Explore the deserts of the world in one educational software program

Quench your thirst for knowledge with our newest CD-ROM, The Digital Field Trip to The Desert. Let us transport you to five North American desert locations using QuickTime Virtual Reality. Visit the surprisingly lush, green Sonoran Desert, the brightly colored landscape of the Painted Desert and the Cattail Falls oasis in Big Bend National Park. Explore the barren landscape of the Black Rock Desert or experience the blinding glare and oppressive heat of Death Valley—without the heat stroke.

However, like our other award-winning CD-ROMs, the field trip is just the starting point. Students and nature enthusiasts will learn about all aspects of desert ecology in four other major sections of this comprehensive package:

Desert Types

Discover what makes a desert a desert. Learn about all of the world's major desert regions, including pictures collected from all over the planet.

Desert Mechanisms

See the processes that formed and shape the deserts. Topics include: rocks and minerals, how wind and water can affect the landscape, weathering and a landforms quiz.

Desert Study

The Desert Study includes an extensive section on the ways desert plants and animals are adapted to survive the challenges of living in arid regions. You can also create your own desert ecosystem in the Build-a-Desert game using the more than 50 organisms featured in The Digital Field Trip to The Desert. Also in this section is a primer on homeostasis.

Human Impact

Examine how human impact and desertification shape and distort deserts, and how arid lands contribute to the over-all health of the planet.

Other Features

Like all Digital Frog International products, The Digital Field Trip to The Desert also includes a host of other features:

An interactive map
Definitions of every word and pronunciations of scientific words
Ability to bookmark favorite screens
Online updates

Workbook materials

Student and teacher materials are included on the CD in a variety of formats allowing you to print just what you need, when you need it. The workbook materials act as an excellent study guide, leading students through the CD-ROM with tips, suggestions and quizzes. The accompanying teacher's guide includes answers, as well as teaching suggestions and even offers graphic resources for K-3 activities. And if the workbook doesn't fit your needs exactly, change it.

Multi-platform

The Digital Field Trip to The Desert is a hybrid disc—the same disc runs on both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

Key benefits

Teacher friendly
Supports a wide range of curriculum requirements at multiple grade levels.

Student friendly
Students love engaging in the multitude of activities on this CD.

Cross-curricular
Supports curriculum in life science and geography at multiple grade levels.

Integrated dictionary
Context-sensitive definitions on virtually every word and spoken pronunciations on significant words support ESL learners.

Interactive concept map
Provides a visual overview of all topics and ensures users never get lost.

Fast Find
Allows users to quickly find any topic.

Workbook materials
Included on the CD are extensive workbook materials. Print them out. Make copies. Modify them to fit your exact classroom needs.

What's new in 1.2a?

Built-in text-to-speech
Supports blind and visually-impaired students as well as slow readers and auditory learners.

Native OSX
Now runs natively in both Power PC and Intel.

Vista-compliant
Now updated to run under Vista.

Software updates
Now automatically checks for updates.

Screen preferences
Allows for full screen or window display

System requirements

Windows

Windows 2000, XP, Windows 7 or Vista (32 bit) (some features may not work in the 64 bit version of Vista)
32 MB of RAM (64 or more recommended)
75 MB of hard drive space for QuickTime

Macintosh

Mac OSX 10.3.9 or later
30 MB of available RAM

The Digital Field Trip to The Desert Evaluation Version -This is the full version of the software. You can use parts of the software.