Earth's Atmosphere and Its Seasons
© 2005 Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc.
"The United States has the widest variety of weather of any country in the world" according to this collection of 12 classroom friendly narrated lectures, on one CD-ROM. From the main menu, students choose a topic, which then starts the lecture. Because each slide is numbered, from 1 to 456, the main menu also lets you type a slide number, to jump instantly to the slide -- a small but important (and teacher friendly) feature. Topics include causes of the seasons, Earth-Sun relationships, the composition of the atmosphere, the Sun's role as the main source of energy that drives weather and climate and the greenhouse effect. There are mini quizzes and mini lab activities every ten or so slides, as well as sound recordings, movies and charts. Clearly the folks who made this are very familiar with the task of teaching students about weather. This CD would work for self-directed study, but is ideal for classroom demonstration purposes. The content is great, but the interactive features are limited. No assessment features are built in, and there is no record keeping or leveling. The disk autoruns, with no installation. Prices are $59.00 for a single user license, $155.00 for a multi-user, and $177.00 for a lab pack of 5 CD-ROMS.
$59, Win 98, Win XP, Mac OSX
Teaches: science, earth science, weather, the atmosphere, climate