ideas

I finally had some time to explore this better...I was thinking that there are SO many things I could do with this in my classroom...I liked the "night lights" option to show the developed world, etc....I would definately use this for my oceanography unit...compare pictures of the earth mid-ocean ridge and marianas trench to ridges and trenches on other planets...the solar system portal was good in itself, even to just compare the planets by size, etc...
couple questions/problems: If I zoomed in too close, the picture got fuzzy...also, I WISH the "features" box had the whole words instead of initials for choices..I had no idea what the initials stood for in some cases...also, can we get rid of the tectonic plates on the maps?
All in all, I think this is a super resource...and I hope to use it soon. I have not checked on my school computer however, to see if it will all work there. (they block a lot at my school)

I also like the option to draw political boundaries...my students are able to see where the states are...in addition to other information (mountains, etc). I put the boundaries in first, then added the night lights...it was easier to see where the cities were, based on BOTH items...just one was not always enough.

Tony:

I agree that adding state and/or country outlines is very useful. We are so dependent on those geographical clues that some people wish we would simply paint them onto the ground!!

Good observation!