Home >> Awards >> Past >> The WorldWatcher Project

Search form

Home > "Best Of" Series > 1999 > Education Site Reviews > Top 20 Review

T O P     2 0     R E V I E W

Best of '99 Header


The WorldWatcher Project
http://www.worldwatcher.nwu.edu
GRADE LEVEL: 6 to 12

CONTENT:
The WorldWatcher Project is an awesome science and geography education site that includes the revolutionary (and downloadable) WorldWatcher scientific visualization environment software. Students engage in inquiry-based learning, exploring, creating, and analyzing scientific data. On-line curriculum units are also available.

AESTHETICS:
The site design is simple, but the downloadable software and teaching materials have a strong graphic appeal.

ORGANIZATION:
As of this review, the WorldWatcher software is available in a MAC (7.0+) version, or a Windows beta (test) version. The full installation takes approximately 80 MB of hard disk space, of this nearly 50 MB are data and 20 MB are interactive help files. Either of these can be reduced. The site itself requires Adobe Acrobat Reader and Quicktime 2.5.

REVIEW:
Don't miss this one. WorldWatcher is a research project into the feasibility of incorporating the cutting-edge scientific visualization environment used by professional scientists as a teaching tool in middle-school and high-school classrooms. This high-quality software is free and can be downloaded at the site. Users can also request CD-ROM versions by e-mail. Data sets will continue to be added to the site to augment the program. An on-line, ten-week global warming curriculum for grades 8 to 10 is also available and includes a rich array of downloadable teaching materials. Workshops are offered over the summer for educators interested in becoming field test teachers. Make sure your science and geography departments know about this one!

RELATED REVIEWS: