Research and Education
http://dlese.org/library/index.jsp
As the crucial element of the National Science Digital Library that provides information on the area of geoscience, the Digital Library for Earth Science Education (DLESE) provides access to “quality teaching and learning resources about the Earth as a system for a wide range of learners.” With an impressive array of materials, it’s hard to know where to start, but first-time visitors may wish to look over the most recent edition of their in-house newsletter, which profiles some of the materials that have been added to the site. Of course, there is also a general search engine that allows users to search all of the materials by grade level, resource type, standards, and thematic collection. Visitors may also elect to register with DLESE and partake in some of their email discussion groups. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math.htm
The PBS Teacher Source website is just one of the many fine ways that this organization is actively involved in reaching out to different segments of the educational community in the United States. The section dedicated to math resources is quite a find, and educators will find a number of lesson plans and related activities for their students here. While the material is ostensibly designed for students in grades K-12, many of the high school specific activities remain highly applicable to students in the early stages of college-level math. These materials are divided into groups topically, and they include geometry, calculus, problem solving, and statistics. The nice thing about many of the activities is that they are tied to pragmatic and applied situations, which in many cases may help the students understand the concepts that are being introduced. [KMG]
Music appreciation can take many forms, and certainly gaining a basic understanding of how music is composed and subsequently analyzed and performed can provide years of enjoyment and edification. With his website, Teoria, Jose Rodriguez Alvira offers visitors the opportunity to take online tutorials, complete exercises, and read articles about music all in the same place. In the “Tutorials” area, visitors will learn about how to read music and how to identify different chords, intervals, and harmonic functions. Moving along, the “Exercises” area lets visitors test their mettle with interactive materials that will take them through the world of key signatures, jazz, and clef reading. Finally, the site also has a “Reference” area which provides answers to such questions as “What is a chord?” along with offering a detailed explication of the bits and pieces of information that can be found in a bar of music. [KMG]
http://rad.usuhs.mil/medpix/medpix_home.html
Radiologists, students of radiology, and those who are interested in medical images in general will be delighted to hear about this website. Created by MedPix, the teaching files and medical images offered here can be browsed by organ system, and after selecting a particular system, visitors can learn about more about each slide in great detail. Another feature of the site allows visitors to offer their own diagnosis before learning the particulars of each discrete medical case. Visitors can also consider the “Case of the Week” area, which features a case that has been selected by the peer review board that vets all of the images that find their way into their archive. Additionally, the site also features an advanced search engine for those users who know exactly what they want. [KMG]
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/libya0906/
In recent years, the government of Libya has grown increasingly interested in improving its relations with various countries, including the United States as well as several in Europe. However, some remain leery about its treatment of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, and the release of this report from the Human Rights Watch group provides some information on this current situation. In the 135-page report, their team of researchers provides information on how Libyan authorities have mistreated undocumented foreigners in detention and subsequently forced them to return to countries where they could face persecution, and potentially, torture. The report also notes that part of this problem could stem from the fact that Libya has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention. All told, the report has twelve chapters and an appendix, and is available in Arabic, Italian, and French. [KMG]
http://www.hispanichealth.org/
Founded in 1973, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health advocates on behalf of the well being of Hispanics across the country, and over the years, they have created a number of resources that will pique the interest of public health experts and the general public. From their homepage, visitors can get a handle of some of their most requested documents, which include fact sheets on health issues in the Hispanic community, phone hotlines, and news updates about their latest work. For additional materials in this area, the “Resources” section contains reports titled “Gene, Culture, and Medicines: Bridging Gaps in Treatment for Hispanic Americans” and information about funding sources for those who wish to work on public health issues in the Hispanic community. As might be expected, many of the site’s resources are available in Spanish. [KMG]
http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/
Podcasts on development issues in South Asia and photographic essays of the Amazon River Basin are just some of the many highlights of this creative and well-designed website created by the World Bank. Of course, the World Bank has always been well known for its many working papers and research reports, but this site is tailored for a more general audience and some of these resources could also be used in the classroom. The site includes a quiz on food security and poverty reduction and the “Dev360” area, which features stories about educating young women in Bangladesh and the process of creating a national road system in Morocco. The site is rounded out by several dozen podcasts, which include addresses by the head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz and the creation of an avian flu facility at the Bank. [KMG]
http://content.lib.washington.edu/llweb/index.html
Lawrence Denny Lindsley was born in 1878 in a house on scenic Lake Union, right in the middle of the relatively young city of Seattle, Washington. As a descendant of the early Seattle pioneer David Denny, Lindsley began to wander around the city and its environs from a young age. Like many men in the Pacific Northwest during the late 19th century, he enjoyed the outdoors, and soon developed a skill for photography. He later went on to work for Edward Curtis, and he continued on by documenting such landscapes as Mount Rainer, Lake Chelan, and the Olympic Peninsula. Many of these excellent photographs can be viewed in this latest offering from the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection. All told, there are 472 photographs here, complete with detailed records. The King County section is a real highlight, as visitors will get a real sense of the area before it became heavily urbanized during the 20th century. [KMG]
