Research and Education
http://vectors.iml.annenberg.edu/index.php?page=1
A number of electronic journals talk about being truly dynamic, but this very fine offering from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television lives up to that billing in fine form. The journal’s intent is “to propose a thorough rethinking of the dynamic relationship of form to content in academic research, focusing on ways technology shapes, transforms, and reconfigures social and cultural relations.” Visitors can start by drawing their own vector, and then clicking their way into the latest issue of the journal. Each article is more accurately titled a “project”, and after reading a bit about each author and some background on their project, visitors can then enter each visually dynamic project at their leisure. Some of the recent project titles include “Unmarked Planes and Hidden Geographies” and “Public Secrets”. Additionally, visitors can take part in online forums and also browse through the journal’s archive. [KMG]
It’s hard to learn about music without listening to it closely, and this multimedia website created by a group of organizations in Britain (including the Royal Academy of Music), provides a surfeit of music from all genres. Through interactive games, musical excerpts, interviews, and other such devices, the SoundJunction site is a great way for anyone to learn about music. A good place to start is the “What can I do on SoundJunction?” overview feature, which walks users through the layout of the site. After that, visitors may wish to look at the left-hand side of the homepage and click on through such areas as “Explore Music”, “How Music Works”, “Music in Context”, and “Composing and remixing”. For budding Beethovens, there is the “Composer Tool”, which allows users to create their own music. Music educators and those who are just generally curious will find that this site merits numerous return visits, and it may prove to be quite habit-forming, in the best possible sense of the phrase. [KMG]
http://digital-library.usma.edu/collections/
The United States Military Academy Library is the oldest federal library in the United States. Recently, they have placed hundreds of rare items online on their very well-organized site. The site includes over twenty thematic collections, and visitors can also browse the collection by document type, such as books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. There are some real gems here including an eighteen-minute silent movie on Army football, a collection of college yearbooks from the academy (the yearbook is appropriately named the “Howitzer”), and audio lectures from the West Point Distinguished Lecture Series. Finally, the site also includes 40 Civil War maps and a 21-minute film titled, “The MacArthur Story”. [KMG]
http://www.weallusematheveryday.com/tools/waumed/home.htm
Whether we find ourselves counting change at the grocery store or figuring out how much the price of gas has gone up in the past several weeks, it is certainly true that we all use math everyday. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in collaboration with Texas Instruments, has created this site to bring together a number of resources for mathematics educators and those with a growing interest in fractions, exponents, and other such matters. Each activity has a fun title, and while there isn’t a search engine, visitors will find it interesting to look through the different activities for something that meets their needs. [KMG]
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/leonardo/
Some have called Leonardo da Vinci a polymath, while others have simply called him a genius. His prodigious output over his life included conceptual drawings of what appears to have been an early helicopter, hundreds of other detailed drawings, and a fairly well-known painting that resides in Milan. Recently, the Library of Congress and the Uffizi Gallery collaborated to bring da Vinci’s 1481 study for the Adoration of the Magi to the United States. Regrettably, the work only stayed there for several days, but the Library of Congress created this lovely online feature that allows visitors to examine this work up close. First-time visitors should start by reading an introductory essay on the work, and then they can make their way into the Flash-enabled feature which walks them around the various nuances and details of this study. The site is rounded out by a link to a film from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence that talks about the creative process that led to this work of art. [KMG]
Created in 1966, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is housed at the University of Sussex. Their primary interest is in the field of international development, and along with offering a variety of degree programs; they also maintain a rigorous and broad research agenda. Visitors to the site can look over information on their research teams, and they should also examine the “Research Gateway” in close detail. Here they can explore a variety of topical sections (such as climate change and gender) and look over the latest research reports, working papers, and other documents for each topic. Within each section, visitors can also look at news updates from a wide range of sources, and also look over key documents and discussion forums. Finally, visitors can also subscribe to “Yellow Monday”, which is the weekly newsletter about the IDS. [KMG]
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Special-Programs/SP-287Spring-2006/CourseHome/index.htm
There is a great deal of chemistry going on in every kitchen, even though most cooks may not be cognizant of the various interactions going on in the pot, wok, or oven. MIT’s popular OpenCourseWare Initiative has recently made the contents of Dr. Patricia Christie’s course on kitchen chemistry available on this site. Visitors to the site can download the syllabus, take in some assigned readings (and recipes), and look over the assignments. The assignments include investigations that involve emulsifiers, ice cream, peer teaching, and pancakes, among other things. The site also includes links to helpful readings, such as those on chocolate, the health benefits of capsicum, and the world of gluten. For people who wish to bring back the frayed connective tissue between chemistry and the culinary arts, this site is absolutely essential. [KMG]
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/other/index.htm
Health care professionals and educators will be delighted to learn about this site, provided that they haven’t heard about it already. Created by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, this site brings together a number of interactive tools and online resources that will be of great use to those in these fields. The site includes such materials as asthma mortality maps of the United States, BMI calculators, and a variety of other health assessment tools, such as menu planners and a ten-year heart attack risk calculator. Additionally, the site contains slide shows and downloadable slide sets on asthma, cholesterol, and high blood pressure that can be used by health care educators. [KMG]
