Webwatch is a column published in the Covenant Companion Magazine every month. It is written by Heidi Griepp, manager of Covenant Internet Services and an avid web wanderer. "This month, A blend of fabulous websites for all ages."

If these websites were people, you’d do a double take when you saw them. All are five-star websites and most of them have won major awards. They’ve got interesting content along with inventive and engaging web design. So fire up your web browser and enjoy. 

www.bobbymcferrin.com
Description: This is the musical website of singer Bobby McFerrin, best known for the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” The entire website is content rich and well designed, but the best part is the area called “Sing and Play with Bobby.” Here you can sing along with McFerrin, or remix one of his songs—adjusting the percussion, harmony, melody, or rhythm parts. Pretty soon at work or at home you will be singing along. This is the most fun artist website I’ve ever come across. Fun for all ages.

www.ownyourc.com
Description: Log on to this website and it may take a little while to notice that it’s actually a youth tobacco education and prevention project. Done in flash animation, it’s an interactive world you can explore. Become a citizen of C-ville and interact with other site visitors, explore different regions of the site,  even earn virtual coins to buy things. It’s a fun place to join—I can imagine enjoying exploring this world when I was young. The background music gets a little annoying after a while, though. This is site is for youth ages thirteen and up.

www.poetryfoundation.org
Description: This Webby award-winning website is known for its powerful poetry tool search features. (Webbys are the Oscars for websites.) You can use it to search for poems by author, title, theme, and occasion. You might also search for articles, audio poems, and works for children. There are even poetry podcasts. If you like poetry—even just a little bit—you might want to explore this site.

www.understandingrace.org
Description: The award-winning “Understanding Race” website is not only intricately designed but also is well researched. You will find lots of thought-provoking content, presented with great pictures and an animated introduction. A project of the American Anthropological Association, it’s a great website for use with families, churches, or schools. Downloadable resources include a bibliography, family guide, teacher guide, and more.
media.worldvision.org/getinvolved/aids_experience/index.html
Description: This section of the World Vision website  was nominated for a Webby award this year. If you check it out you will see why. This site is an interactive audio journey and walks you through two different people’s lives in Africa. It’s powerful and there is a warning for viewer discretion because of the intense subject matter. But the painful things that happened to these two children are real—so don’t let the warning stop you from hearing their stories. A boy named Steven tells of being abducted as a child in Uganda and being forced to become soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army.  A girl named Olivia tells how  poverty and AIDS affect children like her.

www.howstuffworks.com
Description: I reviewed howstuffworks.com a few years ago and gave it high marks. Now this Webby award winner is even better. Did you know that there is a large part of Canada that is missing some of its gravity? How does that work? (Nobody really knows—scientists suspect an indentation left over from the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which covered much of Canada and the U.S. more than 10,000 years ago.)

On this site, learn about everything from how jellyfish move to how stun guns work. There are articles, videos, and more on the following areas: autos, communication, computers, electronics, entertainment, health, home, money, people, science, and travel. This site reminds me of a great set of children’s encyclopedias we had when I was young, only better because it’s searchable and doesn’t go out of date like an old encyclopedia can.

www.eatbetteramerica.com
Description: There are legions of health and fitness websites online—but this one stands out. Interactive and easy to use, it walks you through choices about how to eat better and stay fit. And it feels a bit like a game. On this site, you can learn about your fitness personality, join a community of people concerned about health, find recipes, and much more. There are two other fun features worth pointing out. First, you can send them one of your favorite recipes and they might “healthify it” for you—finding alternate ingredients that still taste good but are better for you. It’s great for those things you love to eat but know are bad for you. 

There is also a “shop better” grocery list to encourage you shop for healthier foods.

www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html
Description: Here’s a fun website—make your own online Mr. Picasso head. I made a pink lady Mr. Picasso head—it’s not really very Picasso-ish, but I sure had fun. Add all the facial elements to your project and then adjust them. Then send your creation to your friends, or skim through other people’s Picassos. Fun for the whole family. 

All Webwatch reviews are for informational and resource purposes only. The Evangelical Covenant Church does not endorse any website, organization, or content. From time to time some of these links will go dead or they will be sold. When we learn about this we will take the link off. If you see a dead link please let us know. All images and content Copyright The Covenant Companion.

little-chef.jpg