Research and Education
If you are having difficulty remembering the details of the Earth's geological structure or the nature of major minerals and rock types, you can consult this excellent introductory course offered as part of MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative. The materials are drawn from Professor Lindy Elkins-Tanton's Spring 2008 "Introduction to Geology" course, and they include a syllabus, a course calendar, readings, lecture notes, and assignments. The course is designed for undergraduates, though anyone can benefit from examining the materials. Visitors can make their way through lecture notes that cover metamorphic rocks, rock deformation, earthquakes, and the formation of continents. The site also contains some great handouts which cover time scales, New England geology, and oxygen isotopes. Finally, visitors can also send feedback about the course. [KMG]
The Brookings Institution has had a long-standing interest in the American system of education, and this thoughtful 73-page report takes a close look at how the federal government might best intervene in this particular area of American society. The report was released in October 2008, and it was authored by Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham. In their report, the authors suggest that the federal government should create a new federal Office of Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Department of Education. The general premise behind such a policy idea is that such an office would "expand the boundaries of public education by scaling up successful education entrepreneurs, seeding transformative educational innovations, and building a stronger culture to support these activities throughout the public sector." The report contains eight chapters, an executive summary, and a set of conclusions. [KMG]
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/lino/
Talk about eye candy, this site has got it in spades! A retrospective of 35+ years of work of Lino Tagliapietra, an Italian glass artist, is showcased in a beautifully designed, easy to use website that is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum online exhibitions. The homepage has a short introduction to the artist, who had an usual career trajectory as he started working in glass factories in Murano, Italy as a child and then eventually became a designer and craftsman for the glass industry. Tagliapietra finally ended up an independent artist and a teacher at the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. To view his works, the visitor has several options. The default method is the slideshow, which can be stopped just by clicking on the pause symbol in the right hand corner of the slideshow screen. To select a piece to view, simply roll over it to see a slightly larger image, and if intrigued, click on the thumbnail to see the piece in all its glory. To read a few details about the piece, such as date and technique used, just roll the mouse anywhere over the image and the details will drop down. If visitors wish to navigate within the lineup of thumbnails, they can just click on the "+" or "-" at the bottom of the slideshow screen. Visitors should not miss slide 14 (numbers appear in the top left of the slide when the image is rolled over), which is of the work entitled Endeavor, 1998-2003. This piece is an installation of 35 multi-colored "boats," suspended from the ceiling, and hovering above the floor. Another can't-miss-piece is the elegant and spare Dinosaur (slide 24) from 2007, which is made of colorless glass and has an asymmetry to it that is almost unsettling. Slides 22 and 23 are reminiscent of architectural blueprints rendered in color, or what it must feel like to be a mouse in a sunlit church, filled with simple stained-glass windows. [KMG]
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/modules.html
The "Classroom of the Future" and "Exploring the Environment" are a collaboration between NASA and Jesuit Wheeling University, and they are responsible for this fine website that offers teachers unique ways to teach students about weather systems. The activities are for grades 5-12, and each activity indicates the applicable grade level, though most lean toward the upper grades. The homepage has a jigsaw puzzle graphic with pieces interlocking that compromise the topics, their grade ranges, whether they are an activity or lesson, and whether they are "Basic", "Comprehensive" or "Advanced". The two "Activities" available "Strangers in Paradise" and "Mars Landing" are located on the homepage at the top of the jigsaw puzzle graphic. Both are for grades 7-12, and each emphasizes working with digital images, such as enhancing, saving, manipulating, etc. Detailed instructions are provided, along with a bit of humor in each scenario. Each of the lessons involves a situation that students must solve. Some of the lessons include "Florida Everglades", "Water Quality", and "Tropical Poison". There is also a "Glossary" provided in a link at the bottom of the page, specific to each lesson. [KMG]
http://www.vahistorical.org/exhibits/headstales_main.htm
The Virginia Historical Society (VHS) has a collection of almost 1000 portraits and has chosen a unique way to get visitors better acquainted with five of them through this online exhibit. The VHS chose five people with "compelling personal stories" and provided an oil-paint portrait of each held by the Historical Society. In addition to several paragraphs which detail their lives, components of the portraits are analyzed to tell more of the story. To read the stories of each of the people in the portraits, click on the "Inventory" tab at the top of the page, or click on "Learn More" under the brief description of what's contained in the Inventory, in the middle of the page. At the top of the description of the person's life is a thumbnail of a portion of the portrait, so make sure to click on the "+" in the lower left hand corner of the thumbnail, or "Click to Enlarge" underneath the thumbnail to see the entire portrait. At the end of the description of the person in the portrait, there is often a question posed that the visitor may have been thinking about while reading about the person. Luckily, the Historical Society provides an answer to the question. To see details of the portraits that are explained further, click on "View Details of Paintings" at the top of the description in the "Inventory" section of the site, or if on the homepage, click on the "Gallery" tab at the top of the page. Simply click on the thumbnails that say "Click to Enlarge", to get to the explanation of the detail. Visitors shouldn't miss the portrait of robber baron Thomas Fortune Ryan by Spanish artist Joachin Sorolla, with its rich texture, depth and sunlit glow. The detail focuses on is the Rodin statue on Ryan's desk, a favorite artist of Ryan's. The written explanation includes details about Ryan's patronage of the arts after his robber baron days were over. [KMG]
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17981/
The Council on Foreign Relations publishes a wide variety of publications, and their "Expert Briefs" series is quite exceptional. Given the recent unrest in Mumbai, visitors with an interest in South Asian affairs and world affairs in general will find this brief particularly compelling. Authored by Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia, this expert brief was released in December 2008. The piece looks at the political economy and relationship between India and Pakistan, along with offering some commentary on combating terrorism in the region. Additionally, visitors can view the "Related Materials" immediately to the right of the brief. Here they will find additional commentary on the subject from other persons associated with the Council. Finally, there's also a link here which allows interested parties to send the brief to friends and associates. [KMG]
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WI/subcollections/WIWarAbout.html
During the Civil War, over 12,000 men from Wisconsin were killed. Their stories, along with the stories of other Wisconsin residents, is told through first person narrative accounts which form part of this important digital collection created by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections group. These documents were originally selected for digitization for use by Civil War history courses taught at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The first phase of the collection consists of over 630 pages of materials from the years 1861 to 1866, and when the entire project is complete visitors will be able to search through approximately 2,600 pages of materials. Visitors may wish to start their journey by looking at some of the 42 sub collections here, which include the diary of William Ault who served in the 14th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment and the papers of the Ladies' Union League, which handled claims for money for Wisconsin soldiers and their families. [KMG]
http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/statelaws_home.cfm
The Migration Policy Institute has worked on a number of resources for scholars and journalists, and this latest addition to their site is another worthy venture in this vein. The State Legislation Database is a free, searchable data tool designed "to generate information about all immigration-related bills and resolutions introduced in state legislatures." The information is classified by state, region, subject area, legislative type, and bill status, and visitors can search through all of the data via their specialized search engine. This particular project is a joint project of the Migration Policy Institute and a research team at the New York University School of Law. Currently, the database contains data from 2001 to 2007, and they are planning on adding additional legislation in the future. More casual visitors can also just take a quick look at some brief tables, which feature state immigration legislature by type, bill status, and subject area. [KMG]
