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8. What do you mean by "web sites" and URL's?
A URL is an address that indicates the location of a file on a computer system which the public can access. In a web browser such as Netscape, you can type in a URL and instantly visit a computer file on the other side of the globe. The most common complaint of students is that Netscape is slow. Ten years ago, using the postal service, it took me 6-8 weeks to get a list of earthquake records -- you can get the same information in two minutes using Netscape.
Think of a URL as locating a country, state, city, street, house number, room, desk, drawer and so on. As you go across a URL from left to right, you obtain more specific information about the location of the document. You must always record the URL's of any webpage you print for your report. It is unacceptable to present a scientific argument using data or evidence from "this really nifty earthquake website on the Internet." If you use Netscape on an IBM PC, you can print the URL on pages you print from a website. If you are using a MAC, you have to write the URL on the printout. In Netscape, you can make "bookmarks." Bookmarks record the URL's of places you visit, and you can export your collection of bookmarks to your own diskette. Find out how to do it.
Your report must have documents printed out from at least four web sites (not four computing labs on campus). See the scoring criteria for the report -- four websites is a minimum and is thus awarded a minimal score. The letter from Newcastle County provided a URL for Yahoo.Com's catalogue of earth science-related web sites. The people at Yahoo.Com catalogue web sites by topic, and the Yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences catalogue contains 1,127 earth science-related web sites! Once you get there, you will find earth science-related web sites catalogued even further like this:
[URL] http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/ Geology and Geophysics (368) Geotechnical Engineering (3) Hydrology (49) Institutes (13) Meteorology/Weather (455) Oceanography (172) Organizations (7) Paleontology (38)
What this means is that there are 455 web sites on meteorology/weather. Once you click on Meteorology/Weather (455), you will find this:
[URL] http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/Meteorology_Weather/ Companies@ Daily Weather News@ Floods@ Hurricanes (265) Institutes (76) Newsletter (1) Organizations (1) Software@ Regional Climate Centers (16) Storm Chasing (6) Tornadoes (2) Winter of '96 (10)
As the above information suggests, there are 265 web sites devoted to hurricanes. If you clicked on the word Hurricanes (265), you would find this:
[URL] http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/Meteorology_Weather/Hurricanes
* CIMSS Tropical Cyclones - images and movies * FEMA Tropical Storm Watch * Hurricane Dynamics * Hurricane Tracking Map - scanned image of a blank tracking map * Hurricane Watch - Hurricane Tracking Resources by NetCreations * Hurricane.com - will accept information, pictures, or data about any present or future hurricane or tropical storm * Hurricane/Tropical Data * Hurricane: Living With Tropical Weather Systems - Information and graphics packed resource on Hurricanes and Tropical Weather. Register to win a barometer. Practical information on preparing for, surviving and recovering from a Hurricane. * Past Tracks of Tropical Cyclones * Tracking The Eye - Hurricane Tracking Software For Windows - For Windows or Windows 95. Also this page provides links to current hurricane coordinate information. * Tropical Cyclone Center - World-wide tropical cyclone track data. * Tropical Cyclone Information * USA Today - Guide to Hurricanes * VNO: All About Hurricanes * Worldwide Hurricane/Typhoon Tracks and Forecasts
Clicking on any one of the above things will send you to a specific web site devoted to some aspect of hurricanes. For example, clicking on Hurricane Tracking Map will send you to this web site: http://lumahai.soest.hawaii.edu/Tropical_Weather/atlantic_track.gif
Here, you will see a chart for tracking the latitude and longitude of the eye of a hurricane. This is just one example of a web site on hurricanes. There are 264 more as of 2/12/96. Certainly you can find information from at least four to help you construct an argument, and that is just about hurricanes.
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