In honor of Columbus, I explored the 'Net, fully enjoying the adventure while discovering these incredible sites.

• www.mce.k12tn.net/explorers/explorers_start.htm. This site offers a wealth of information about Columbus specifically and explorers in general. The facts are paired with fun activities and quick quizzes, perfect for use the classroom or rainy weekend at-home projects. I took a look at some of the activities and they vary. One suggestion is to take a world map and mark the routes of famous explorers using a different color for each. I liked that one, only I thought it might be better if everyone started with a piece of paper and drew the map instead of using a preprinted one.

•  www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/discovery. This is a good one of what I like to call a links learning page. General information is provided on a single page but within the limited copy blocks are loads of active links to other pages and other sites. This is a particularly well done listing -- offering facts organized by timeline or location. A couple of the links are no longer active, but the majority of the site is up to date and ready to serve as a resource source.

•  www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Explorers.html. Don't let the name fool you -- yes, it's "Kid Info," but some of the material this includes would teach an older kid (MUCH older) a thing or two, too. Like the entry above, it is a links page, but this one goes much deeper and covers all the countries of the world.

•  www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/columbus. I mentioned a different section of this site last week in the column on whales and dolphins, and although I try not to duplicate my listings, I had to make an exception in this case. There's an entire Columbus entry as well as a division on other explorers. Great graphics and lots of color to keep youngsters interested. The associated crafts and projects are creative and inspirational.

•  www.cdli.ca/CITE/explorer.htm. Aimed specifically at elementary students, this page, created by a fifth-grade teacher in Newfoundland, Canada, takes an impressive look at European explorers organized by the countries they explored -- as written by his students. Each individual explorer is described in biographical sketches written by the children. You'll find a lot of duplication, but it still adds up to an interesting read and is a fine idea for classes in this country.

•  www.explorers.org. If all this talk about explorers and their adventures makes a sense of wanderlust well up within you -- this is the site for you. It's the home of the Explorer's Club, an organization that's been promoting exploration and field studies since 1904. As described on the site, "The Club has approximately 3,000 members representing every continent and in more than 60 countries, comprising about 30 chapters around the globe. The Club's members include leaders in polar exploration, diving, aerospace exploration, archaeology, zoology, physics, oceanography, astronomy, ecology, geology, paleontology, conservation mountaineering, and speleology." If you have a serious interest, there's a participation level just right for you -- from student to scientific scholar.

Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based freelance writer for The Post. She invites your comments, questions and suggestions at SiteSeer2K@aol.com.