Macs are helping to bridge the gap between the ocean floor and the classroom. Appleis Hot News has a story in which Macs are used to help bring the world of hydrothermal vents and tube worms into the classroom, almost as the scientists aboard the submersible, Alvin, view these wonders first-hand. Macs were used to send the video from Sony digital cameras onboard the submersible to Macs onboard the Atlantis, Alvinis imother ship,i then to the expeditionis Web site, where the progress of the explorers was watched by thousands of students and the general public. From the article:
Throughout the journey, called ?Extreme 2001: A Deep-Sea Odyssey,? students and the public were able to follow the underwater team and share in the excitement of their research. This was made possible through the university?s creation of an interactive Web site, a major component of a pilot educational project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Sea Grant College Program. The availability of the Web site, in turn, was made possible by an on-board complement of Power Mac and PowerBook G4 systems.
Expedition members credit the Macs ease of use and QuickTimeis verstility for helping to make the web experience great.
"The broad range of schools throughout the U.S. has low-tech tools, as opposed to high-tech,? Bryant notes. ?We could have put big video clips up on the website, but who?d be able to watch them? Without us being able to use QuickTime so that even 56K users could see and hear the videos decently, the whole Web experience wouldn?t have been nearly as interactive and exciting.?
The article is worth viewing just for the pictures alone. Click on over to the article, titled, Macs Take Underwater Science to Extreme , and enjoy.