The new LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS LEVEL 8 Orange extends the original LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS LEVELS K-5 into middle school along with the new LEVEL 6 Blue and LEVEL 7 Green. The LEARNING WITH COMPUTERS series for middle school students delivers a strong foundation in keyboarding and computer applications. In this new project based text, students are introduced to the Explorers Club where three young members of the club - Luis, Ray, and Julie - guide students on virtual explorations. Along the way, each student keeps a personal journal about their explorations. The text offers multiple opportunities to reinforce and maintain basic keyboarding, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, graphics, and Internet skills. Students are also introduced to new grade-level appropriate computer skills based on the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Additionally, the text emphasizes research, reading, and writing activities relevant to social studies, science, math, and language arts curriculum. The text for use with Windows applications, is divided into 4 units; Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations (Graphics, Multimedia, and Integration) and Databases. Each unit contains multiple projects for a total of 18 projects per text, plus an introductory project. Each project focuses on a group of grade-level appropriate objectives for particular computer applications. Several hands-on activities within each project are designed around these objectives. Additionally, students use multiple application tools such as keyboard shortcuts, shortcut menus, toolbars, and the menu bar to perform tasks. This one-semester text can be used as a stand alone or in conjunction with South-Western's MicroType keyboarding software. MicroType is an engaging, easy-to-use program that teaches new-key learning and skill building. Features include 3-D animations, videos, and fun interactive games.