Although the catalog suggests that the units are appropriate for grades 4-6, I believe that those grade levels can be extended in both directions. The Kids Network is a structured, worldwide educational network, available by subscription from the National Geographic Society. Seven units are available for grades 4-6. Other units address specific thematic topics. But, whatever the topic, each unit enables children to become writers, readers, scientists, cartographers, mathematicians, researchers, data collectors, and thinkers.
Students work in small groups in the classroom to find answers to specific questions.
Students at all locations gather data, write community descriptions, find geographic locations, construct experiments, and graph their data. Through telecommunications, they send data to their distant teammates and then receive their teammates' findings. The children converse with each other throughout the project. In turn, the scientist, via U.S. mail or email, sends letters to the students introducing the units. The unit scientist may ask questions of the student scientists and help them to summarize their findings.