Welcomemaps made using QUEST
Welcome to the Cornell University's DISCOVER OUR EARTH educational web pages. Here you will find a wide range of information related to the Earth sciences, accompanied by images, graphs, maps, and movies. In addition, you will find two Java-based, interactive data analysis and mapping tools that will allow customized access to a large variety of Earth science data sets that are used by research scientists. The first Java applet, called QUEST (Quick Use Earth Science Study Tool), has been designed and developed for high school and college students who are just beginning their study of Earth science. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows access to several key Earth science data sets. The second Java applet, GEOID, is more appropriate for advanced users. It provides a dynamic mapping interface and can be used to access all of the Earth science data sets made available by Cornell.

In addition to the two applets, we have developed a series of reference pages designed to accompany these Java tools. The Teachers section provides teachers with background information about selected Earth science topics, and suggest a number of student activities and exercises that can be employed in classroom settings. These are accompanied by curriculum guides with even more specific information about the use of our tools in the classroom. From the Teachers links you will be able to access the Students pages and view the information on topic by topic basis. Teachers should view the exercises provided here as suggestions. We encourage you to adopt, adapt, and modify exercises to suit your needs or situation. Most of all, we encourage you to be creative, and to explore the data and visualizations in ways that we have not thought of.

The Students section provides background information for the QUEST data sets and includes a series of activities that we hope will help you to discover some pretty interesting things about the Earth. You should be able to experiment and test your own ideas and hypotheses related to any of the topics covered by the QUEST module. With the tools and information provided here you will be actively engaged in the process of discovery, and by critically evaluating the data and your results, can learn about the dynamic Earth system.

 

 

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