FUN AND GAMES ON THE COMPUTER

With quick clicks of the computer mouse, 11-year-old Aimee Crowley works to bring a mountain scene to life with flying butterflies and galloping horses.

On the same Macintosh computer, Jennifer Ruebel, 12, develops a cartoon strip that shows a cape-clad super hero leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

On another Macintosh, fellow fifth- and sixth-graders from Franklin School decide on how best to run their dinosaur park.

With the use of a computer disc, the students also can call up an encyclopedia that includes everything from geographical maps to videos of a space shuttle launch.

Students can watch a video of President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address or a chameleon plucking up an insect with its whip-like tongue.

"You can have fun with it and learn at the same time," Judy Dew said. "It is just tremendously interactive."

Dew and Betty Chasteen consider themselves facilitators instead of teachers.

Close to 90 students in first through sixth grade in the Cape Girardeau public schools are participating in the gifted-program class held at Louis J. Schultz School this academic year. Kindergarteners will join the program in January.

The students are divided into small groups, with each group spending about three hours a week working with the computers in the third-floor classroom.

The learning is centered around four computers -- two Apple and two Macintosh computers.

"We are just learning right along with the kids," Dew said. "We are just touching the surface of what we can do with the machines."

Chasteen said the computer games and programs are challenging to the students. "This gives them a safe boundary for taking risks."

On a recent Wednesday, the group of Franklin School fifth-and sixth-graders were huddled around the Macintosh, intent on expanding their dinosaur park, which was colorfully displayed across the monitor as part of the Dino Park Tycoon game.

As part of the game, students get to buy and sell various types of dinosaurs, expand the park, fence it in, and try to turn a make-believe profit on the tourist attraction.

"Let's go buy another dinosaur," Sean Riches, 10, cried out enthusiastically.

"We don't want to go broke," cautioned Tim Showers, 10.

Dew said one group of students had raked in more than $300,000 on the computer screen when the program announced that the park would be closed for a week while the highway department did some road work. The closing ate away at the group's profits.

"This program is really good at challenges," she said.

For Crowley, it was only natural to decide on a mountain scene for her animation project. Her aunt lives in the mountains of Alaska.

Crowley has been working on her animation project for about three weeks, adding butterflies, horses, a hot air balloon and sound to the scene.

"I've got a computer at home and we have several games on it," she noted. "It is more interesting than video games."

Most of her fellow classmates also have computers at home.

While Dew and Chasteen like to read the directions first on any computer program, the students prefer to jump right in.

"What we found is we tend to be very cautious. These kids will come in and they have no fear," observed Dew.

Fifth-grader Showers loves to talk about computers. "I just think it is really neat, fun and educational."

Fellow classmate Riches said, "It helps you learn in a fun way. I like the dinosaur stuff." He said the computer game also teaches students how to work as a team.

For Riches and his fellow students, there is nothing like buying a stegosaurus to make their day complete.