[Note: A couple years after this review was first written, I have started distributing this software through my company. The review was written long before I even considered this collaboration, but I put this message here for truth in advertising.]

This CD lets you walk through a central hardwood forest. When you start it up, you are presented with a map of a 25 acre plot of forest, seen from the air. Clicking on any acre will bring up a 3-d image of that acre of forest, with you standing in the middle of it. What's cool about this image is that as you move your mouse, the image rotates as if you were turning your head that way. You can spin 360 degrees to get a view on all sides, look up towards the canopy or down towards the forest floor, and zoom in on a particular area (though the image starts to get grainy when you zoom in). The CD is intended to be used in two ways, other than as a tour of a forest. One is to try out different sampling techniques. You can measure the distance from any large tree to any other, and you can also measure the diameters of the larger trees. The other is to practice keying out trees. The CD includes a key containing for all the trees in the forest, and you can "pick" a twig from a tree and rotate it around to get features to use in the key.

This is a very nicely done CD. While it doesn't let you do anything that you couldn't do in the field, it would make a nice warm-up exercise before doing a field laboratory. It would also be a good way for students to explore sampling techniques and practice using keys. And if you don't happen to have a central hardwood forest nearby, this CD can show your students what one looks like.

Computer: Macintosh and Windows

Source: EcoLogik

Cost: Cheap

Last updated 12 June 1998