A tour of the White House, a flight into Washington National Airport, and a view from the top of the Washington Monument are but a few of the activities found on a new educational CD-ROM now available from the U.S. Geological Survey. Although targeted to middle school students, it can be used on Macintosh-based computer systems as an introductory teaching tool for topographic maps at many educational levels. The Topographic Field Trip uses multimedia to navigate through layers of information linking sounds, graphics, text, and animation in a game-like adventure.
Correct responses earn rail farecards that are used to travel from one area to the next.
The tourists also use their journals to record information or observations that can be saved and later printed. The journal questions at each tour area highlight distinct components of topographic maps. When they have visited all of the tour areas and answered the journal questions correctly, tourists earn a ticket to visit the White House. If the field trip is not completed during one session, there is the option to return to the same area and continue at a later time. Requests should be sent to the U.S. Geological Survey, Information Services, Box 25286, Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225-2086.