Contact: Julie Gates Sunburst Technology 800-860-4009 jgates@edresources.com News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW SOFTWARE TITLE FROM SUNBURST TECHNOLOGY PUTS STUDENTS IN CHARGE OF RUNNING THEIR OWN BUSINESS AS THEY SHARPEN THEIR LOGIC, CRITICAL THINKING AND MATH SKILLS Toy Store expands Sunburst's popular collection of educational simulation products DALLAS, TX, Nov. 13, 2002 - At the National School Boards Association Technology + Learning Conference, Sunburst Technology announced a new addition to its popular collection of educational simulation software titles. In "Toy Store," students get a taste of entrepreneurship as they try to make smart business decisions that will make their toy store business the most profitable. Students in grades 2 to 6 practice real-world logic, critical thinking and math skills to gather and interpret customer data, make educated predictions and stock their store with the right toys. Toy Store is expected to ship by the end of the month. It is the latest in Sunburst's simulation products, which include the best-selling Hot Dog Stand: The Works, Ice Cream Truck and Concert Tour Entrepreneur. When they launch Toy Store, students begin in a classroom setting, where they survey children about their favorite types of toys. Next, they interpret the survey results and create and study bar graphs of the data. Then it's time to make some marketing decisions based on the data they collected about what toys to make, how many to make, and what price to set them at. Students then go to the factory and build their toys. When they open their store, many kids rush in and leave with their purchases. Then students see a results screen that shows what kids bought, compared to what they said they wanted in the survey. They also see how much was spent and how much profit they made. This four-part series of activities is equal to one shopping season and represents one turn for students. Students use the feedback they get from the results screen to play again and adjust the variables to increase their profitability for the next shopping season. The program offers students plenty of opportunity to sharpen their business sense through four shopping seasons per year for five years. Easy-to-use tools help students calculate kids' toy preferences, view data and set prices. Over the course of four seasons, students learn to plan strategically by developing data analysis and math reasoning skills. On-screen help provides instructions to students who need assistance, and read-aloud options help early readers follow instructions. Throughout Toy Store, students learn to: Develop critical-thinking skills Plan sequentially Understand multiplication concepts Read and interpret data Use data to make decisions Strengthen addition and subtraction skills Apply math concepts to real-world situations Pricing and Availability Toy Store will be available by the end of this month in a Macintosh®/Windows® CD-ROM format through Sunburst Technology and educational resellers such as Educational Resources®. It includes the company's exclusive School-to-Home™ license for teachers to use the software on home computers for lesson planning or homework. The street price for a single edition or 10-user license of any one of these titles is approximately $89.95. A district purchase plan is also available and a network version is expected to be available early next year. Toy Store includes toll-free technical support, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time, every business day. For sales and ordering information, customers can call Sunburst at 800-321-7511, Educational Resources at 800-624-2926, or their local educational reseller. Information and online ordering for these titles are also available on www.Sunburst.com. Company Background Sunburst Technology publishes award-winning instructional software and videos for the K-12 school market, as well as original multimedia products. Proprietary series in the Sunburst lineup include HyperStudio®, Tenth Planet, HMI, and Little Planet. Top selling titles include Type to Learn, Hot Dog Stand: The Works, Easy Book Deluxe, A to Zap!, Anger! You Can Handle It, and Gossiping, Taunting, Bullying It's All Harassment. The publisher, a company of Thayer Capital Partners, is headquartered in Elgin, IL, with its development center in Pleasantville, NY. Thayer Capital Partners is a rapidly growing private equity investment firm based in Washington, DC. With two private equity funds totaling more than $1.2 billion, the firm manages buyouts and growth equity investments in two major sectors Ð growth manufacturing (including electronics, industrial components and outsourced manufacturing) and business services (including information technology and services and outsourced business services). Thayer has made capital investments exceeding $950 million in more than 50 transactions in the last four years. The Company's Web site can be found at www.thayercapital.com.