Students from the Urbana (IL) Middle School visited NCSA's Beckman Institute facilities in December for a demonstration in NCSA's CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) (TM). Rachael Brady (bottom left) used Crumbs software to show the students a mummy (top left) in virtual reality. Brady is a codeveloper of the Crumbs software, which can be used to visualize a variety of datasets. (Shown center left is Brady using Crumbs to visualize a chick embryo.)

The sixth-graders also spent time in NCSA's REL browsing through an online exhibit on the same mummy, which is housed at the UIUC World Heritage Museum. Although the students are just getting started, they are looking forward to using current day technology to "mine the Web" for additional information on their ancient topic.

Instructors for the students are Pam Van Walleghen and Renee Cooper, teachers in the Urbana School District. They are using a state grant to expand their classroom's website on the mummy. NCSA's Education and Outreach Division organized the visit.