fish Trek 2.0 different?
Answer: No. Fish Trek 2.0 is the same whether you have a Windows or a Macintosh machine.

FAQ: How do you install Fish Trek 2.0?
Answer: There is no installation process aside from copying the program to  your hard drive. Just drag the Fish Trek program from the CD to your desktop. Double-clicking its icon will launch the program.

FAQ: How do I uninstall Fish Trek?
Answer: Just drag it into the trash and empty the trash (Macintosh) or drag it into the recycle bin and empty the recycle bin (Windows).

FAQ: How do I order additional copies of Fish Trek?
Answer: On the main Menu, click the Ordering Information button.