WebExhibits.org Is an Online Museum

Librarians, teachers, and others who would like to explore the world and its cultures should pay a visit to WebExhibits (webexhibits.org), a site that's like a huge museum with many wings. The home page features a colorful and informative exhibit that tells the story of Daylight Savings Time. Another exhibit, "Causes of Color," explains why we see colors in a stained glass window. Michael Douma Productions, designer of many educational sites for U.S. government agencies and universities, created this online museum, which includes links to hundreds of other educational exhibit sites created by others.

"Calendars Through the Ages," another exhibit available from WebExhibits, should stimulate thought and exploration. Suitable for grades eight and up, "Calendars" explains the origins of weeks, months, and years, and shares other fascinating facts. Did you know, for instance, that the year is getting shorter? Although it's doing it very slowly: in 1900, the year was 365.242196 days long; in 2002, it's 365.242190 days long.

The exhibit sites are divided into popular curriculum areas such as history, language and writing, and space science. Web sites in the directory, ranked with stars for their quality of presentation, include sites from PBS, the American Museum of Natural History, and National Geographic magazine. Alice Yucht, a teacher-librarian at Heritage Middle School in Livingston, NJ, calls WebExhibits "highly addictive, but truly fascinating."