Macromedia Flash is a powerful and robust development tool. Because of its graphical, sound, and animation capabilities (and ubiquitous browser plug-in), major companies employ it in their website development (see www.nike.com or www.espn.com). These same features also make Flash a valuable environment for building multi-representational "movies"…

Discusses advances in hypermedia as an instructional tool for earth system science education as a mechanism for designing user-friendly and structured classroom units. Proposes two models as a foundation for materials development: (1) the Learning Cycle Model; and (2) the Investigation/Experimentation Model. (Author/CCM)