The Scout Report will be on vacation December 21st and 28th. We will return with the January 4th, 2013 Scout Report.

Best holiday wishes and see you next year,

Max Grinnell and Carmen Montopoli
Editors

http://research.universityofcalifornia.edu/

The University of California system has many research institutes spread across campuses like Davis, Berkeley, Irvine, and others. This helpful website brings together timely news stories about their work, along with multimedia presentations, personal profiles, links to external media coverage, and so on. On the homepage, visitors can look over recent profiles or look through the "Science Today" area, which includes brief audio profiles of various research projects on atmospheric science, animal husbandry, and more. One rather aesthetically pleasing section features the Image of the Day. Here visitors can check out vibrant photos of the curious willow catkin, bracket fungi, and the Northwest crimson columbine. Finally, the Videos area includes dozens of videos that look into a range of topics from the interaction between snakes and android-style squirrels to oysters to urban water systems. [KMG]

http://www.nunncenter.org/buffalotrace/

This engaging project was developed by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries. It was designed to preserve the story of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky which has a truly remarkable history intertwined with that of the Bluegrass State. The project features the people and stories of the Buffalo Trace family, such as master distiller emeritus Elmer T. Lee and descendants of figures like Colonel Albert Blanton and Pappy Van Winkle. On the top of the homepage, visitors can make their way through sections such as Brands, People, Roles, Documentary, and Image Gallery. The Documentary contains a complete film about the history of this unique business and the People section features interesting interviews with those who have made the business known around the world. [KMG]

http://www.learner.org/resources/series158.html

This excellent resource from the Annenberg Media group provides teachers with materials to teach data analysis, statistics, and probability. The materials here are organized around the content standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The focus is on introducing these concepts as an integrated "problem-solving process." The programs were produced by WGBH in Boston and consist of eleven video segments. They include "Describing Distributions," "Variation About the Mean," and "Data Organization and Representation." Visitors are encouraged to watch the videos and also browse the accompanying website for additional materials to enhance the classroom experience. [KMG]

http://www.creative-chemistry.org.uk/

Persons with a penchant for benzene rings, organic chemistry, and other related matters will find the Creative Chemistry a welcome addition to their references. The site collects hundreds of worksheets, teaching notes, and interactive quizzes for educators to use as they see fit. The site is maintained by Nigel Saunders, who has a biochemistry doctorate from the University of York, and includes twenty different thematic areas, including Balancing Equations, Concentration Game, The Slide Puzzle, and Chemistry Calculator. One section that should not be missed is called Molecular Models; as the name suggests, it features molecular models that visitors can play with at their leisure. Some of the models include alkanes, octahedral molecules, and isomers of organic compounds. Finally, visitors can search the site for specific topics via a helpful search engine. [KMG]

http://www.strangescience.net/index.htm

The road to true knowledge and scientific wisdom did never run smooth. As this site points out, "The knowledge we take for granted today was slow in coming, and along the way, scientists and scholars had some weird ideas." This delightful website provides curious illustrations and scientific renderings that look into the development modern paleontology and biology. On the top of the homepage, visitors will find six sections, including Goof Gallery, Timeline, Biographies, Evolution, and References. The Goof Gallery is most entertaining, as it contains enthusiastically inaccurate illustrations, sculptures, and more of living and extinct organisms. The Sea Monsters area here is a pip, featuring drawings of elaborate creatures off the coast of Iceland and other corners of the Earth. Moving on, the Biographies area contains profiles of some of the people behind the "weird ideas," including Louis Agassiz, William Bartram, Pliny the Elder, and Francis Bacon. [KMG]

http://tap.iop.org/

Maintained by staff members at the Institute of Physics, the Teaching Advanced Physics (TAP) website provides a wealth of resources designed to help teach physics to advanced high school and college students. The materials here are divided into seven sections, including Electricity, Mechanics, Vibrations and waves, and Energy. Within each of these sections, visitors will find smaller "episodes" which represent a coherent section of teaching that can be covered in one or two lessons. Each episode includes illustrations accompanied by explanatory text that can be used to complement an existing lesson plan. The extensive site covers over 30 topics, including circular motion, Newton's law, drag forces, and kinematics. [KMG]

http://www.utexas.edu/research/cswr/gcattc/

Based at the University of Texas at Austin, the Gulf Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (GCATTC) is one of 14 such regional university centers in the United States. The Center's work includes creating high-quality training materials for health care professionals, convening research conferences, and providing technical assistance to state agencies and providers. On the website, visitors can learn about research projects, pilot programs for transforming mental health service delivery programs, and work on the abuse of prescription drugs. The left-hand side of the page includes sections like Grant Writing, Products, and Offender Education Programs. In the Products area, visitors can look over publications and presentations by Center staff and also view a list of resources for treatment of substance use disorders. [KMG]

http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/WI/MountHorebLocHist2

Visitors to Wisconsin often find themselves wandering through Mount Horeb, which is no surprise given its historical and cultural curiosities. This digital collection from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections (UWDC) offers a range of printed materials depicting the early 20th century in this quaint town. The items here include church histories, family memories, books about the celebrated Norway Building, and other publications from the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society. All told, there are 23 documents here, including several rare photographs of John F. Kennedy giving campaign speeches during his 1960 trek through Wisconsin. It's worth noting that visitors can search the entire collection and, if they choose, go on to the complete state of Wisconsin collection homepage. [KMG]

http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/home.shtml

The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport works to support "delivery of high quality tourism and cultural experiences to Ontarians and visitors to Ontario." First-time visitors to the site will find the Spotlight area quite useful, as it brings together press releases about a range of activities, including the Festival of Lights, opportunities for at-risk youth, and the revitalization of key sites around the province, such as Ontario Place. Policy types and hospitality scholars will want to click over to the Publications area. Here they will find annual reports on culture, tourism, and major studies, such as "Reducing Barriers to Tourism" and "Ontario Way Finding." Near the bottom of the site, visitors can scan through some documents on Popular Topics, including archaeology, libraries, and municipal cultural planning. [KMG]

http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=platic

These remarkable plat books were originally published by W.W. Hixson & Company in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They present a unique view of Missouri during this period of history, and they will be of great interest to historians, geographers, and others. Visitors to the site will find it quite easy to use these plat books, which can be consulted by their county name. The documents are replete with details about lot size, building improvements, street patterns, and so on. The detail and high quality of these images makes this collection a great find. [KMG]

http://www.irr.org.uk/

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) was established as an independent educational charity in 1958 "to carry out research, publish and collect resources on race relations throughout the world." The mission of the IRR changed in 1972 quite dramatically as it began to focus on responding directly to institutionalized racism in Britain and the rest of Europe. Today, interested parties can look over this website to read the Institute's publications, papers, and check out some of their educational resources. In the Publications area, visitors can find briefing papers such as "Islamophobia, Human Rights and the Terrorist Laws" and "Alternative Voices On Integration." The Educational Resources area contains a number of classroom materials designed to be used by teachers seeking to explain racism to their students or explore the history of black communities in Britain. [KMG]

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/ReclamationDamsAndWaterProjects/Index.html

Those who have traveled through the western United States can attest to the scale of the massive earth-moving projects that dominate aspects of the landscape. Massive dams and expansive irrigation systems are part of the work of the Bureau of Reclamation, the nation's largest supplier of water and second largest producer of hydroelectric power. This remarkable tour of some of these sites is part of an initiative started by the National Park Service. Visitors will find six areas to explore on the site, including Essays, List of Sites, Maps, and an Introduction. The Essays area offers some nice meditations on the work of the Bureau and its many achievements, while the List of Sites includes information about dozens of locales, including Shasta Dam, Hoover Dam, and the Hungry Horse Dam in Montana. Finally, the Maps area is a great way to figure out your own plan for exploring these magnificent structures. [KMG]

http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/remember-me/

During World War I, the small French village of Vignacourt was always behind the front lines. During the Great War, the tiny community was a staging point, casualty clearing station and recreation area for troops of all nationalities moving up to and then back from the battlefields on the Somme. This remarkable website collects portrait postcards documenting those times, donated to the Australian War Memorial by Kerry Stokes AC. The collection includes over 800 glass-plate negatives depicting Australians in a variety of settings. By clicking on the collection area, visitors can browse by military unit or subject. Finally, visitors can add their own comments and observations to each photograph. [KMG]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/books

The Guardian is distinguished for its fine reporting on a range of subjects of great importance, and is well known for its book reviews. The staff also puts out a weekly podcast about the world of books, which bibliophiles will enjoy. Currently, there are over 450 podcasts available, and visitors can scroll through them at their leisure. Some of the recent offerings include conversations with Philip Pullman about his book "Grimm Tales" and a wonderful exploration of how maps have transformed the world. Visitors will want to bookmark this site for future reference or sign up for the available RSS feed. [KMG]

http://ctrlq.org/dictation/

If you are looking for an online dictation program, look no further than Online Dictation for use with Google Chrome. This dictation program allows users to convert their spoken voice into digital text with little fuss. Visitors just need to attach a microphone to their computers to allow the program to pick up their voices. This version is compatible with all computers running Google Chrome. [KMG]

http://flamefusion.net/Software/Shapeshifter

If you have ever wanted a clipboard manager, this program is for you. Shapeshifter allows visitors to manage their clipboard history and customize how they use the materials on their clipboard. After installing the program, visitors just need to press CTRL+V to view a complete clipboard history for their convenience. This version is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

Digital education in Kenya: Tablet Teachers
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21567972-schools-africa-are-going-digitalwith-encouraging-results-tablet-teachers

Microsoft pumps billions into education
http://www.gadget.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=5529

Kenya's mobile telephones: Vital for the poor
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21566022-report-describes-sacrifices-poor-make-keep-mobile-phone-vital

Digital technology in Africa-21st century challenges
http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org/challenges/digital-technology-in-africa/

The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/282822-1346223280837/MainReport.pdf

Africa-Education: UNESCo
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/worldwide/education-regions/africa/

How is education changing across Africa in the 21st century? To start, many schools are going digital. The introduction of low-cost table computers has been quite intriguing, particularly in Kenya. The computers at the Amaf School in Nairobi are part of a test program run by a technology start-up; the hope is that it will prove to be quite popular in other places. Of course, there are many major firms lining up to be part of this possible boom, including Amazon, Intel, and others. Many educational specialists and government leaders also want to know whether these tools will be effective. Certainly, the early results have been encouraging as reading skills in Ghana have improved significantly among 350 children who had been given Kindle e-readers by the Worldreader charity. In Ethiopia, researchers found that even without formal instruction, children were able to figure out to use the tablets on their own. [KMG]

The first link is a piece from last week's Economist about the introduction of tablets into classrooms in Kenya and several other African countries. The second link is an article from Gadget about Microsoft's recent massive investment into addressing education inequalities, including a significant push to increase digital access to materials in Africa. The third link will take users to a great piece from The Economist about the sacrifices that poor persons in Africa will make to retain access to a mobile phone. The fourth link is a set of archived sessions from a conference sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society on digital technology in Africa. The fifth link is a compelling, detailed report from the World Bank on the ways in which information and communication technologies can transform the experiences of millions of people in Africa. The final link is the homepage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) page dedicated to their work on improving educational opportunities across Africa.