·http://sciencenetlinks.com/afterschool-resources/

Educators who facilitate after school programs will find a wealth of resources for late elementary and middle schoolers on this American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) web page. Readers may like to simply work their way down the list of activities, scouting those options that strike them as most compelling and educational. Activities include creating a miniature geyser with Alka-Seltzer tablets, an online anatomy activity, and a reenactment of the "dances" of honeybees, among many others. Each activity comes equipped with a facilitator page, plus online and printable pages for students. Often, there are also related resources from the AAAS page as well as related activities to which students may link. [CNH]

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·http://werehistory.org/

We're History draws from academics, journalists, and amateur historians to present the multifarious narratives of America, in all its contradictions and complexity. Posts and articles on the site fall into one of five informative categories: History Behind the News; Culture, Military & Maritime; Politics & Economics; and This Day in History. One particularly fascinating entry by Benjamin T. Arrington, a park ranger with a Ph.D. in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, tells the story of the day in 1912 when an assassination attempt was made on Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately took the stage to offer a 90-minute speech, the bullet still lodged in his rib. To find this, or any other article, readers may like to use the search function on the top right-hand side of the page. [CNH]

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·http://www.practicaldoc.ca/teaching/practical-prof/

Designed for rural doctors who teach medical students and residents, this site from Practical Doc can be used by any reader with an interest in the ins and outs of medical practice as it is taught today. Here readers will find sections on Preparing to Teach, Teaching Nuts & Bolts, Observation & Feedback, Assessment, and Learners in Difficulty. Many of these resources can be used by professionals in any field. For instance, under the Observations & Feedback page, readers will find excellent tips, such as making feedback descriptive, specific, balanced, well timed, limited, and possible to implement. There is also a four-minute film that outlines these principles for training doctors, or anyone who provides feedback as part of their role in an organization. [CNH]

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·http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/whales.cfm

This lesson plan from Discovery Education explores the underwater world of whales. Designed for grades six through eight, the plan is divided into sections, including Objectives, Materials, Procedures, Adaptations, Discussion Questions, Evaluation, Extensions, Suggested Readings, Links, Vocabulary, and Academic Standards. The meat of the lesson includes reviewing where whales live, what they eat, the difference between baleen and toothed whales, and an activity in which teams research a number of whales and then present to one another about what they have found. It is structured to extend over two class periods, is printable, and gives educators the guidance they need to create engaging and edifying class time about this important topic. [CNH]

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·http://www.fic.nih.gov/RESEARCHTOPICS/BIOETHICS/Pages/teachers-students.aspx#curricula

Assembled by the Fogerty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, this page of resources designed for teachers of bioethics can be useful to educators of both high school and college students. Here readers will find links to resource around the web, including curricula, courses from Vilnius University in Lithuania, and a number of compelling case studies. There are also links to several bioethics career sites, such as the one maintained by the University of Virginia's Undergraduate Bioethics Program. Finally, the page links to a number of bioethics courses, some of which may be taken freely, and others of which may require registering for an account with the National Institute of Health or other organizations. [CNH]

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·http://teach.com/blog

The Teacher Blog from Teach.com offers community, education, insights, and tips to educators from around the country. Here educators can search categories such as Comics in Education, Education Current Events, Education Policy, Education Technology, Featured Teacher, and many more. Recent entries have explored the importance of classroom design, tips for encouraging a growth mindset in students, a series of articles about teaching abroad, and mental health training for educators. With hundreds of informative entries dating back to December of 2011, when the blog began, many educators will find the perspectives shared here helpful and encouraging. [CNH]

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·https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids

Crash Course Kids is a YouTube video series designed to make science accessible and exciting for late elementary school students. The site opens with a 36-second introductory video that outlines the philosophy of the endeavor. From there, readers may like to select Playlists, where they can find videos grouped by categories, such as Space Science, Earth Science, Engineering, Life Science, and Physical Science. Videos are uploaded every Tuesday and Thursday, so there is plenty of fresh content on the site. Recent additions have covered such topics as the constellations, engineering games, severe weather, the wonders of dirt, and even the nature of dinosaur urine. For educators looking for a way to bring science to life for 4th and 5th graders, this excellent YouTube channel will provide welcome resources. [CNH]

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·http://daily.jstor.org/

JSTOR has been an essential resource for students and scholars at colleges and university libraries for nearly two decades, but the subscription price for this digital collection puts it out of reach for many individuals. Launched in October 2014, JSTOR Daily brings some of that wealth of research and primary sources in the database to the general public at no charge. Through weekly feature articles and daily blog posts, this online magazine mines the database for material that provides context and detail to current events and issues. The front page offers a small sampling of the most recent blog posts and long reads, while the archives can be explored through five topical headings: Arts & Culture, Business & Economics, Politics & History, Science & Technology, and Education & Society. Users can also sign up to have the Weekly Digest delivered to their inbox. For readers interested in delving deeper into those stories crossing their Facebook and Twitter feeds, JSTOR Daily is a fascinating must. [EB]

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·http://digitalstories.wellcomecollection.org/

The Wellcome Collection, a free museum in London, "explores the connections between medicine, life, and art in the past, present and future." This site brings the curiosities and complexities of the Wellcome to life for web users. Readers may like to begin by selecting the Mindcraft exhibit, where they will explore "a century of madness, murder and mental healing" centered on the influence of Franz Anton Mesmer, the occultist healer who claimed he had discovered a universal energy that could cure disease. Once readers have seeped themselves in the images, text, and video of Mindcraft, they may like to move on to The Collectors, an online exhibition of various collector's, such as John Graunt, the 19th century haberdasher who, in collecting statistics on the plague that was ravaging London, may have been the first epidemiologist. [CNH]

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·http://apps.wbur.org/books/

This site, assembled by the Boston Public Radio station, WBUR, gathers all of the station's book coverage in a single, navigable location. Here readers will find scores of recently published books to scout, along with reviews, interviews with authors, transcripts of book-related programs, and links to sites where readers may purchase the novels, memoirs, biographies, and other books on display. Readers may sort the site by chronology, author, and title. They may also filter by program on which the book was featured (such as The ARTery, Here & Now, and On Point) or by category (such as Staff And Guest Favorites, Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Children's Books, Humor, History, and many others). For readers looking for their next literary adventure, this site can provide a welcome guide to what has arrived on the market. [CNH]

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·https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project

Founded in 2011, the Google Cultural Institute is a nonprofit initiative that "partners with cultural organizations to bring the world's cultural heritage online," with the express purpose of making beautiful and important works of art available to anyone, anywhere. Readers may scout the site by selecting Collections, Artists, and Artworks. Interestingly, they may also explore the User Galleries, which feature the assembled images of other Google Cultural Institute users, which can range from the assembled treasures of museum directors to the random collections of anonymous aficionados. Readers may even like to assemble their own galleries, by selecting My Galleries and then dragging items into it one-by-one to build a collection of their own. The only requirement is that users have a free Google account.[CNH]

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·http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary

In this phenomenal interactive from the British newspaper, the Guardian, ten historians from ten different countries offer a brief history of the First World War. Appropriately, the documentary may be viewed in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, or Hindi. To begin, readers may select Enter and Play. Seven video chapters are then available, each between three and six minutes in length, chronicling themes such as Origins, Trenches, Empires, Fronts, Slaughter, Endings, and Aftermath. In addition, selecting the Interactive option for each chapter, which looks like a pointing finger, allows readers to explore an interactive map of the nations and empires who were engaged. For anyone with an interest in the Great War, this page will offer unusual insight into the nature and consequences of this epic conflict. [CNH]

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·http://www.cato.org/research/social-security

For readers looking for erudite libertarian and fiscally conservative arguments on the nature of social security, this special section from the Cato Institute provides well-informed critiques of the current system, as well as suggestions for how to trim budgets, roll back entitlements, and shrink government. Edited by Senior Cato Fellows, Jose Pinera and Michael D. Tanner, recent articles have included an exegesis of the pros and cons of a guaranteed national income and some sobering pronouncements on Social Security's 80th anniversary. Readers may also like to explore the subtopics on the page, including Bad Ideas for Reform, Cato's 6.2 Percent Solution, International, Social Security Reform, Non-financial reasons for reform, and others. [CNH]

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·http://transoralhistory.com/

The Transgender Oral History Project is "a community-driven effort to collect and share a diverse range of stories from within the transgender and gender variant communities." Interested readers may like to begin by exploring the Story Bank, a series of short video interviews with individuals and groups speaking about issues important to the transgender community, as well as their own personal experiences as either transgendered people or allies. The Story Bank can be scouted with a search box at the top of the page or sorted by categories such as Date Published (Newest to Oldest or Oldest to Newest), Title (Ascending or Descending), or Random. Also on the site, readers will find the downloadable i Live: A Youth Toolkit. This informative resource can help parents and educators who are working with transgendered youth as they navigate four topics, including Media Literacy, Health Care, Employment, and Creating Acceptance. [CNH]

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·https://gigaom.com/

For readers who are searching for ways to keep up with the continually expanding world of tech, Gigaom can be a welcome source for reliable information. In fact, more than six million readers turn to the news site every month for information about everything from fitness trackers to virtual technology breakthroughs. Readers may Scout the site by various well-organized sections, including Cloud, Data, Media, Mobile, Science & Energy, and Social & Web. There is also an entire section devoted to Apple products. In addition to the articles, Gigaom produces podcasts, including The Structure Show (for the business of tech), the Chrome Show (for all things Google Chrome-related), and the Internet of Things show (for all things related to the network connectivity of physical objects and the World Wide Web). [CNH]

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·http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/

Mapping the Stacks (MTS) is a collaboration between University of Chicago faculty and Ph.D. students, professional archivists and librarians, primarily from the University of Chicago Library's Special Collections Research Center, and archives, libraries, and community-based organizations in the Chicago area that hold rich, but unprocessed collections related to African-American history. Founded by Professor Jacqueline Goldsby of the University of Chicago's Department of English in 2003, Mapping the Stacks provides the people power to process African American primary source records, including visual materials, periodicals, papers, recorded oral histories, and ephemera according to established archival standards. About 30 completed finding aids are currently accessible on the website, along with a primer on what finding aids are and how they can be used, and a short glossary of archival terms. While production of an archival finding aid for a collection does not digitize all the artifacts in that collection, finding aids contain descriptions of both the materials in the collection and the people and organizations who created the records. Finding aids also indicate the extent of a collection - how much material there is. This means that the work that MTS has chosen to do, get more finding aids online, helps researchers discover hidden collections that document Black Chicago's history. [DS]

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·https://www.turnoffthelights.com/

Have you ever wished you could dim all the bright spots on your computer while watching a YouTube or Vimeo video? Turn Off the Lights, a free browser extension available for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Maxthon, and Yandex Browser, allows users to do just that. To download, visit the site and select Download Now. The program will automatically download to whatever browser is open. From there, a gray lamp icon will appear in your browser menu whenever a video is detected. Simply click the icon to make the screen around the video fade. [CNH]

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·https://atavist.com/

Atavist advertises itself as "a simple web tool for powerful storytelling." For those readers who love to write - and write online - it may be just the service they have been searching for, as it allows authors to upload photos, video, and audio to create an immersive experience. The best way to form a sense of what can be done with Atavist is to select the menu on the top right hand side of the screen and then go to Examples to peruse creative articles that integrate a variety of multimedia possibilities. Interested readers will then want to create an account using Facebook or their email address. From there, the instructions walk through the steps of creating a New Project, including writing text and using the convenient drag and drop functions for various media. Many readers will want to take the Tour, which can be located on the top of the screen after selecting New Project.[CNH]

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Back to the Future II: What did it get right and wrong?
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34569759

5 Ways 'Back to the Future II' Predicted 2015
http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/5-ways-back-to-the-future-ii-predicted-2015

'Back to the Future' Writer predicts next 30 years
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/10/22/back-future-yet-again/74240982/

Review the Future
http://reviewthefuture.com/

Futurism
http://futurism.com/

Finding the Science Behind Science Fiction through Paired Readings
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/finding-science-behind-science-927.html?tab=4#tabs

In the 1989 sic fi classic, Back to the Future II, protagonists Doc Brown and Marty McFly travel in a flying time machine to the wildly futuristic date of October 21, 2015, a period defined by airborne cars, wraparound virtual reality, and, of course, hoverboards. This week the world celebrated 'Back to the Future Day,' and media sites pondered what the writers of the film got right, and where they went awry. Among the prescient predictions, journalists counted such innovations as wearable tech, drones, hoverboards (in limited distribution), addiction to social media, and video chat. Sadly, we have yet to see flying cars, barcode license plates, and robotic gas stations, though the latter has been recently tested in the Netherlands. As Science Fiction goes, then, Back to the Future II gets high marks for predictive validity. [CNH]

The first and second links, from BBC News and US News, respectively, take readers to articles outlining Back to the Future II's hits and misses. Next, Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale predicts what the world will look like in the year 2045. Meanwhile, the fourth site, Review the Future, offers podcasts explicating the impacts of technology on culture, and the fifth link takes readers to Futurism, a "curated feed of the top daily scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations." Finally, the last site on the list navigates to a lesson plan that pairs science fiction readings with hard science readings for an exciting blend of fact and fiction.