Field tripping on the web

USHA THIAGARAJAN

Today, web based content and experiences offer educators "a breadth, depth, immediacy, passion and interactivity unlike anything educators have chanced to sample before!"

Virtual field trips, tailored to every grade level are springing up all over the Internet. Trips range from the simple- such as photo gallery of exhibits from a famous museum - to extremely detailed high tech excursions that include video and audio clips. Teachers and students can virtually travel to destinations anywhere on Earth or in Space.

This month I have chosen just a few of thousands of virtual field trips students can take on the Web! Some are simple, created by students, teachers, and parents. Others are big-budget productions that include several trips and extensive teaching resources. Either way, virtual field trips provide wonderfully engaging learning opportunities in the classroom.

http://www.fieldguide.com/desert.htm

Through this field guide students are introduced to deserts in a number of environments, including Africa, North and South America, and Australia and learn some basic principles about deserts.

http://www.tramline.com/tours/hurricane

Hurican, is the Caribbean god of evil. A telling origin for the name of this storm of storms. Where do these storms originate? How are they formed? What is the difference between a typhoon, a cyclone, and a hurricane? The student will find answers to all these questions on this virtual tour.

http://vcoursrware4.calstatela.edu

Geology Labs On-Line is a comprehensive project to develop Web- based lab activities that enhance the learning and teaching of Geology and other Earth and Environmental Science topics for College and High School courses.

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/index.html

Live from Antarctica: Students learn from Scientists, field journals, biographies and photo gallery detailing the Antarctic exploration project.

http;//sln.fi.edu/biosci/heart.html

The Heart; an online exploration. This site enables students to explore the heart, discover the complexities of its development and structure.

http://www.hhmi.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/vlabs.html

Bio-interactive Virtual labs is a site hosted by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which allows students to try out the tools of modern biology. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/explorer

Web Explorer offers web tours of sites related to the most important topics of the day. Hosted by New York Times' Learning Network, Web Exploration topics include: The World's Art and Endangered Species.

http://www.un.org/av/photo

The United Nations photo library holds a collection of approximately 200,000 photographs dating back to the mid 1940s and chronicles the work history of the organisation and its work.

As mentioned before these are but few of the virtual field trips available online. There are literally thousands more and a complete listing is impossible. Virtual field trips represent a more sophisticated use of the Internet as a medium as they utilise all the delivery modes possible: audio, video and text. Although there are thousands of virtual field trips presently available, many more are being created every other day. Tutorials are available online to help teachers and students create their own virtual field trips. It would be lovely to stumble upon the Meenakshi temple of Madurai, rice fields of Tanjavur, silk weavers from Kanchipuram when I next go field tripping on the web!

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