VR Excursions uses advanced interactive technology to give students access to a variety of complex environments (a nuclear waste disposal site, a coal-fired power plant, and a solid waste landfill site). These virtual environments are rich enough that they can be tailored to professor's individual course goals or they can be used with the accompanying lab manual and Instructor's Manual as a turn-key method of using the computer to give students “hands-on” field experience in the Earth and environmental sciences.