Child's play: Using the Internet to learn about science and engineering

Today, the Internet has rich web sites for budding scientists and engineers to explore. Some sites help pre-schoolers exoplore their worlds while others help high school students prepare for careers. Many encourage scientific play with games and fun experiments and offer a glimpse of science as a profession, with profiles of real scientists doing interesting work. Some of the more popular sites include: Strange Matter that is devoted to materials particularly the exotic ones; Challenge of Materials Gallery which is a permanent exhibit devoted to the use of materials throughout history; Small Science, Big Deal that focuses on nanotechnology; Sally Ride Science Club, an on-line meeting place for girls who like science; and the Peep and the Big Wide World web site that prepares preschool viewers for future success in science.