The content is only a superficial pre- that can be used on a variety of plat- cational level, and are especially useful sentation of-facts, with an occasional forms. Because the images are in the with elementary and middle school sprinkling of why those facts might be PhotoCD format, they work equally as students. Because the PhotoCDs are important. There is no opportunity for well on Macintosh and MS-DOS/Win- produced in Great Britain, Habitats critical thinking or application, but dows operating systems. The power of contains photographs of British envi- those features are not intended by the the system required depends upon the ronments with species not familiar to producers. Students need to know that image resolution desired. Each image most North Americans, but they are biology is more than the collection of comes in five separate resolutions, excellent examples of different ecolog- facts, so you might want to guide them from 100 Kilobytes to 18 Megabytes/ ical interactions (symbiosis, parasitism, beyond this in their review sessions. image. Depending upon the user's predation), food web structures, and You might have students watch a seg- need, the images can be converted into biological communities and ecosys- ment, then borrow the style to create anything from a coarse laboratory tems. their own review video! There is no practical sheet to a 17" classroom video Teachers and students can have fun written support material. Students display to a professional quality poster. with and learn from these image col- might even be challenged to create that The lower resolutions work well with 4 lections. The images are licensed for as part of their review. MB of RAM, while higher resolutions any noncommercial use with the own- require up to 32 MB and a Pentium or Rachel Hays er's institution, so they can be color or Power PC processor. Front Range Community College- contrast enhanced, cropped, or edited The images themselves have been down to the level of the individual

Larimer Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/59/6/375/48149/4450335.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 transferred from slides with varying Fort Collins, CO 80527 pixel. They could even be used to com- amounts of enhancement. Some of the bine lessons in art and biology. Anyone histological images appear low con- with access to modern paint or photo trast, but viewing can be improved editing software can convert the files to Photo CD-ROM Collection significantly by varying color satura- several different formats that can be tion and contrast either on the video included in printed curricula, student monitor or through photo-editing soft- 8 CDs-Through the Microscope, Hu- books developed as part of science ware. The botanical photographs, in- man Histology, Basic Botany, Habitats, learning and assessment strategies, or cluding Protista and some other "non- Histopathology, Electron Microscopy, large classroom lectures. plants," are excellent, with very high Basic Zoology, and Histology 2. 1996. One feature that I like is that these resolution, excellent color, and supe- Education Interactive Imaging (14 Row- disks are libraries of images with indi- rior specimen preparation. land Rd., Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 ces, but no additional accompanying Each PhotoCD has a slightly differ- 1TE United Kingdom http://dspace.di- programs. Thus, they are ideal for you ent audience. The Basic Botany and al.pipex.com/edinter/prices.htm). to use as you would like in teaching, Basic Zoology image sets cover a broad United States Distributor: Indigo Instru- but are not for those who might be range of possible uses from general ments (169 Lexington Court, Unit I, Wa- timid about searching and manipulat- biology in the high school to college terloo, Ontario, N2J 4R9 Canada, http: ing images. (They might be easier for level biology courses. The Human His- //www.indigo.com). $70-100 per disk. students than for teachers?) If you or tology and Histopathology discs are your students could use high quality ,g3 as Just the name suggests, this probably more suitable for anatomy graphics and want an excellent collec- set of CD-ROM's is a diverse and physiology, histology, and pathol- tion of useful and relevant images, I collection of biological photo- ogy courses at the higher levels. The strongly recommend the PhotoCD col- graphic images. The several titles con- and black white Electron Microscopy lection from Education Interactive Im- tain 90 to 100 or more images each at a images could be used in just about any aging. variety of resolutions in the PhotoCD course teaching cell or tissue structure. Note: sample images from the Pho- format. The images are of uniform high My personal the favorites, Through toCDs can be viewed on the Internet at quality, easily manipulated, and useful Microscope and Habitats, contain some http://ike.engr.washington.edu/soft- for just about any educational setting. "fun" images of common items in a ware/eduimg/search.html. It is safe to say there is something here new view-bugs, wool, ballpoint pens for everyone. larger than life; and wrens in old Wayne W. Carley Unlike many graphical image collec- cloaks, muck spreading on the farm National Associationof Biology Teachers tions, these PhotoCDs contain profes- and puffins on a cliff. These two sets Reston, VA 20190-5202 sional quality photographic images can be adapted for just about any edu- [email protected]

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