Free and useful files and links:

*** =highly recommended!
*** Lots of good free-stuff at KidsDomain- Freeware (Windows and Mac links)

Primary Stuff

Primary Language Arts

*** Sebran's ABC is a set of early-primary games- letter and number recognition and simple math, word memory, hangman, and more
Cetus WordPad adds spell-checking to the standard Windows WordPad. It makes a nice, easy to use word processor, especially for late primary. FloppyWord is a version (complete with spell check) that only saves/opens files to floppy diskette.
ABC Kid Genius teaches letters, numbers, counting, and reading
*** Word Rescue is a very nice DOS-era beginning word recognition game. (You'll need to create your own icons for it).
Blaster demos: free samples of the CDs. (You'll need to create your own Start Menu shortcuts for these after installing them). Reading Blaster Kindergarten demo,Reading Blaster 1 demo
*** Word Search: Win9x freeware. A nice set of onscreen word search puzzles, that can be printed out. Students or teachers can create custom word searches. Good vocabulary builder. Here's a similar Mac program.
Word Search Factory Lite "is designed to help you quickly and easily create professional looking word search puzzles to provide your students with the extra vocabulary and spelling practice"

*** Eclipse CrossWord puzzle creator-- create crossword puzzles with answers. Can make puzzles for the Web as well.
*** PBS tv-show Between the Lions has a great website with books and games for early readers. A new book (and game) is featured each week. (Check out other great stuff at pbskids.org as well).
Outside 1.0 is an electronic children's picture book for Mac OS 9.
Tom Dooley is a Mac OS X Hangman game with editable word list
Speak N Spell (Mac OS X) "helps you practice spelling skills. The over 48,000 word built-in word set is appropriate for adults; when used with children you can make your own words with words they use. Four levels of difficulty are provided."
SmarterKid is a collection of primary-level language arts and math games: Hangman, Scramble Words, and Word Search, one mathematics game Basic grade 1 and 2 arithmetic, and memory challenge game Memory.
My Friend: build a friend by varying descriptive words

Primary Math

Guess a Number: (Win9x/NT) Asks the student to guess a number. Intermediate

*** Exact Change: Win9x/2000/XP ~ Mac (Classic) ~ Win 3.1 ~ Mac (OS X) ~ Linux: Teaches kids about money, counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s, and place value (whole numbers and 2-place decimals). Now with Candian, US, UK, and Australian currency options! Levels for grades 1-3 (Note: the Win 3.1 is and older, CDN-only version).(Written by Alan!) Online alternative: Changemaker, with options for US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Australia currency, and a variety of levels.

Place Value uses Canadian currency to teach the meaning of place value from hundreds to hundredths: Windows ~ Mac (Classic) ~ Mac (OS X) ~ Linux versions. (Also by Alan)
*** Math Rescue is a very nice DOS-era beginning addition and subtraction game with word problems. (You'll need to create your own icons for it).
ABC Kid Genius teaches letters, numbers, counting, and reading
2+2 helps reinforce basic math skills: counting, comparing numbers, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing
Blaster demos: free samples of the CDs. (You'll need to create your own Start Menu shortcuts for these after installing them). Math Blaster 1 demo, Math Blaster 2 demo
Check out MathStories! online
Math Wizard Pro is flashcard program for children learning their math facts. Mac OS 9 or X.
Ryan's Math Quiz tests math facts for grade 2-4. Mac OS X
Mathemagic is a Windows program for teaching grade 2-4 math-- at least following the Bangalore curriculum: Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction, Money and Number Skills.
Math Practice includes options for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, simple algebra, and roman numbers- each with easy, medium, and hard levels. Windows and Mac versions available.
SmarterKid is a collection of primary-level language arts and math games: Hangman, Scramble Words, and Word Search, one mathematics game Basic grade 1 and 2 arithmetic, and memory challenge game Memory.
MadMath is "a little math flash program/Game... Its very simple to use. It has addition , subtraction, division and multipication. There is also a game where you are timed over twenty problems."
Math Games Level 1-1.0 teaches addition and multiplication with numbers from 1 to 12. Using the mouse, a student can select the values to calculate. Then, he or she clicks on the "Ask Me" button and lets the robot do the calculation and report the result. Free for personal use but not for schools.

Primary Art

*** Tux Paint is a free paint program for kids ages 3 and up. Available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and more (but not Classic Mac OS)- note: download stamps separately

*** Drawing for Children is a free KidPix-like paint program (Win 95÷850 kb download)

Online Origami lessons

Poster Paint is a simple Mac OS X painting application, similar to Windows Paint.

Primary Misc

***Animated Clock (shareware) does a good job of teaching time telling

Clock Fun (Mac OS X) lets children explore clocks and time

Animal Search website

Kidsdomain includes a comprehensive list of Mac and PC freeware for kids and education-- sorted by age. Check it out!

Happy Note! sing and learn treble clef ABCs

***Edmark.com has a nice set of downloads of working demos of their educational CDs. Among their offerings for primary school-age kids: My Friend and Symbol Sandbox.

Magic School Bus Dinosaur Skeleton game: Build dino skeletons from piles of bones

Magic School Bus Bugs game: explore inside an ant hill

Intermediate Stuff

Intermediate Language Arts

*** Word Search: Win9x freeware. A nice set of onscreen word search puzzles, that can be printed out. Students or teachers can create custom word searches. Good vocabulary builder. Here's a similar Mac program. Or try Alphabet Salad for Mac OSX
*** FreeRice is an online word game that also donates food world-wide. Really!
Word Search Factory Lite "is designed to help you quickly and easily create professional looking word search puzzles to provide your students with the extra vocabulary and spelling practice"

*** Eclipse CrossWord puzzle creator-- create crossword puzzles with answers. Can make puzzles for the Web as well.

WordWeb is a free thesaurus/dictionary. It can be used with MS Word or on its own.
Merriam-Webster dictionary and thesaurus-- get online definitions and synonyms. Even pronounces words out loud. Can be added to your browser's toolbar.
WordCentral is a website about words, hosted by the Merriam-Webster dictionary folks... poetry composer, essays about words-- fun and informative.
WordBeGone is a fast-paced word search game for Mac OS X.
Spell-O-Gram is a Mac OS X word game of guessing scrambled words.
Puzzle Plunge is a word-solving game similar to Wheel of Fortune. For Mac OS X or Mac OS 8.1-9.2
Find a Word is a Mac OS X word game
iLearnEnglish is a Mac OS X tool to learn English pronunciation
Ghost and SuperGhost are free word games in which you try to add a letter to the beginning or the ending of existing letters without making a word. Mac OS X and Windows versions.
Speed Reading III: "lets the user try one method to increase reading speed and comprehension. Ten practice text sources are built-in and you can also select any text file as a source. Reading speed can be adjusted from approximately 50 words per minute to 1500 words per minute using four radio buttons (very slow, slow, medium and high) and a slider. Comprehension is not tested. This utility displays full text very dimly with snapshots of normal black text moving across the page."
Speak N Spell "helps you practice spelling skills. The over 47,000 word built-in word set is appropriate for adults; when used with children you can make your own words with words they use. Four levels of difficulty are provided." Mac OS X and Windows XP versions.
StudyMy English.com "offers resources to help you learn and practice English. The content here is divided into three broad areas, including resources for teachers, practice for students, and vocabulary."

Intermediate Math

*** Guess a Number: (Win9x/NT) Asks the student to guess a number. (Written by Alan!)
Place Value uses Canadian currency to teach the meaning of place value from hundreds to hundredths: Windows ~ Mac (Classic) ~ Mac (OS X) ~ Linux versions. (Also by Alan)
2+2 helps kids learn basic math skills: counting, comparing numbers, adding, subtracting, multipying, dividing
Check out MathStories!
TuxMath is an arcade-style math practice game for Linux and Windows.
Mosquito is a math coordinate graphing game for grades 5 - 9 (Mac System 7 or higher
Angle Doubling helps students (grades 5-9) learn to solve simple algebra problems. (Mac OS 7.0 and up).
Fraction Sticks visually teaches fractions: adding fractions, reducing fractions, equivalent fractions. Mac: FractionCalc is a calculator for fractions and mixed numbers.
Triangle Types is a Mac (System 7+) program to learn to classify triangles based on sides and angles.
ThatQuiz is an website with free math testing, grading, and record keeping for teachers and practice tests for students: arithmetic, inequality, fractions, geometry (area and perimeters).
Evaluating Crossnumber Puzzles is a Mac OS (OS 7 or higher) pre-algebra program for grades 5-9
Adding Three Fractions is a Mac OS (OS 7 or higher) program
Little Geometry is a very simple geometry toolkit. It has been designed to help children with disabilities to make their geometry exercises on screen. Mac OS X
Scientific Notation: for grades 5-9, practice converting from standard form to scientific notation or vice versa. Mac OS 7 or better.
Area Puzzles: Students are shown a ten by ten grid "sprinkled" with numbers. Students must fill the grid with colored rectangles so that the area of each rectangle matches the "sprinkle" number inside of it. Mac OS 7- 9
Going to School: learn ot interpret line graphs. Mac OS 7-9
Number String uses the 4 basic math operations to 'win' a card game. Mac OS 7.6+
Fraction Tiles: Students are shown eight fraction representations and must choose three that add up to a given sum. Fractions are halves, fourths, and eighths. Mac OS 7.x to 9.2.2
Fraction Puzzles (Mac System 7 or up) shows a blank, sectioned square and a given fraction goal. Students must shade the square to match the given fraction.
uDoTheMath! is a calculator to check simple math equations. Unlike standard calculators, it requires students to input the complete equation along with suggested answer, for checking math homework without giving the answer away. Mac OS X
FunBrain.com Math Baseball: online math practice game- +, -, *, / or mix at various levels.
Math Frog is a University of Waterloo Internet site with links to online math games at the grades 4-6 levels.
Mathemagic is an interactive mathematics game designed according to junior school mathematics syllabi. The chapters incorporated include Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Addition, Subtraction, Money and Number Skills.
Math Practice includes options for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, simple algebra, and roman numbers- each with easy, medium, and hard levels. Windows and Mac versions available.
Graph Paper Maker lets you create custom sheets of graph paper. Mac (classic), Mac OS X, and Windows versions.
LittleGeometry (Mac OS X) provides on screen protractors, rulers, etc that can be moved, rotated, etc to help with geometry work.

Intermediate Science

*** Astromania: (Win95) fun quiz about solar system and other astronomy topics. Free to teachers.
OpenUniverse is a free Solar System simulator. Requires recent Windows computer.
Animal Search website
Fear of Physics: pages on orbits, sounds, pendulums, roller coasters, and more. Fun and good science!
Celestia is a free, Mac OS X or Windows onscreen planetarium: 'a real-time 3D space simulation'. (Linux version is also available). Or try Stellarium (Mac OS X)
*** Virtual Electricity Lab (see my lesson plans for this one).
miXscope allows Mac OS X users to use Intel's QX3 digital microscope
Mr. Tides - check tides for low-tide walks and bird watching. It can access tide tables for any place in the world. (Mac)
Wings - allows you to keep track of bird sightings/checklists, etc. (Mac OS X)
Born to be Big is a virtual fish in the ocean simulation: "Take control of the small fish, who must be able to stand up for itself to survive. The more this small fish eats, the bigger and more experienced it becomes."
*** Get to Know is BC artist Robert Bateman's attempt to help kids explore the natural world.

Intermediate Social Studies

*** Seterra is a very good geography quiz game; choose a continent, them identify country or capital or cities or flags. English or Spanish.
European Geography Quiz
National anthems online: Text files. Also Flags.
Canadian History Online: Guide Brent Johner explores the "Great White North."
Canada Crest Quest tests map knowledge of Canadian provinces.
*** National Geographic's GeoSpy is a very good map-facts quiz site. NationMaster lets you generate graphs and maps comparing nations.
IngenuityWorks has demo versions of CrossCountry Canada and CrossCountry USA for Windows, classic Mac, and Mac OSX-- useful, with savable games.
History for Kids is a website focussing on ancient history: Ancient China, history of India, Roman architecture, history of Islam, New Kingdom (Egypt) colonization, and more
WORLDView Widget for Mac OS X (10.4 or later) shows you maps of all countries in the world. It gives you also the continent, capital, coordinates and the national flag.
Google Earth is a wonderful tool for looking at cities, natural attractions, longitude and latitude and more. For Win 2000/XP and OS X. Google Earth Tutorials are a set of online videos and lessons on how to use Google Earth-- with curriculum ideas for grades 1 to 7 (free registration required).

Intermediate Art & Music

Happy Note! sing and learn treble clef ABCs
Aquallegro - Musical notation program that quizzes students on positions of notes on the staff, more. (Mac OS X) (DI)
Eartraining X practices recognition of intervals, scales, chords, etc. (Mac OS X)
SkalMac Tuner Mac OS X guitar tuner
Teach yourself Breakdance with Breakdance Machine. Animations with music (hip hop beats) demonstrate how the different moves should be performed. If that is not enough, you can also read step-by-step instructions. All moves can be displayed in actual speed and slow motion.
Senor Staff is an open-source music composition app for Mac OS X. It features a staff-based interface for natural entry and readability, and supports playback to any MIDI device.

Intermediate Misc

The Canadian Encyclopedia is now online-- French and English 'adult' editions, the junior edition, and some fun multimedia stuff.
Mastermind is a free version of the popular logical problem-solving game.
Kidsdomain includes a comprehensive list of Mac and PC freeware for kids and education-- sorted by age. Check it out!
eClass3net is a collection of learning pages, printouts, and enrichment activities for upper elementary students, posted by a Grade 6 student at Chief Maquinna
LeoCad is virtual Lego... and Lego Digital Designer and Bricksmith are virtual Lego programs for Mac OS X
Pizza Business is not fancy graphically, but lets kids run a virtual business Lemonade Stand (Mac OS 9 or OS X) "is a faithful port of a 1979 classic Apple II game. Test your business acumen by running a lemonade stand. Keep track of the weather, watch out for construction work, and manage your assets."
AllRefer is a portal offering reference information on a wide range of school subjects
*** Help Abbie Save the Flowers with a logical puzzle game
Gamemaker is a free way to design games without programming; the website also includes a number of interesting free games (designed with Gamemaker)
*** Squeak is a programming environment and media authoring system for kids and people of all ages
TuxType is an open source arcade-style keyboarding practice program for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Alternatively, the multilingual TypeTrainer4Mac. (BC Schools- note that you already have a license for All the Right Type, available at low cost to BC parents as well).
Bruce's Unusual Typing Wizard: is designed to accommodate both beginners and experienced typists who are looking to gain speed or accuracy. A game is also included, in order to help practice unusual letter combinations.
Typing Invaders: is an arcade game, but by playing Typing Invaders you sure will be learning to type.
RobotProg Program a robot and learn programmation. You draw the program flowchart. You run the program and watch the (onscreen) robot executing your program (Mac OS X)
Le bonhomme pendu is a French version of Hangman
My French Picture Dictionary is an online French picture dictionary. (Surprised?)
Bricksmith is a 3-D virtual Lego program for Mac OS X
"Brain Tease has two parts. The first part lets you explore how the mind uses clues other than the word itself to recognize a word and how the mind reacts to confusing clues. The second part helps you practice short term memory skills. Both parts help you improve your focus and concentration skills. This application is appropriate for all ages." Versions for Mac OS X and Windows XP
Brain Tease II "was developed to help you have fun while exercising your brain. This application helps you improve your focus and concentration skills and is appropriate for all ages. In Version II, the "Very Hard" difficulty level was added." Versions for Mac OS X and Windows XP
"TickerType is a game that helps you practice your typing skills." Mac OS X and Windows XP versions.
Scratch: "Designed for children, this freeware multimedia programming tool makes creating animated stories, video games and interactive artwork a snap. Scratch uses a simple graphical interface that lets users put together multimedia programs without any programming knowledge." Windows and Mac OS X versions.
If you like Inspiration or Kidspiration for 'mind-mapping' you may want to check out the free FreeMind or IMHC Cmap Tools programs.
ABC Spanish: "Teach yourself Spanish in 10 easy to follow lessons of just 10 minutes. You will soon be on your way to learning spanish. Includes easy to follow and understand grammar, pronounciation, both written and oral. And little excercises to test you which are actually good fun."

Secondary Stuff

Thanks to teacher Dave Ingram (DI) for recommending many of these links!

Secondary Language Arts

*** Eclipse CrossWord puzzle creator-- create crossword puzzles with answers. Can make puzzles for the Web as well.
WordWeb is a free thesaurus/dictionary. It can be used with MS Word or on its own.
Merriam-Webster dictionary and thesaurus-- get online definitions and synonyms. Even pronounces words out loud. Can be added to your browser's toolbar.
WordCentral is a website about words, hosted by the Merriam-Webster dictionary folks... poetry composer, essays about words-- fun and informative.
iLearnEnglish is a Mac OS X tool to learn English pronunciation
Speed Reading III: "lets the user try one method to increase reading speed and comprehension. Ten practice text sources are built-in and you can also select any text file as a source. Reading speed can be adjusted from approximately 50 words per minute to 1500 words per minute using four radio buttons (very slow, slow, medium and high) and a slider. Comprehension is not tested. This utility displays full text very dimly with snapshots of normal black text moving across the page."
"SAT Vocab Prep was developed to help you prepare for a Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)." Mac OS X and Windows XP versions.
VocabularyCoach.com is a free online site that "offers non-traditional activities which aim to teach students new vocabulary words. VocabularyCoach.com has more than 4,000 vocabulary words, all of which are arranged by difficult, ranging from easy to difficult. The words at VocabularyCoach.com are those that appear often on standardized tests such as the GRE, SAT, ACT, and LSAT, and those words also tend to appear in newspapers, articles, books, and scholarly magazines. Therefore, VocabularyCoach.com is perfect for students who are preparing for a test or for people who want to improve their vocabulary."
StudyMy English.com "offers resources to help you learn and practice English. The content here is divided into three broad areas, including resources for teachers, practice for students, and vocabulary."

Secondary Math

ExploreMath is a web site that can help visualize complex math operations (pre-calculus).
Graphing calculators: Graph 2.3. And Calc98 is a free Scientific engineering statistical and financial pocket calculator simulator program. Graph550 is a free equation grapher for Mac OS X. KoalaCalc is an Mac OS X calculator with statistical, trig, and unit conversions functions (or get KoalaCalc Classic for Mac OS 9). Graphing Calculator is a Mac OS X math visualizer in 2 and 3 dimensions.
Pacific Tech made the original Mac graphing calculator included with the Mac OS. They have a variety of Graphing Calculator Downloads for classic Mac and Mac OS X.
Graph Sketcher is a quick way to draw graphs for lab reports, problem sets, presentations, etc. (Mac OSX) Plot (Mac OS X) "is a scientific 2D plotting program for Mac OS X. Plot is designed for everyday plotting... it is easy to use, it creates high quality plots, it allows easy and powerful manipulations and calculations of data"
Graph is a Windows "open source application used to draw mathematical graphs in a coordinate system."
Angle Doubling helps students (grades 5-9) learn to solve simple algebra problems. (Mac OS 7.0 and up).
QuickMath is an website that 'automatically answers common problems in algebra, equations, inequalities, calculus, and matrices faced by high-school and college students'.
Evaluating Crossnumber Puzzles is a Mac OS (OS 7 or higher) pre-algebra program for grades 5-9
PolyRoot is a Mac OS X program to find real and complex roots of polynomials (degree 10 or less).
Scientific Notation: for grades 5-9, practice converting from standard form to scientific notation or vice versa. Mac OS 7 or better.
3D-XplorMath Awesome fun exploring different shapes and perspectives. Hours of entertainment-- Mac OS 9 or above (DI)
HyperSolids -Software to look at different shapes in 3D. Mac (DI)
Learn (or teach) Trigonometry. (Mac OS X)
Exponents: improve skill with exponents: Win and Mac OS X
Dr Geo interactive geometry (Mac OS X): create geometric figures; also for OS X: KSeg is a free interactive program for exploring Euclidian geometry.
Slide Rule is (as the name suggests) a set of virtual slide rules for Mac (classic) and Mac OS X.
Eigenmath is "a free computer algebra system for people who like math and physics.
Quick T Test X is for calculating means, SDs and SEMs and testing the significance of differences using Student's t-test. For Mac OS X (the developer also has a Mac Classic version).
DeadLine solves algebraic, exponential, and trig equations numerically and graphically.
Graph Paper Maker lets you create custom sheets of graph paper. Mac (classic), Mac OS X, and Windows versions.
*** Wolfram|Alpha is a 'computational knowledge engine'

Secondary Science

*** JunkScience is a site to help 'uncover faulty scientific' thinking.
OpenUniverse is a free Solar System simulator. Requires recent Windows computer.
Periodic Table software-- free!
Smell-O-Mints is a periodic table for Mac OS X, but oh, the name! ChemiKa is another OS X periodic table, this one also including a molecular mass calculator
The Visible Earth online, offers hi-res NASA images of the Earth. Large file sizes.
Fear of Physics: pages on orbits, sounds, pendulums, roller coasters, and more. Fun and good science!
Froguts: nice name, 'eh? Virtual frog dissection.
Evolution allows virtual animals to multiply, develop, and create different species. Mac OS X.
Aquatomic 1.0 - Fantastic game designed to teach students how atoms go together to form molecules. Excellent interface. Mac OS X (DI)
ConverTable Planets X - allows you to calculate your mass and weight on different planets, compare the length of a year on different planets, etc. Mac (DI)
Electric Field Graphing-Software for plotting electric field lines and equipotential surfaces around point charges. Mac (DI)
iMass - Molecular mass calculator. Fantastic - the periodic table alone is worth the price! Great software package and excellent interface. Mac OS X(DI)
iMol- molecular visualization for Mac OS X. Great program for looking at different molecules in a 3D format. Images can be exported and saved. Good resource file with pre-made molecules. (DI)
The Physics Factbook is 'an encyclopedia of scientific essays written by high school students'.
MConvert is unit-conversion software (Mac OS X): energy, mass, radioactivity, viscosity, along with temperature, pressure, mass, volume, etc.
Beware of Molecules: a Mac OS X program for calculating molecular weights
EdGCM models climate change from global warming to ice ages and more; students can construct and test their own scenarios: Mac OS X
A Taste of Onscreen DNA (Mac OS X) is an interactive DNA model for science education.

Secondary Social Studies

Canadian History Online:Guide Brent Johner explores the "Great White North." CBC Archives include about a thousand historic radio and TV clips.
History for Kids is a website focussing on ancient history: Ancient China, history of India, Roman architecture, history of Islam, New Kingdom (Egypt) colonization, and more

Secondary Programming & Computer Science Borland has released free 'Turbo Explorer' versions of Turbo C++, Turbo C# and Turbo Delphi for Windows and for .Net

Squeak is an open source implementation of the Smalltalk language that can be used to create programs that run under Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux, etc.
Gamemaker is a free way to design games without programming; the website also includes a number of interesting free games (designed with Gamemaker)
SchoolGameMaker is a website filled with resources about programming games at school
TNT Basic (for Mac OS 8.6 and up or OS X 10.1 and up) "uses a simple programming language to allow a novice programmer to make 2D sprite based games very easily."
Microsoft's Visual Studio Express Editions are"free, lightweight, easy-to-use, and easy-to-learn (programming) tools for the hobbyist, novice, and student developer". Includes Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual J#, and SQL Server Express editions.
Scratch: "Designed for children, this freeware multimedia programming tool makes creating animated stories, video games and interactive artwork a snap. Scratch uses a simple graphical interface that lets users put together multimedia programs without any programming knowledge." Windows and Mac OS X versions.

Secondary Misc

Selingua and Selingua Columns are a language tutor and Tetris-like game to extend German, French, Spanish, or Swedish vocabulary. French Vocab (OSX or Windows) and Spanish Vocab (Mac OS X or Windows) are vocabulary-building games. VokabelTrainer (Mac OS X) builds vocabularies in German or English. ABC Spanish: "Teach yourself Spanish in 10 easy to follow lessons of just 10 minutes. You will soon be on your way to learning spanish. Includes easy to follow and understand grammar, pronounciation, both written and oral. And little excercises to test you which are actually good fun."
The Canadian Encyclopedia is now online-- French and English 'adult' editions, the junior edition, and some fun multimedia stuff.

Microsoft Word Term Paper template simplifies layout and formatting of term papers, from title page to bibliography.

QCad is a free computer-assisted-design (CAD) program for WIndows or Linux.

AllRefer is a portal offering reference information on a wide range of school subjects.

Eartraining X practices recognition of intervals, scales, chords, etc. (Mac OS X)
Assignment Planner can be used to track assignments so you can easily view what homework you have left to complete (Windows). Mac users check out Assignment Notebook (Mac OS 8/9/OSX)
3D Canvas is a free 'real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling'.
FreeMind is mind mapping software to help visualize ideas
TaskList (Mac OS X) "is an application designed for students who use their laptops at school. It enables assignments to be tracked and managed, as well as goals, grades, and notes. Task List has the ability to synchronize preferences and assignments between computers using .mac , enabling students to sync their homework files between a desktop and laptop or other computer."
Senor Staff is an open-source music composition app for Mac OS X. It features a staff-based interface for natural entry and readability, and supports playback to any MIDI device.
If you like Inspiration or Kidspiration for 'mind-mapping' you may want to check out the free FreeMind or IMHC Cmap Tools programs.