Information Today
Volume 15, Number 6 • June 1998
EAI and McGraw-Hill Unveil Interactive Geology CD-ROM for Higher Education

Engineering Animation, Inc. (EAI) has announced Journey Through Geology, one of several higher-education CD-ROMs that EAI is producing for WCB/McGraw-Hill College, the science, engineering, and mathematics imprint for the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Journey Through Geology will allow students to study the subject of geology using the latest 3-D interactive multimedia technologies.

Journey Through Geology's principal multimedia assets were originally developed by EAI for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals in Washington, DC. Hundreds of geological animations that are featured in the exhibit's interactive multimedia kiosks and 3-D movies are showcased in this CD-ROM.

"EAI dissolves geographic barriers to education by catapulting the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History into college classrooms around the world," said Adrian Sannier, vice president and general manager of EAI Interactive. "We bring this prestigious museum to undergraduates and educators with McGraw-Hill carrying the message through this innovative product."

The CD-ROM serves as a companion work to several McGraw-Hill geology textbooks and is arranged by scientific topic. Each "chapter" is launched with an educational lecture, presented in movie format, by a distinguished scientist from the Smithsonian. Interactive quizzes and 3-D viewers reinforce insight gleaned from the visually powerful animations and video lectures.

"This exciting CD-ROM showcases many geological wonders including erupting volcanoes, evolving igneous rocks, and the exploding force that created our solar system," said Sannier. "Journey Through Geology brings to life geological textbooks by visualizing processes and concepts that—until now—were left to the student's imagination."

In addition to the geology CD-ROM, EAI is also producing biology, history, genetics, psychology, and anatomy titles for McGraw-Hill.

EAI Interactive is a leading provider of interactive products created for corporations and publishers. EAI is also a leading producer of enterprise-wide product data visualization and collaboration software solutions for major manufacturing corporations. EAI's VisProducts were designed to improve product understanding and reduce the time to market by identifying product defects early in the design cycle. EAI maintains its corporate headquarters and technology center in Ames, Iowa, and offices worldwide.

Source: Engineering Animation, Inc., Ames, IA, 800/324-7760; http://www.eai.com.

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