GEOLOGY OF VIRGINIA CD-ROM 4: VALLEY AND RIDGE AND APPALACHIAN PLATEAUS: AN INTERACTIVE, MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM FOR EARTH SCIENCE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Interactive, multimedia CD-ROMs are excellent tools to help geology students understand concepts that are difficult to visualize. They have the ability to combine text, photographs, diagrams, sounds, animations, and videos without the significant delays associated with the Internet. They are also attractive because of their relatively low production costs. Over the past three years, the Department of Geology at Radford University has designed and created a series of four CD-ROMs that allow high school geoscience students to explore interactively the geology of Virginia. The fourth and final CD-ROM in the series, presented here, examines the geology of the westernmost provinces of Virginia: the Valley and Ridge and the Appalachian Plateaus. This CD-ROM includes chapters on the physiography, geology, economic mineral resources, environmental issues, and relationships between geology and human history in the Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateaus. Two other CD-ROMs in the series examine similar topics in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge of Virginia. An additional CD-ROM, Introduction and Geologic Background, presents fundamental principles needed to understand the geology of the state. Each CD-ROM has a supplementary Teacher's Guide complete with lesson plans, student worksheets, and teacher answer sheets, as well as explanations of Virginia Standards of Learning covered in each section. The Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateaus, along with the rest of the series, is published through the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources. Specific features of the CD-ROM, including topics covered in each chapter, will be presented.