At explorers’
club you’ll get the latest facts and stats. On the well being of Mother Earth.
Get green at http://www.epa.gov/kids/
and discover a world that
needs
your help now. Check out the interactive games
and stories at recycle city, where you’ll find out why one person’s garbage
is often another’s treasure. If comics are your thing, a comic book about the ozone layer will be sure to keep you
entertained. Best of all, you’ll get a bird’s-eye view of the current
environmental situation from Charlie Chipmunk, who tells what it’s like to
live in a park that become polluted. Become a friend of the planet by joining
the Explorers’ Club now!
Begin your trek into space and beyond here
where you can
shuttle to the "10 best of the nine planets". This space odyssey
provides incredible views of the planets you have heard of, like Saturn, Mars
and Earth, but it also makes stops at sights that may be new to you, like lo,
one of Jupiter's satellites, named after a mythological Greek maiden transformed
into a cow by Zeus, a subject, like many others linked to this site. Get
on board the "Moon Express", following your interests wherever they
may lead. Then, if you're ready to rocket off into another exploration of 
the cosmos, shoot over to here,
a photo gallery of the most spectacular images sent home by the Hubble
Space Telescope. Find out how the Hubble works, see images beamed
back by a telescope 10 times more powerful than any on Earth, and click on the
links that catch your interest. Then try the next best thing to being on
the shuttle- stargazing. Enjoy your adventures in space, and remember,
great explorers follow the links!
What
rumbles and roars and spits fire 24 hours a day? It's no monster; it's the
planet Earth! Sure, there's lots of beauty in nature, but deep
underground, our planet holds some horrifying secrets. Savage Earth lets
you in on the real science behind some of the Earth's most frightening
phenomena: earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. Ground yourself at http://pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/
for the hot way to learn the truth about lava, tidal waves and plate tectonics.
The earth-shaking animation helps you see the X-ray view of disasters, and you
can "ask the experts" all your burning questions. Don't let the
site scare you though. It's all about helping us better understand the way
our planet works. It's one site you'll definitely want to get swept up in!
The Understanding Earthquakes Web site has all kinds of
information on these natural disasters waiting to happen. rattle out to http://www.crustal.ucsb.edu/ics/understanding/
where you'll be confronted by harrowing earthquake
accounts from the likes of Charles Darwin. Mark Twain and Jack London. For
the raveling crowd, a rotating globe will reveal the "king quake"
locations around the world. Java animations and cool graphics show the
gradual buildup of stress that leads to these seismic Be sure to read the
history of seismology, and take the earthquake quiz, too. Step into the
quake zone and get ready to shake it up.
When it comes to
understanding how our planet works, who better to talk to than NASA? After all, they are looking at the earth from outer space. 
NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise Web site explores the weather and how
it affects us. Shuttle out to
http://www.earth.nasa.gov/ and get a bird’s-eye view of our home turf.
Using satellites and high-altitude airplanes, NASA continues to
investigate big floods, droughts and freezing winters. The site is loaded with way-cool information, Including the hole in
the
ozone layer, global warming and rising sea levels in our oceans. Meet El
Niño, the weather phenomenon that continues to baffle
scientists, and find out how they are working to predict its next move.
For
some people, bubbles aren't just a passing fancy- they're an obsession!
Meet Professor Bubbles, a man who has made bubble fun his life's work.
Enter the man who has made bubble fun his life's work. Enter the
Bubblesphere at http://bubbles.org and get the
answers to all your burning bubble questions: What makes the rainbow colors in
soap bubbles? What's the biggest bubble ever blown? This site offers
gallons of fun, with instructions for making cool bubble tools out of simple
things around the house and a recipe for the ultimate bubble formula. You
can also check out the professor's amazing the demonstrations he's done all over
the world. So get out the soap and water and join the professor for some
good, clean fun.
From courtroom battles to police investigations on the street,
forensic science helps to enforce the law by identifying firearms, collecting
evidence, and profiling the minds of crazed criminals. At the Forensic
Science Web Pages, you'll have the opportunity to explore all these facets of
this hard nosed discipline. Tippy-toe out to
http://users.aol.com/murrk/index.htm
and you'll explore all the ins and outs of criminal law, document examination
and crime-scene processing. Plus, the personal identification pages will
give you the lowdown on fingerprints analysis, DNA and more. Do you think
you could make a living following criminal? Bring your magnifying glass,
because it's time for and investigation!
Buckle yourself in and rocket yourself into space with NASA. Just set your control panel to http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/ and space travel is seconds away. Once you catch up on the daily news from NASA, get ready for a space walk with "Space and Beyond" for your important research about black holes, solar systems and quasars. You'll also want to zip around in "Rockets and Airplanes" to find out how NASA gets people into space. Explore the creative atmosphere, too, with space stories and space art by kids just like you.
Imagine teeing up a golf ball in Los Angeles and aiming for a
4-inch moving hole in Houston. This is the challenge that NASA faced in
the summer of 1997 while navigating the Pathfinder mission to Mars. Rocket
to http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/98/mars
and strap yourself in for a wild ride through outer space. This virtual
reality tour lets you gaze across the Martian landscape or watch Pathfinder's
fiery plunge and beach ball landing into the red planet. Not space sick
yet? Then hop in for a virtual ride on the Sojourner; the first-ever
interplanetary rover. Then wrap up your visit by sending your friends a
"Greeting from Mars" postcard.
Have you ever dreamed of flying around the world, exploring new
terrain and observing the fascinating topography of Earth? At the Earth Moon
Viewer, you can do exactly that, as you gain a bird's eye view of the oceans 
and land formations from one hemisphere to the next. The Earth Moon Viewer
generates these revealing images based on maps, composites, and weather
satellite imagery. Just jet out to http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
and you'll be able to choose your destination anywhere on the planet by
determining latitude and more. Check out views from the sun, moon or night side,
and zoom into an African jungle or Arctic river. Once you've explored every nook
and crannie on Earth, it'll be time to set your sights on the moon. Be a tourist
in space!
Is that a frog? It's a flying frog all right, painted on a
kite. Want to see more? Go to the Dancing Frog Kites Productions Web
site http://www.bhc.com/Dancingfrog/index.html
where you can view other unusual kite art and find out how these amazing
aero-amphibians are constructed. When your neck has had enough of looking
up, look down. 
Get
a kite's view of the world below at The Kite Aerial Photography site http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris/kap/
See what it's like to soar over canyons, beaches and off the edge of tall
buildings. Charles Benton's photography will blow you away, and you can
find out all of his kite camera secrets in his how-to section. You may get
an inkling from this site that kites are more than pretty objects in the sky,
and you're right. They aid soldiers, scientists and engineers in many
ways.
Earthlings have always wanted to know more about their next-door
neighbor and thanks to NASA's Mars missions, you can explore this fascinating
planet much as the astronomers at 
Mission Control do. Whether it's the Global Surveyor, Surveyor '98 or the
Pathfinder missions, there's plenty of exploration and adventure waiting for
you. Blast off to http://marsweb.jpl.nasa.gov/
and you'll be able to meet members of the Pathfinder team, simulate your your
own rover mission, and look for evidence of life on Mars. Even cooler, you can
look at space images with your 3-D glasses, tune in to NASA Select TV, or check
out the Mars Pathfinder Virtual Reality Guide.
Sixty-five
million years ago, the Age of dinosaurs came to an end when a violent change let
to mass extinction of life. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum
of Natural History may have some answers to explain this mysterious event.
The Blast from the Past Web site explains how a recently discovered deep-sea
core impact. Was dinosaur extinction the result of a flying object from
outer space? Find out for yourself at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/blast/.
One of Earth's mysteries may soon be solved at Blast from the Past!
For
those looking to learn the ropes in astronomy, it's hard to find a better site
than NASA's Star Child, a learning center for young astronomers. Blast off to http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/
and fly and facts. Starchild explains all things related to outer space, from
quasars to asteroids. Did you know that a comet is just a big ball of dirty ice?
Whether you're looking for advice on driving a lunar rover or you want to sneak
a peek at a Black Hole, the photos and activities at Starchild will go a long
way in making a space explorer out of any kind.
Here's a Web that's going to send you off the Richter scale. Many people
think that earthquakes are the "granddaddy" of all natural disasters.
Shake, rattle and roll to http://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/index.html
Life Along the Faultline will shelter you through famous California earthquakes
past and present. Revisit the great quake of 1906 in San Francisco.
There are also lots of multimedia ways to witness the action, such as interviews
with survivors, video clips and home. Be sure to check out the video of
the massive Loma Prieta quake that interrupted the 1989 World Series. This
site will have you quaking in your shoes!
Take a tour of the Smithsonian Museum's Ocean Planet
exhibit at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html
Click on any room of the map to open the door to an underwater world where you
can hear the creatures of the sea, explore the ocean floor in underwater
research vessels, and learn about how the ocean affects EVERYONE in the world -
even if you don't live by it! And don't leave the "museum"
without meeting some of the heroes who have help to rescue the oceans from
pollution and other abuses. They have some great ideas for what you can do
to help, too. Do you have more ideas for what we can do for the oceans and their
inhabitants? Be sure to put a "message in a bottle" and get your
ideas floating around the world.
It's so hot I'll bet you could fry and egg on the
pavement. Want to prove it? When you go to 
http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/index.html
you'll have a whole new concept of road food. Hungry for more? Check
out the plans for constructing a solar hot dog cooker. It's the hottest
link on the Web to find out about solar energy.
