Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Earth Quest/World Atlas Value Pack
© 1997 DK Multimedia
This excellent two-CD collection provides a perfect introduction to both Earth Science and World Geography. In Earth Quest, children explore a fascinating 3D museum filled with the Smithsonian collection of minerals and other earth science exhibits. There are several activities where children have to come up with appropriate earth science terminology, search for particular rocks and answer multiple choice questions on a variety of topics. Testers' unanimous favorite activity was The Earth Builder where kids must unlock each of the earth's 17 tectonic plates by answering three questions for each plate. They are exposed to mind boggling concepts like the processes behind the formation of our planet and the forces behind earthquakes. And just like in a real museum, kids will find terrific special exhibits that pop up on the screen. Excellent! In Eyewitness World Atlas, eight fly-through movies take you on a globe-wide tour. A real-time spinning 3D globe displays world temperatures, populations, physical features and political boundaries. These are just a few of the innovative components of this easy to use world atlas that contains 25 videos, 250 photographs and 400 maps. Perfect for upper elementary and middle school students, this program would be incomplete for high schoolers as it only provides general geographic information. In order to compete with Encarta atlases, the CD would need deeper content coverage in every respect from text to maps to photos. Still, this is a good program for younger students who are looking for general geographical information.
$29.95, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: science: earth science, geology