By Nilooka Dissanayake
Nobody disputes the fact that the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning. It can be your reference library, your bookshelf, your classroom and your tutor. Indeed, if you know where to go, the Internet can take you on a voyage of discovery. All this comes to your desktop at just the cost of a telephone bill.

Today, we will discuss a handful of websites that will provide you with a rich learning experience regardless of your age.

* How Stuff Works

[http://www. howstuffworks.com]

The name of the site is self explanatory: the site tells you all you want to know of how stuff works. What stuff? Anything and everything. Here’s a sample:

# Airplanes and airline crews # Batteries or the birthday paradox # CD Burners or cell phones # Dieting or Digital cameras # Electric guitars or the earth # Fireworks or four wheel drives # Gas turbine engines or germs # Hypnosis or HDTV # Internet or ice caps # Jumping off aero planes # Knuckles # Lock picking # Microprocessors or magnets # Nuclear bombs or narcolepsy # Oceans or osmosis # PCs or popcorn # Radio or rainbows # Slot machines or the supernatural # Teleportation or tattoos # Universe or ultra violet light # Vacuums and vitamins # Web servers or whiskers # Christmas # Y# Zebra’s stripes

Lots of cools stuff is in here. Now you know where to find answers to a lot of things you wanted to know but never knew where to go or whom to ask.

* About.com

[http://www.about.com]

In About, or as they refer to themselves, "the Human Internet", real people help you get whatever you want from the Web. Each site in their network is run by a professional Guide who is carefully screened and trained by About. Guides build a comprehensive environment around each of their specific topics, including the best new content, relevant links, How-To’s, Forums, and answers to just about any question. The insight and perspective that Guides bring to each area of interest is what makes the About experience enjoyable and interactive than most other destinations.

The About network consists of hundreds of Guide sites neatly organized into 23 channels. The sites cover more than 50,000 subjects with over 1 million links to the best resources on the Net. The following will give you a taste of About’s content:

# Arts & Entertainment # Books, movies, music... # Crafts, video games, collecting... # Dating # Hobbies & Games # People & Relationships # Automotive # House & Home # Gardening, pets, real estate... # Religion & Spirituality # Cities & Towns # Homework Help # Literature, languages, science... # Shopping & Style # Online/offline, bargains... # Computing & Technology # Hardware, software, gadgets... # Industry & Business # Trends, statistics, suppliers... # Education # Jobs & Careers, resumes, interviews, tips... # Sports & Recreation # Food & Drink # Money # Stocks, credit, financial planning... # Teens # Cool sites, school help... # Health & Fitness # News & Issues # Travel # Toddlers, teenagers, family fun...

* DiscoverySchool.com

[http://school.discovery.com/]

This website is an affiliate of the Discovery Channel network. The Discovery School is a vast resource network with the content categorized by three main user groups: students, parents and teachers.

For students, there are tools to help you study, games to challenge your mind, and tons of great clip art to use. In addition, there are nearly a dozen learning adventures that let you explore everything from Ancient Egypt to the Space Station.

Study tools include

* More than 700 links to sites that will help you with your homework.

* Brain Boosters — Bend your brain around these word, number, and logic puzzles.

* Puzzlemaker — Turn studying into a game with do-it-yourself crosswords, math puzzles, word searches, and more.

* Science Fair Central — Project ideas and the ultimate handbook for prodigies and procrastinators alike.

* Webmath — Not even calculus can resist the power of the step-by-step problem solvers.

Fun and Games section includes

* Animal Cams — Learn about animal behaviour first-hand by spying on critters.

* Clip Art Gallery — hundreds of images for homework, art projects, web sites, and more - all yours for the clickin’.

* Geo Game — These 10 adventures will take you around the globe and let you conquer the world.

* Riddle of the Sphinx Game — Can you answer her toughest word problems and set the city free?

Learning Adventures section is by far the most interesting.

* Cleopatra’s Palace — Get the inside scoop on this legendary queen.

* The Dirt on Soil — Find out what’s really going on down there.

* Explore Galapagos — Meet weird, wonderful creatures like the blue-footed booby.

* Planet Ocean — Take an underwater dive with barracudas and tubeworms.

* The Search for Ancient Sharks — Meet the terrifying ancestors of today’s sharks.

* Space-Age Living — See how 16 countries are building one base in space.

* Understanding the Universe — You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make sense of space.

* Women of the Century — Get to know 100 years of phenomenal women.

* Woolly Mammoth — Test your Ice Age I.Q., and see if you can beat extinction.

Teachers and parents section include a lot of articles, tools, techniques and resources to help kids learn and have fun.

Until next week, enjoy your voyage of discovery on the Internet.

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Nilooka Dissanayake is the Managing Editor of Athwela Vyaparika Sangarawa, the Sinhala monthly management journal and it’s English version, Small Business International.

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