Research and Education
The American Political Science Association's website is certainly not just for political scientists, though those who fall into that category will not be disappointed by the valuable materials offered here. APSA was founded in 1903, and currently they serve over 15000 members in over 80 countries. First-time visitors may want to stop by the "About" section which provides information about the organization, along with an answer to the question "What is Political Science?" Moving on, the APSA Journals area on the homepage affords visitors the opportunity to sample some articles from recent issues, such as "What China Will Want: The Future Intentions of a Rising Power" and "The Future of Election Reform in the States". Those persons currently working in the field of political science will want to take a look at the excellent "Teaching" section, as it contains resources on pedagogy that include syllabi, service learning assessments, and links to sites that contain additional resources that can be used in the classroom. [KMG]
http://oposite.stsci.edu/edu_nf.html
Created by the Space Telescope Science Institute, this website provides access to fun and engaging learning activities about astronomy, all of which live up to the website's name. The Institute also happens to oversee the grant administration, planning, scheduling, and public outreach activities for the Hubble Space Telescope, so it makes sense that they would have some rather nice materials. While the site has a number of useful areas, perhaps the strongest element of the site is the "Amazing Space" section. Here, visitors can learn about the inner workings of telescopes, read their in-house publication "The Star Witness", and take in sights of black holes, comets, galaxies, and gravity at work. Educators should not overlook the "Teaching Tools" area of the site, as they will want to look through their classroom activities, graphic organizers, and reading guides. [KMG]
http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/animatio.htm#ecology
The use of a well-placed animation in a lecture can help illuminate any number of important concepts in the sciences. Educators seeking high-quality animations need look no further than this very useful site created by staff members at North Harris Community College. The animations are divided into a number of topics, including plants, ecology, astronomy, geology, anatomy, and biology. Each section contains links to a host of fascinating and helpful animations from institutions like Florida State University, Cambridge University Press, the University of Nebraska, and the University of Alberta. As a note, the astronomy and physics areas are particularly strong, and visitors would do well to take a look at the lunar and planetary time-lapse animations offered up by António Cidadão. [KMG]
http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_blitzer_algtrig_2/
From polynomials to rational expressions, the world of algebra can be a befuddling place. Of course, trigonometry presents certain challenges as well, what with its sine graphs and inverse functions. Students and teachers of these subjects need fear no longer, as this site offers a guide for smooth sailing through all of these thorny matters. These mathematics resources were designed to complement a textbook authored by Robert Blitzer, and they include a number of interactive quizzes and tests. The materials on the site cover topics like exponents, matrices, and conic sections. Some of the materials are meant to be used as stand-alone educational materials, although visitors should note that some require the actual textbook. [KMG]
http://www.getbodysmart.com/ap/respiratorysystem/menu/menu.html
Don't know your trachea from your bronchioles? Never fear, as this informative and delightful interactive website from GetBodySmart.com contains interactive learning exercises designed to help users learn about the respiratory system. The site features seven tutorials that feature both explanatory text passages and well-labeled illustrations. These tutorials cover the larynx, the pharynx, the nose, and four other parts of the respiratory system. After looking through these tutorials, visitors may wish to take the visual quizzes, which come in both multiple choice and short answer formats. For those hoping to learn more about other body systems, they will want to take a look at the additional links offered here. [KMG]
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/outreach/QOTW/active/questions.htm
There's a simple invitation on this site, and it's worth thinking about: "Ask your friends about these questions, discuss them, try to come to a conclusion, and see what you can learn about physics." These fun and compelling physics questions are offered up by the University of Maryland's Department of Physics, and all told, there are about 300 questions available on the site. Visitors can scroll through the questions chronologically, or they can also look through a topically organized list as well. As the questions involve experimental physics, the answers to each problem are complemented in many instances with photographs and short videos. Finally, many of the questions are also available in Chinese, courtesy of translations from Professor Fu-Kwun Hwang. [KMG]
http://vc.lib.harvard.edu/vc/deliver/home?_collection=LAP
Over the centuries, thousands of pamphlets have been published to serve various purposes. Some have been preserved by individuals and prescient institutions, but countless others have disappeared forever. Harvard University's Widener Library has over 5000 pamphlets from 19th and 20th century Latin America, and until recently, they remained uncataloged and mostly inaccessible. Visitors to this site can browse the collection by title, subject, name, and genre. The materials offered here range from documents on accounting practices to those dealing with yellow fever. Additionally, visitors looking for descriptive documents that describe unexplored territories and the relationship between church and state will not be disappointed. The site also contains a nice help feature and visitors can also email questions to staff members at the library. [KMG]
http://www.scientificcommons.org/
The goal of the Scientific Commons website is "to develop the worlds largest communication medium for scientific knowledge products which is freely accessible to the public." This idea was developed by the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and is now hosted at the Institute for Media and Communications Management. Currently, the project is indexing metadata as well as full-text documents in a variety of file formats. The numbers are quite impressive, as the project holds over 16 million publications from over 850 repositories. Visitors to the site can perform a simple search by year, language, or keyword. Overall, the site will be tremendously useful to scholars in dozens of academic fields, or for people who just want to browse around to learn something new. [KMG]
