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EXPLORING
THE NARDOO
Contents
Explore the ecology of this imaginary environment
through four physical regions and across four time
zones using a captivating and comprehensive set of
multimedia resources. Visit the Water Research
Centre and join the research staff in an
investigation of your choice.
Use the
simulators, make measurements in the river, read
newspaper articles, listen to audio and view video
reports and browse the information in the filing
cabinet. Use the powerful features of the
interactive multimedia notebook to report your
findings and solutions.
Exploring
the Nardoo was developed by the Interactive
Multimedia Learning Laboratory in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Wollongong in
Australia, in collaboration with the New South
Wales state Department of Land and Water
Conservation.
System
Requirements
Macintosh - Minimum requirements: Colour
capable Macintosh computer, double speed CD ROM
drive, hard disk, System 7.1 or above, QuickTime
(supplied). Requires 2.5 MB of RAM above system
requirements.
Windows
-Minimum requirements: MPC2 standard computer
running Windows 95, 8 MB of RAM, double speed CD
ROM drive, hard disk, mouse, Soundblaster
compatible sound card, 256 colours, QuickTime
(Supplied).
This
product is available for Macintosh CD ROM and
Windows 95+ CD ROM
Recommended for Year 7 and up (12 years
+)
RRP
AU$203.50 (includes GST, postage and
handling)
Exploring
the Nardoo Classroom
edition - Teachers' Resource Kit
This
is a new product available in a convenient binder
format. It includes a comprehensive set of
classroom project modules (activities), listing all
necessary materials, outlining the procedures
involved and 'after-activity' checklists. We have
included samples of material offered in the kit as
a downloadable
pdf document.
RRP
AU$44.00 (includes GST, postage and handling).
Note: Exploring the Nardoo CD ROM is NOT included
in the price. Please order CD ROM
separately.
Please
contact Professor Barry
Harper at the University of Wollongong about purchasing
this product.
REVIEWS
The
Australian
30th October 1996
Virtual river of information
The Nardoo is by necessity a virtual river;
the data on which it is based is so telling, its
creators feel they cannot identify it for fear of
legal consequences.
The virtual Nardoo makes up an interactive
multimedia package developed at Wollongong
University's multimedia laboratory. Last week it
won the tertiary section of the Inaugural
Australian Teachers of Media International
multimedia awards.
The award followed one earlier this month at the
International European Multimedia Association
Awards in Frankfurt.
The CD ROM "Intellectual amusement park" allows
high school students to explore the total ecology
of the anonymous NSW river system and report on
ways water quality could be better managed.
Developers Wollongong and Apple Macintosh are
considering using the Exploring the Nardoo software
model to set up similar projects on the World Wide
Web based on Wetlands in Florida, the Frazer River
in Canada and The Amazon in South Africa.
Project Director and Wollongong Associate Professor
Barry Harper said students can use the package to
produce long-term plan for water management of the
river.
The package - about the released to Australian
schools - contains the necessary scientific
information about pollutants, chemicals, natural
processes, biology and animal species to produce
such a plan.
The data - provided by the NSW Department of Land
and Water Conservation, which instigated the
project - covers the river's history from
pre-development days of the 1950s to the 1990s,
after it had been dammed and loggers and other
industries moved in.
For example, students can take water samples from
above, next to and below logging operations, and
measure the industry's impact on the
environment.
They can enter three simulations: an algal bloom, a
whole catchment level water demand management
system and a home water-use program.
Using a personal digital assistant notebook,
students can access text, radio and archival
television footage, and fauna and flora images, to
produce a report on challenges set be researches in
the form of lifelike characters in a virtual
research unit.
Professor Harper said Apple Macintosh would soon
bundle the package with its new computers in the
United States.
Exploring the Nardoo will sell for $185 for the
first copy and $40 for each additional copy through
publisher Interactive Multimedia Pty Ltd
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