FROM EDUCATORS
"Introduce this site to your students for months of science fun! My sixth graders love it! Whyville supports
the use of computers by kids the way that scientists use computers: for data collection, data visualization,
simulation and modeling, and scientific communication. The site also reflects what we know about learning
communities and the kinds of interaction kids seek while learning and having fun."
- Wendy Li
- 6th grade teacher
"We are including a Whyville experience in the pilot distance education piece of our science elementary
methods curriculum. After visiting Whyville, I am convinced that it would be great for preservice teachers to
experience Whyville over the course of several weeks to see what excellence in electronic learning for kids
really can be."
- Dr. Maureen McMahon
- Dept. Chair of Science Education, Cal State Long Beach
"One of the real lights in the echoing darkness of science education
is a small independent company called Numedeon, which runs a website
called Whyville. Whyville has managed to do the impossible - generate
massive interest in science among adolescent girls."
- Education Reform
"Whyville is an imaginative web site that aims to help elementary,
middle, and high school students understand and enjoy science. It
differs dramatically from most science education sites in its use of
avatars, games, computer simulation and modelling, a Whyville
newspaper, and interactivity among Whyville participants. Though
Whyville is not designed specifically for girls, girls make up more
than 60% of its users, an exceptionally high percentage for a
science-and-technology-focused site."
- Joan Kornman
- Author of Internet Resources for Women
- Professor of English, University of Maryland
"Numedeon, an Internet technology company, has developed an imaginative, interactive, "inquirybased"
educational environment called Whyville.net... (This) is the kind of creative (effort) ... using
new technologies, that can significantly enrich the educational landscape for students as well as teachers."
- Lawrence K. Grossman and Newton N. Minow
- "The Digital Gift" a report of the New America Foundation