Website Review: The Cyrus Tang Hall of China

THE CYRUS TANG HALL OF CHINA from The Field Museum is an online exhibition exploring the history of China.

Users begin by exploring the exhibition. The exhibition is divided into an introduction, five galleries, and two interactives exploring the diverse landscapes, ethnicities, social statuses, and lived experiences across time and space. Artifacts in the exhibition range thousands of years.

Each highlighted artifact includes background information, visuals, and background information.

The interactive elements allow users to explore information about China through a timeline and map video as well as a 360 virtual exhibit exploration tool.

Librarians will find the online exhibition to be an engaging way to experience the history of China. A supplemental website contains educational materials that focus on object-based learning approaches. These tools connect well with information skills and information inquiry activities in the library.

To visit the website, go to http://chinahall.fieldmuseum.org/.

To visit the educator toolkit, go to http://www.fieldmuseum.org/disc…/on-exhibit/china/educators/.

Website Review: Canadian Geographic Kids

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC KIDS is a website designed to help users explore the geography, history, and wildlife of Canada.

Part of Canadian Geographic, the kid’s section focuses on resources of interest to youth.

The Animal Facts area provides information about dozens of animals that can be accessed by species or the province where they are found. A web page is provided for each animal and the entire collection can be downloaded as a PDF file.

The Games section includes activities related to the environment, maps, animals, and nature. Screensavers and wallpaper can also be downloaded.

The Fun Facts page contains statistics, information, flags, and maps associated with Canada.

The Maps section provides access to the Canadian Atlas Online, award-winning maps, interactive world maps, historical maps, and other fascinating geography resources.

For older children, make use of the entire Canadian Geographic website including the magazine, atlas, mapping tools, travel information, photo section, and blog.

To extend the experience use their links to other geography websites. Also, connect to their social media presence such as Twitter.

Librarians will find this website to be an excellent starting point for discovering information about Canada. It’s also useful for a wide range of projects related to animals, science, nature, geography, and history.

To learn more, go to http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/.

Tech Review: World Landmarks Explorer

WORLD LANDMARKS EXPLORER is an engaging geography and social studies app from Peapod Labs.

The easy-to-use interface provided access to 112 landmarks in 53 countries around the world.

Users are presented with a scrolling page of locations organized alphabetically. Three square icons are presented for each landmark. Each landmark includes the name and location of the landmark as well as the country flag. Users also have the option to zoom-in to see an interactive satellite image of the location, share the landmark with others, or go back to the list of options. Existing YouTube videos by producers such as BBC provide details about each landmark. Existing photos such as those from Flickr as also displayed. To go to the next image/video, users simply swish.

Although this app is a fun way to explore the world’s landmarks, there are some problems with the software. First, since existing resources such as YouTube videos are used, some are missing. Users simply receive a “This video does not exist” error message. Second, there’s no consistency in video content. The app really needs some basic information about each landmark to provide an introduction to each site.

While the app is lacking in terms of content, it would be a great way for youth to explore many of the world’s most amazing places and choose one for a more in-depth investigation. Ask students to select one of the landmarks and brainstorm questions they have based on the images and videos in the app. Then, encourage them to conduct an inquiry using your school library’s many resources including books, databases, and other quality, informational materials.

You don’t need this app on all your devices. Instead, download it on a few devises and ask students to work in small groups or use it in a display or stations.

To download the app, go to https://itunes.apple.com/…/world-landmarks-exp…/id897788782….

Published by Peapod Labs.