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Welcome to the North Carolina Coastal Explorers Website! This website will allow you to take a virtual tour of the many unique environments found in coastal North Carolina. As a Coastal Explorer, you will visit wind-swept beaches, vast salt marshes, and dark and silent swamp forests. You will study maps and pictures of the habitats you visit to see what they look like both from high up in the air and when you are standing on the ground. Finally, you will meet the various plants and animals that make their homes in coastal North Carolina and learn about what what you can do to help protect them. Before you begin your adventures, take some time to read these instructions so that you know how this website works and how to move from one lesson to the next.
Browser Settings This website works best when viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. These browsers can be set so that the Coastal Explorer maps and glossary will open in a new browser window that is sized to fit the content of the new page. In Netscape Navigator, these new pop-up pages will open in a new tab instead of a new window. To use this website, you will need to set your web browser to allow pop-ups. Click on the links below for instructions on how to change these browser settings: Allowing pop-ups in Internet Explorer Allowing pop-ups in Netscape Navigator Allowing pop-ups in Mozilla Firefox Ask your teacher or a parent if you need help changing these settings on your computer.
Instructions Each lesson in the North Carolina Coastal Explorers website has the same basic set-up. There are four parts to each page: A MODULE HEADING with LINKS BAR for navigating to different lessons within each coastal region, TABS for navigating within the current lesson, a left-hand column for PICTURES, MAPS, and CAPTIONS, and a right-hand column for TEXT. Here is an example of the top section of a Coastal Explorers page:
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Some of the VOCABULARY that you come across during your adventures may be new to you. If so, simply check the GLOSSARY for a quick definition. Vocabulary words in the text are highlighted in bold cursive. To open the glossary, click on the word you would like to define, and the definition will pop up on your computer screen in a new window. You can leave this new glossary window open as you work and a new definition will appear in it each time you click on a new vocabulary word. Or, you can close the glossary window and it will re-open the next time you click on a vocabulary word. Here is an example of how to look up a vocabulary word in the Coastal Explorers Glossary:
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At the bottom of each page, you will be given a task that you must perform in order to move on to the next part of the lesson. These tasks will always appear in bright blue in the lower right-hand corner of the page. For some pages, this task will pretty simple - you will be asked to click on the "next" button to continue to the next page. The "next" button has a picture of a bird in flight. Anytime you see this bird, you can click on it to continue to the next page. Here is an example of the "next" button that you will use to navigate from one page to the next:
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Other pages have more challenging tasks for you to perform. On these pages, the instructions in the lower right-hand corner of the page direct you to click on a map in the lower right-hand corner of the page. Clicking on this map will open an enlarged copy of the map in a new browser menu, along with some additional instructions. Here is an example of a map that you will be asked to click on to continue with your Coastal Explorers adventure:
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The new map window that opens will have 1-2 paragraphs of text which provide background information that may help you perform the map exercise. The instructions in bright blue direct you to click on a feature in the map. When you complete the map exercise successfully, the map window closes and a new lesson page appears in the main Coastal Explorers window. Here is an example of a map exercise pop-up window: |
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At the end of each Coastal Explorers lesson, you will be taken to a REVIEW page that will allow you to take a second look at all of the maps you worked with during the lesson. You can also save or print the vocabulary from the lesson and visit outside links to learn more about the coastal habitats that you explored. Following the REVIEW, each lesson has a short QUIZ, which allows you to test how much you learned.
You are now ready to embark on your adventures through Coastal North Carolina. Good Luck and Happy Travels! |
| When you are ready, click on the link below to close this window and return to the North Carolina Coastal Explorers homepage. |
| Questions? Comments? Email us. |