National Geographic: Forces of Nature
This National Geographic offers entertaining Macromedia Flash Player enhanced tutorials about natural disasters. Students can make their own earthquake, discover why a volcano erupts, build a tropical cyclone, find out the characteristics of a tornado, and more. The website offers facts on historically large events as well as key information about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornados, and hurricanes. The simple glossary helps users understand the scientific terms presented throughout the modules. Ed
Exploring the Future of Learning
ThinkQuest is a worldwide collaboration of students and educators that explores "youth-centered learning on the Net." A conference held by ThinkQuest in July 2002, called Exploring the Future of Learning, focused on emerging technologies and ideas to improve global education methods. This Web site presents several articles about the conference that were written by student journalists who attended the event. The articles highlight technology trends and new innovations, as well as the experiences
ChimpanZoo
"A collective effort between the Jane Goodall Institute, zoological facilities, and universities," ChimpanZoo is a research and education program that aims to "apply uniform research methods to learn more about chimpanzees and their psychological and behavioral responses to a captive environment." The program involves participating zoos, researchers, and volunteers collecting and submitting chimpanzee behavior data to the program. The site contains a great deal of information on chimpanzee behav
Educational Software Directory
Educational Software Directory.net is an online directory that provides information on various software programs used in education. The website is hosted by KnowPlay, an online software store, which charges software makers to have their information posted here. The collection of programs and related websites can be searched using keywords or browsed by topic areas, which are: Children's, Games, Language Arts, Math, Multimedia, Music, Reference, Science, Social Studies, Special Needs, Teacher's,
The Pherobase
The Pherobase was developed by Dr. Ashraf El-Sayed, a research scientist at HortResearch in New Zealand, with the primary objective of providing "coverage of the literature published on chemical communication in insects." The Pherobase is intended for use by both scientific and non-scientific communities and currently contains "over 10000 entries, around 3000 molecules, and over 32000 static html pages that make it the world's largest database of behavior modifying chemicals." The site contains
Temperature World
Temperature World.com gives in-depth and varied information on temperature. The site offers links to a temperature converter, world city temperatures, a printable temperature conversion table, temperature forecasts, temperature related product recalls, and information on metal temperature by color. It also contains explanations of earth temperature issues, temperature sensors and controls, organizations and standards, temperature tools, and more. A unique and thorough site, it can be enjoyed by
Learning about Rainforests
K. Rubal provides this educational Web site she helped to create while a graduate student in instructional technology at California State University in Los Angeles. Designed for grades 4-8, this Web site offers students an introduction to tropical rainforests. The site includes a number of lessons organized by topic, rainforest facts, a good selection of narrated movie clips from related documentaries, useful links, and quizzes. Easy to use and filled with photos, this Web site would be a useful
National Park Service Cartographic Resources Visitor Use Maps
The National Park Service Cartographic Resources Visitor Use Maps Web site contains a wealth of free maps to view and download. The dozens of National Parks represented on the site include all of the most popular ones (Yellowstone, Smokey Mountain, Rocky Mountain) as well as many of the little known parks such as Wupatki National Monument, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and Glen Echo Park. The highlight of the site is the number of choices users have to view or download the maps. For examp
Extrasolar Visions
The Extrasolar Visions Web site provides a searchable guide to extra solar planets. These include planets of normal stars, pulsar planets, brown dwarfs, protoplanetary disks and protoplanets, extragalactic worlds, massive compact halo objects, and disproven or doubtful worlds. Visitors can search for these objects or view the week's 20 most popular systems, 20 most interesting systems, or the 20 most recently updated systems. Once chosen, the objects name, mass, average distance, and type is giv
Soil Association
Since its inception over a half century ago, the Soil Association has "been working to raise awareness about the positive health and environmental benefits of organic food and farming and supporting farmers in producing natural food consumers can trust." Originally formed by a coalition of inspired scientists, nutritionists, and farmers, the Soil Association is now the leading organic farming and food certification and campaigning organization in the United Kingdom. Although primarily geared tow
Unmasking Skin
This Web site is the online companion to Unmasking Skin, a feature article in the November 2000 issue of National Geographic Magazine, which offers an in-depth look at the body's largest organ. Visitors are invited to "go skin deep and beyond" with a photo gallery, a multimedia interview with the story's photographer, and related Web sites. The site also includes a portion of the feature article, a related Online Extra article, and a short piece about goosebumps. While not as comprehensive as th
Physical Science Information Gateway: Training
Another helpful resource from the Physical Science Information Gateway (last mentioned in the September 14, 2001 Scout Report , the Training Web site contains "free "teach yourself" Internet tutorials aimed at students, researchers and other members of staff who want to get the most out of the Internet". The topics covered include chemistry, earth science, physics, and the history and philosophy of science. Users get to tour key internet sites on each of the general topics, learn how to search f
GEOSCAN Database
Provided by Natural Resources Canada and part of the Earth Sciences Information Centre, GEOSCAN Database boasts a bibliographic database that contains "over 40,000 records covering all the publications of the Geological Survey of Canada." Users can search by basic keyword, title, author, subject, location, year, etc. Results can be displayed by various formats and can be selected for later review, and many include links to the publication's full text, which can be accessed free of charge. The ea
Soil Temperatures
For over a hundred years the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, "has documented quality data on a wide multitude of water and atmospheric variables". Within the main Web site is the Soil Temperatures page, which provides daily publication of maps based on data from various sites across the state. These include a 10am 4 inch bare soil temperature, daily maximum and minimum 4 inch bare soil temperature, 10am 4 inch soil temperature under sod, daily m
Calculators Online Center
Hosted by the UCI Science Library, the Calculators Online Center Web site is presented by Jim Martindale. The site is an incredible collection of links to over 16,000 online calculators on nearly every subject imaginable, including science specific ones. Everything from archeology and biology to geology and meteorology is covered, each with its own brief description and direct link. Although it is a bit difficult to find specific calculators from the many listed (perhaps a search tool would be h
NATURE: Kalahari
This website is the Web companion to the two-part NATURE documentary on the Kalahari Desert, which aired on PBS during fall 2003. The first episode, Kalahari: The Great Thirstland, explores the intense extremes of the Kalahari landscape, where wildlife "struggle for survival on the African plains." The site offers a number of Web-only extras, including a species guide in the form of animal trading cards, a slide show showing seasonal change in the Kalahari, and more. Episode Two, Kalahari: The F
The Humane Society of the United States: Urban Wildlife -- Our Wild Neighbors
Do you know your wild neighbors? This website was developed by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to introduce Wild Neighbors , a program that "promotes nonlethal means for resolving conflicts between wildlife and humans..." and "cultivates an understanding and appreciation for those wildlife species commonly found in cities and towns." HSUS also uses this site to introduce the Urban Wildlife Sanctuary Program (UWSP). UWSP provides individuals and communities with support and informa
Top500 Supercomputer Sites
Twice a year, the Top500 Project releases a list of the 500 sites with the most powerful supercomputers. The purpose of the list is "to provide a reliable basis for tracking and detecting trends in high-performance computing." The latest version was unveiled in June, and this site examines some of the most important developments and newcomers to the list. Most important is the recently constructed Earth Simulator in Japan, which was rated almost five times more powerful than second place. Additi
NINDS GENSAT BAC Transgenic Project
This website from Rockefeller University in New York contains "a gene expression atlas of the central nervous system of the mouse based on bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs)." GENSAT, or the Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas, contains brain slice images of BAC transgenic mice at the embryonic, postnatal (7 days old), and adult stages, stained to show areas of gene activity. The website comes with a detailed and helpful tutorial that recreates GENSAT's user interface and demonstrates how
The New York Botanical Garden: International Plant Science Center
In "combining modern technologies with a century of field and laboratory research," the New York Botanical Garden's International Plant Science Center "is one of the few institutions worldwide with the resources, collections, and expertise to develop the information needed to understand and manage plant diversity." This website grants considerable access to resources from the Center, including numerous plant databases, digitized rare botanical books, online access to the herbarium collections, a
