One video shows young scientists studying the sound frequencies of whales. In their classroom labs, students can then carry out careful studies of their own voices and of musical instruments and create real-time audio frequency spectra. The Second Voyage of the Mimi exposes students to archaeology and to the culture of the ancient Maya in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The multimedia package includes a 12-episode television series as well as two software programs Maya Math and Sun Lab . The locations and several of the characters from The Second Voyage of the Mimi have been used again in the Palenque project.
Students can use a database, spreadsheet, and word processor to calculate expenses and keep diaries.
In multiple rounds of field testing Immigrant 1850 with more than 100 classrooms, researchers found that both regular and special-needs students could sustain involvement with this learning environment for periods ranging from several weeks to an entire school year. In all of these programs, the technology both draws groups of students into a richly complex setting a whaling vessel, muddy streets of an earlier Boston, a Mayan city that stimulates their questions and provides them with the resources to gather and integrate information themselves. Thus, these technology applications support student exploration, engagement with complex, multidisciplinary tasks, and collaborative work. The benefits of these authentic, challenging environments for students increase as both teachers and students get comfortable with the materials and the various learning pathways within them. The applications just described provide the content, the materials, and the varied pathways students can follow in learning through interaction with a simulation.