Research and Education
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG663.pdf
Released in December 2007, this 368-page report from the RAND Corporation looks at the ways that regulation and the legal system can discourage or encourage the entrepreneurial spirit. Susan Gates, director of the Kauffman-RAND Institute for Entrepreneurship Public Policy remarked, "Unfortunately, some regulations place a disproportionate burden on small businesses. At the same time, exemptions and other special regulatory treatment for small businesses to ease this burden don't always work." The report contains a number of interesting findings, including an observation that there is no evidence that state health-insurance mandates designed to expand access to health insurance for small businesses have actually increased their ability to offer benefits or reduced their insurance premiums. Overall, it's a work that will be of great interest to policy makers, economists, and others who might be concerned with the future economic prospects of small businesses. [KMG]
http://www.student-voices.org/
Started in 1999 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, Student Voices is designed "to improve the dialogue of democracy among our nation's young people and encourage their civic engagement." Through this website, educators and young people can take advantage of resources designed especially for both groups. In the "Teachers Resources" area, visitors can download curriculum and lesson plans, learn about group project ideas, and take a look at videos produced by students across the United States. The "Student Resources" area contains links to high-quality sites that provide a basic overview of the federal government, state government, senators, and the president. Everyone who visits the site should chime in with a response to the "Speak Out" area, which asks visitors to comment on important questions of the day. Finally, visitors can also find out who their local and federal officials are as well as peruse the glossary, which covers everything from accountability to zoning. [KMG]
http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/index.html
How much liquid can that glass hold? What are the dimensions of that package that's heading off to a friend overseas? Answers to both of those questions (and many more) can be found in this lovely interactive feature on 3D shapes created by experts at the Annenberg Media group. Visitors to this site will learn about three-dimensional geometric shapes by examining a number of objects through a number of interactive exercises and games. The materials are divided into four sections, which include "3D Shapes", "Surface Area & Volume", and "Platonic Solids". The "Platonic Solids" area is quite a bit of fun, as visitors will get the opportunity to print out foldable shapes such as a tetrahedron. A short fifteen question quiz that tests the materials covered by these various activities rounds out the site. [KMG]
http://www.chalkbored.com/lessons/chemistry-12.htm
Before becoming an author, Jeremy Schneider was a chemistry teacher. Over the past several years he has placed a number of helpful instructional resources here on his site. These particular resources cover atomic structure, quantum mechanics, atomic size, bonding, and several dozen additional topics. Visitors can browse through these resources at their leisure and each topic area includes a brief description of what is covered in each set of materials. Specifically, the resources include labs, assignments, worksheets, and handouts. Many of the resources draw on examples from the "Fundamentals of Chemistry" textbook, but the site suggests that page references from other textbooks can be substituted. [KMG]
http://casfs.ucsc.edu/index.html
The mission of the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California, Santa Cruz is "to research, develop and advance sustainable food and agricultural systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsible, nonexploitative, and that serve as a foundation for future generations." First-time visitors to the site may wish to start by reading through their newsletter, "The Cultivar", and then proceeding to their "Research" area where they can learn more about their ongoing investigations into the sociology of sustainable food systems and the agroecology of farm landscapes. Most visitors will want to look at the "Publications" area as well. Here they can learn more about organic gardening through primers that cover garlic, apple trees, peas, and more. Additionally, this section of the site also has factsheets on building fertile soil, making compost, and non-chemical snail and slug control. [KMG]
http://138.253.125.24/~ng/external/
Students who hope to go to medical school or to continue their studies in the sciences will definitely encounter organic chemistry, and this set of animations will help them in their studies. Created by Nick Greeves and Alex Lawrenson of the University of Liverpool, these animations cover cycloadditions, conjugate addition, and twelve other areas of organic chemistry. Visitors can scroll through the list of animations on the left-hand side of the homepage, or they can use the embedded search engine. A set of controls allows users the ability to manipulate the animations for a better view and they can also remove and show various hydrogen atoms. [KMG]
Teaching statistics can be tough for even experienced instructors, so it is nice to learn about the Statistical Understanding Made Simple (SUMS) website. Created by researchers at the University of Glasgow, the site helps users build "interactive, fun and highly effective tutorials designed to help students understand basic statistics." Visitors who wish to have the resource generator create tutorials will need to register on the site and provide a small data set. Of course, visitors can also check out the "Ready Made Tutorials" area, where they will discover projects that examine the relationship between height and weight and the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy on depression. Additionally, the site also contains several games which students can use to explore the effects of standard deviation and histograms. [KMG]
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/geographer
There is plenty of information about geography online, but separating the wheat from the chaff can be time-consuming and difficult. This helpful online tutorial written by librarians John Blunden-Ellis and Pete Maggs leads users through this process, and along the way users will also learn about evaluating the contents of sites. The entire tutorial should take users about an hour to complete and they can start with the "Tour" section. Here they will take a guided tour through geography sites that feature maps, bibliographic databases of note, and learning and teaching resources. Moving on, the "Discover" section lets users learn about different Internet search tools and offers a set of helpful tips on search strategies. Finally, the site also includes a glossary of terms and a place where users can offer feedback on the tutorial. [KMG]
