The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 28

The Academy of American Poets and EDSITEment have teamed up to create Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community, an online initiative and set of lesson plans designed to engage youth with contemporary poetry. The title of the initiative comes from Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, who, during a 2015 interview at the Library of Congress, discussed the civic responsibility of poets: "Let's create incredible bridges." Aimed at middle school and high school learners, each lesson incorporates a famous poet reading her or his own work, along with multimedia resources and interactive activities. For example, in a lesson centered on Joy Harjo's poem "Remember," students listen to "The Water Song" by Corbin Harney alongside Harjo's poem. In another lesson centered on Claudine Rankine's "From Citizen IV [On the train the woman standing,]" students act out the premise of Rankine's poem before exploring it together. Other poets featured here include Adrienne Su, Edward Hirsch, and Naomi Shihab Nye. Each lesson plan meets Common Core Standards for English/Language Arts. [MMB]

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From Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, youcubed is a center dedicated to providing research-based resources for teaching mathematics. On its website, mathematics instructors will find a number of resources that may be of interest, including problem solving activities, lesson plans, teaching strategies, research papers, articles, and podcasts. Perhaps a good place to start is with Ideas & Tasks, where readers will find ideas for incorporating visual learning in the math classroom, strategies for facilitating group work, and reflections about how to conduct assessments in the math classroom. This section also includes recommended mathematics games and apps. Math teachers and math education researchers may be interested in the Resources section, which offers research articles on mathematics learning and growth mindset. Many of these resources are authored by Jo Boaler, co-founded of youcubed and professor of mathematics education at Stanford. There is also a section designed especially for parents. [MMB]

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Sarah Meister, photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), teaches this six-week Coursera course, Seeing Through Photographs. Drawing from MOMA's rich collection of photographs, this course "aims to address the gap between seeing and truly understanding photographs by introducing a diversity of ideas, approaches, and technologies that inform their making." Designed for any member of the general public, this course features topics including the history of photography in arts and sciences and photographs that portray human subjects. These topics are taught using a series of short videos, a diverse collection of readings, artist interviews, slideshows, and more. Photographers featured in this course include Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Carrie Mae Weems, and Cindy Sherman, to name just a few. As with all Coursera courses, students have a choice to audit for free or to receive a certificate for a fee. This course may appeal to art or social studies instructions interested in incorporating photography and visual culture into their classrooms. [MMB]

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The American Chemical Society's National Historic Chemical Landmarks (NHCL) program has a mission "to enhance public appreciation for the contributions of the chemical sciences to modern life in the United States and to encourage a sense of pride in their practitioners for chemistry's rich history." Individuals are invited to nominate landmark sites as a collaborative way to increase awareness about the history of chemistry in the United States. The NHCL program also offers a collection of six Landmark Lesson Plans. Designed for high school classrooms, these lessons address topics including the development of baking powder; the discovery of fullerenes in 1985; and Norbert Rillieux's pioneering work on thermodynamics in the nineteenth century. All lesson plans and accompanying materials can be easily downloaded as PDFs. Visitors may also explore Chemical Landmarks via interactive map or timeline. [MMB]

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Turning the Pages is a software program developed by Armadillo Studios that enables libraries and museums to digitize books, manuscripts, and other documents in an engaging 3D format. Here, readers will find the British Library's spectacular collection of items digitized with this software. The collection may be of special interest to literary scholars, religious studies scholars, historians, and book lovers of all stripes. This ample collection, which spans centuries and genres, includes highlights from Leonardo da Vinci's notebook; a handwritten and illustrated history of England authored by a thirteen-year-old Jane Austen; and diaries kept by Robert Falcon Scott during his final journey to Antarctica in 1911 and 1912 (an expedition that tragically ended in his death). In addition, this collection features a number of religious texts, Mozart's musical diary, and much more. Items are accompanied by detailed annotations that provide additional context for each page. [MMB]

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This lesson series from the National Gallery of Art (NGA) addresses self-portraiture and issues of identity. Each lesson centers on one self-portrait in the NGA's collections. Students are invited to reflect on and analyze each portrait, then create an art project (such as a collage, a painting, or poetry) of their own. Designed as a unit, each lesson could also be incorporated into an art classroom (and possibly in social studies and language arts classrooms) individually. Paintings in this lesson series include one of Vincent Van Gogh's 1887 self-portraits; Andy Warhol's 1986 photographic self-portrait; and Judith Leyster's 1630 self-portrait. Each lesson is accompanied by biographical information, providing instructors with the context to help adolescent learners explore the themes and messages portrayed in each portrait. These lessons align with National Common Core Art Standards. [MMB]

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Library and Archives Canada's Aboriginal Heritage collection is designed to engage researchers, students, and the general public with materials relating to Canada's First Nations, Metis Nation, and Inuit peoples. Many of these resources have been digitized and organized into virtual exhibitions created by the LAC. These exhibits provide context and background to the archival materials in this collection, including photographs, interviews, sound recordings of music, treaties, and more. Virtual Exhibitions include Our Voices, Our Stories - First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Stories from Yesterday and Today; Project Naming, which profiles an initiative to identify Inuit individuals in photographs; and Aboriginal Sound Recordings: Music and Song. Archival materials are organized by pages dedicated to each group, where, in addition to these virtual exhibitions, visitors will find databases, links to outside resources, and more. Visitors will also find resources related to residential schools in the Resources for Researchers. [MMB]

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Khan Academy is well known for its instructional videos in mathematics and science. Recently, the organization also launched this video series about careers as part of its College, Careers, and More section. This series, which is designed for both students who are exploring their first career as well as for those who are considering a career change, features interviews with a wide variety of professionals. In each video, profiled individuals discuss their day-to-day job duties and reflect on how they came to their current profession. Interviewees also discuss required education and training, salary ranges for their career, and their personal financial goals and plans. As of this write-up, professions profiled include an instructional designer, a hairstylist, and a commercial airline pilot. The team behind this series plans to add new videos and career profiles, so stay tuned. [MMB]

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Fans of Dutch painting and art will love this spectacular online collection from Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This large online collection includes masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and members of the Hague school, along with photographs, decorative art, and much more. Visitors may explore this remarkable collection by a number of categories, including Artist, Subject, Style, and Historic Person (e.g. paintings of William of Orange). In addition, the Rijksstudio invites visitors to curate their own themed collections (or "Rijksstudio) based on this collection. To do so, visitors simply need to register for a free log-in, then add works of art to their collection as they browse, building as many as they like. Visitors may also browse collections created by other users, some of which have been selected Rijksstudio Favourites. This unique feature encourages visitors to actively engage and learn from one another. [MMB]

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The Revealer is a monthly publication of the Center for Religion and Media at New York University. Currently edited by Kali Handelman, The Revealer was launched in 2003 and "publishes writing that reflects upon religion as a key point of intersection between beliefs, practices, politics, representation, economics, and identity, where the important forces that shape individuals, societies, and their relationship to each other, play out." The Revealer publishes both long form and short form items in formats including news round-ups (In The News), personal essay, reporting, and photography. Many of these essays are authored by scholars of religion. One recent piece features an interview with photographer Oscar B. Castillo about his current project, which documents religious spaces and Muslim communities in France. Another article in the June 2017 issue explores the history of religious belief in the Guerrero region of Mexico. Those interested in staying abreast of new publications in The Revealer can sign up for a monthly newsletter. [MMB]

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Pictorial Saint Louis is an interactive story map created by Jared Nielsen, who describes himself as an "artist working at the intersections of science and technology." To make this story map, Nielsen used a fascinating 1875 publication from the Library of Congress's digital collection, "The Great Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley: A Topographical Survey Drawn in Perspective." Illustrated by Camille Dry, this 215-page manuscript includes a detailed birds-eye-view map of Saint Louis along with numerous detailed illustrations. Nielsen writes that he "wanted to see all of the drawings stitched together in one large map." To make this wish a reality, he organized individual drawings from the manuscript onto Dry's panoramic map. He also added outside images and resources to provide additional context to the map, including information about Dye himself. As visitors scroll down this story map, they are taken to different sites in Saint Louis, which they can read about in an accompanying panel. The result is an exciting glimpse into both the history of Saint Louis and the work of a talented illustrator. [MMB]

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Fans of quality science journalism will want to check out SciShortform, "a highly subjective round-up of science stand out news." This quarterly publication is edited by a team of science writers and was launched in October 2016 by Diana Crow. Crow writes that she loves anthologies because they enable her to discover new writers. She notes that there is "no shortage" of science news and front-of-book stories on the Internet, but it's kinda hard to find solid shortform exemplars"-- despite the fact that shortform stories are where emerging science writers generally get their start. SciShortform has published five anthologies. In the most recent anthology, selected works are organized into categories including Short Shorts (under 600 words); News-style (601-1200 words), Columns, Op-Eds, & Blog Posts (under 1200 words), and more. Each category features two or three top picks along with a few honorable mentions. These picks come from a wide range of publications (including newspapers, science journals, blogs, and popular magazines) and address all areas of science. [MMB]

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Two Coats of Paint, founded in 2007 by Sharon Butler, is a "blogazine" dedicated to contemporary art of all kinds, especially painting. This New York City-based publication, whose sponsors include the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the New Art Dealers Association (NADA) and numerous universities, features interviews, art news, reviews, fiction, and digests of other arts publications. As of this write-up, recent articles include an essay on watercolor artist Drew Shiflett and a profile of the late Canadian folk artist Maud Dowley Lewis (who is portrayed by actress Sally Hawkins in Aisling Walsh's new film, Maudie). Another recent entry provides a synopsis of a new documentary film by Bill Morrison called Dawson City: Frozen in Time, which explores a remote town in the Yukon Territory. Those who want to keep abreast of developments in the art world will want to check out the regular Quick Study feature, which highlights news, reviews, and more from other arts publications. [MMB]

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Podcast fans who enjoy documentary-style shows like This American Life may want to check out BBC Radio 4's Seriously..., a regular podcast that explores both contemporary and historical topics, ranging from the quotidian to the extraordinary. A few of the topics recently explored by this series include the world of counterfeit wines; the history of Great Britain's 999 emergency telephone number (which was introduced in 1937, making it the first in the world); profiles of book fans who make fictional food from their favorite books (for example, the butterbeer in the Harry Potter series); and the history of women's trousers. New episodes are released every Tuesday and Friday, and episodes range in length from 30 to 60 minutes. On this website, visitors can download the latest podcasts or check out archived ones, which are organized into collections for easy browsing. [MMB]

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Nikola Tesla is one of the most influential scientists in recent history; his innovative alternating current system was integral to the rapid expansion of electricity in the United States. For many years, though, Tesla's contributions were overlooked, due in part to his personal eccentricities. This recent episode of American Experience explores Tesla's life and scientific ideas, centering on the question: how should we understand Tesla (who had a "fertile but undisciplined imagination") today? This documentary does a fine job both exploring the engineer's personal history as well as making his scientific ideas accessible to a general audience. As the documentary notes, some of Tesla's ideas that were deemed outlandish at the time, such as the possibility of wireless power, have actually proved to be prescient. Here, visitors can watch this hour-long documentary in full and check out a number of additional features. [MMB]

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Many modern websites integrate third-party content from all over the web. Visible examples include embedded Google maps, Disqus comments, Facebook "like" buttons, and advertising. Online user tracking also works this way, but can be much harder to spot. uBlock Origin is a general-purpose content filter. It permits users to decide which third-party content they wish to allow on their computer. In Basic mode, uBlock Origin filters out common advertising, tracking, and known malware. In Advance mode, users can create their own global and site-specific filtering rules. The uBlock Origin team describes this mode as a "point and click firewall which can be configured on a per-site basis." Despite this flexibility, uBlock Origin requires fewer resources than other, similar filtering extensions. uBlock Origin is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. [CRH]

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Chat systems like Facebook Messenger, Google Talk, Slack, Skype, and others play a growing role in both our professional and personal lives. Yet few of these systems were designed with user privacy in mind. Most such systems encrypt connections from users to their central servers. These servers handle conversation data in plain-text, which is visible to server operators. Privacy add-ons like Off-The-Record Messaging provide end-to-end encryption that obscures conversation data. But server operators may still collect conversation metadata. In contrast, Tox is a chat system designed from the ground-up to protect user privacy. End-to-end message encryption is built into the system without the need for add-ons. It has no central servers that can collect data or metadata. Instead, messages are routed through a distributed, peer-to-peer network. Tox clients are available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Android, and iOS devices. All clients support text chat. Support for extended features (file transfer, voice/video, screen sharing, etc) varies by client. [CRH]

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