The Connected by a River CD-ROM was created to provide middle school students with a connection to the vital and life-giving force of the Mississippi River basin. Five modules combine the sciences, language arts, and social studies to produce classroom-tested educational materials relating the historical, cultural, and environmental significance of the Mississippi. The modules increase students’ awareness of the river and all of its attributes, and encourage good stewardship of our natural world:

• Life Forms and Habitats
• Human-Made Structures
• Wetlands
• Pollution
• Nahant Marsh Case Study

The modules are formatted as multimedia slide show presentations, delivering information on teacher resources, science standards, and historical data. Students can navigate through the presentations easily and link to hundreds of online resources while satisfying their natural curiosity about the biotic community and the human-made engineering marvels used to control the river.

The slide show presentations are provided to enable teachers to fully customize a presentation for regional and individual classroom needs. The CD can be used on both Windows and Mac operating systems.