Become a Web "Rail" Ranger

Every once in a while I come across some cool information or web-site while I am surfing the internet. Today I came across a good one hosted by the National Park Service. The site is, in my opinion, a great example of our tax-dollars hard at work.

This particular NPS site is called Web Rangers. It is geared towards “kids of all ages,” (fortunately for me), and is intended to garner interest in the National Parks and all they have to offer through interactive games, quizzes, activities, and lessons.

On the site I saw a banner advertising a new addition to their current complement of activities geared to educate and inspire. The activity is called Railroad Connections.

Railroad Connections is a well-done flash-based activity along the lines of “Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?” The goal of the activity is solve several mysteries with clues and given along the way. There is a lot of good content here and definitely well planned an executed.

If you have kids that have an interest in railroads at any level, this would be a cool way to learn more about the workings of steam engines, railroads and their influence, the westward expansion and the transcontinental railroad and more.

All I kept thinking about while I was checking the site and activity out was “What a cool way to learn about history and the like! I wish his type of content and interactivity was available to me growing up.” All I had were Lincoln Logs and textbooks!

Point the kid in you or your kids to www.webrangers.us and you’ll see what I mean. Great job NPS!