Digital Field Trip Series DVD from Digital Frog - Review

As part of my review obligations for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I recently had the pleasure of reviewing The Digital Field Trip Series DVD from Digital Frog.  The Digital Field Trip Series DVD is an amazing resource for life science and geography study - it is definitely not just another educational computer game!  The Digital Field Trip Series DVD is an absolute treasure-trove of interactive information on rainforests, wetlands, and deserts.  The Digital Field Trip Series DVD is primarily designed for 6th - 12th grade students but can be adapted for younger learners as well. 

Due to the fact that there are so many resources and so much information included within each of the three digital field trips on this computer program, this review simply cannot cover all of the great learning material on The Digital Field Trip Series DVD.  My purpose in this review is to give a brief overview of each of the three digital field trips (rainforest, wetlands, desert), and share a bit about our own experiences with the product.  To learn even more about The Digital Field Trip Series DVD, I would encourage you to download your own demo version of any or all of the three digital field trips included on this DVD.

One aspect of the program that I found particularly valuable was that each digital field trip includes a printable Teacher's Guide and Student Guide.  The Teacher's Guide for The Digital Field Trip to the Desert is 65 pages long and includes learning objectives for each section of the program.  A special section is included in each Teacher's Guide with ideas for how to use the program with younger students

As well, a Student Guide is included for each of the three programs. The Student Guide really extends the learning opportunities available for the programs.The Student Guide is most appropriate for junior high and high school age students given the complexity of the questions and the reading for research involved in finding the answers.  The Student Guide is an incredible unit study tool or component of a science course.  The Student Guide provides an abundance of questions, organized by section of the program, to keep a teen working through the CD for an extended period of time -perhaps a week or more in each section.  


The Digital Field Trip to The Wetlands

In The Digital Field Trip to The Wetlands, the student takes a virtual field trip to Cloud Lake in Algonquin Park, Canada.  In addition to the field trip in which one feels as if he or she has actually stepped into a wetlands area, there are four other major sections of The Digital Field Trip to the Wetlands:

• Wetlands Types - information about swamps, marshes, and bogs is compared and contrasted
• Study of a Bog - information about how bogs form, the plants and animals that are common to wetlands, waterlands food webs (including a food web game), and photosynthesis
• Mechanisms of a Wetland - information about how wetlands work including nutrient cycles, erosion, and flooding
• Our Endangered Wetlands - information about conservation, pollution, and the importance of wetlands during migratory routes

The Digital Field Trip to The Rainforest

In The Digital Field Trip to the Rainforest, the student takes a virtual field trip to the Blue Creek Rainforest Reserve in Belize, Central America.  In addition to the field trip in which one can almost feel the humidity, there are four other main sections of The Digital Field Trip to the Rainforest:

• Rainforest Study - plant and animal characteristics and the interdependency between the plants and animals of the rainforest, botany
• Rainforest Types - comparing and contrasting temperate and tropical rainforests
• Mechanisms of a Rainforest - processes that keep rainforests alive including succession and tree fall gaps
• Our Endangered Rainforests - biodiversity, the benefits of rainforests to the environment, threats to rainforests, and measures taken to protect rainforests

The Digital Field Trip to The Desert

In The Digital Field Trip to the Desert, the student takes a virtual field trip to five deserts in North America (Painted Desert, Big Bend, Saguaro West, Black Rock, and Death Valley).  In addition to the field trips, there are four main sections on The Digital Field Trip to the Desert:

• Desert Types - definitions of desert, Aridity Types, deserts of the world
• Desert Study - adaptations, homeostasis, plants and animals that live in the desert, Build-A-Desert game
• Mechanisms of a Desert - climatic influences, landscape formation, water availability
• Human Impact - how humans shape and damage deserts, importance of deserts to the Earth, threats to deserts, and measures taken to protect deserts

For the purposes of this review, our family focused primarily on The Digital Field Trip to The Desert.  The majority of my positive comments about The Digital Field Trip to the Desert apply to the other two field trips as well since the three field trip programs are structured in much the same way.

To try out the Digital Field Trip to the Desert, one of the activities that my two sons (6th grade and 4th grade) and I completed was to take a desert animal treasure hunt.  Using the Teacher's Guide which is included on the DVD for each of the field trips, I knew the animals we should find in each desert.  We found the scorpion in Black Rock and the rattlesnake in the Painted Desert.  We found the coyote, peccary, vulture, and pronghorn in the Saguaro West.  We were unable to find the animals that were supposed to be in Big Bend, though.

While my older son enjoyed the activity and even clicked on the various cacti to learn more about them, my younger son became frustrated and lost interest.  Given my younger son's reactions and the complexity of much of the information included on the computer program, I do agree with the recommended age ranges for the product.

The Build-A-Desert Ecosystem game was a big hit with my older son as well!  The goal of this highly educational game is to build a balanced desert ecosystem.  My son could instantly see how adding a plant or animal impacts the ecosystem in terms of food and water available.  The Build-A-Desert Ecosystem game also includes saved games which can be explored to answer various questions regarding the impact of the different animals on the ecosystem.  The questions are included in the Student Guide.

Positive Aspects of The Digital Field Trip Series on DVD

• The program is very easy to navigate, with multiple options for exploring the program and help available on every screen.
• I really liked that I could click on the plants and animals and be taken to a new screen with more text about the plant or animal as well as a short movie for many. 
• During the short movies, the text of the movie is displayed below the movie screen.
• Definitions are available by clicking on the word for almost every word used throughout the program.
• Scientific or technical terms include spoken pronunciations.
• Teacher's Guides are included on the DVD for each of the three programs.  The Teacher's Guide for The Digital Field Trip to the Desert is 65 pages long and includes learning objectives for each section of the DVD.
• A Student Guide is included for each of the three programs.  The Student Guide really extends the learning opportunities available for the programs and is divided into five sections with extensive questions to complete for each section. 
• A special section is included in each Teacher's Guide with ideas for how to use the program with younger students.
• Many of the silhouette graphics for the plants and animals are available to print from the program.
• The program is an excellent tool to use for research reports or as part of the overall curriculum in a science or geography course.

The only negative aspects of The Digital Field Trip Series DVD is the price and, depending on your family's values and beliefs, the evolutionary stance taken throughout the program.  The Digital Field Trip Series DVD is an excellent learning tool, but it is an investment at $125.00.

I am looking forward to using The Digital Field Trip Series DVD in the years ahead as we learn about deserts, rainforests, and wetlands in our science and geography studies!  The Digital Field Trip DVD is available for $125.00 at Digital Frog. 

I received a copy of The Digital Field Trip Series DVD in order to complete this review.  No other compenation, monetary or otherwise, was given in exchange for my review.