The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 38

In the midst of the U.S. Civil War, the U.S.- Dakota War, a brief but violent conflict between white settlers and Dakota Native Americans, took place in Minnesota. This war centered on the failure of the U.S. government to make timely payments owed to the Dakota Nation in accordance to an 1858 treaty. The resulting war lasted six weeks and ended when Abraham Lincoln signed an order to execute 38 Dakota men on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota - an event that remains, to this day, the largest mass execution in the United States. This website, curated by the Minnesota Historical Society, is home to a number of powerful resources and primary documents to help students and the general public better understand the causes and consequences of this war and the experiences of both Dakota individuals and white settlers in Minnesota. These resources include documentary clips, a variety of historic and contemporary maps, and tools for educators. A powerful - and painful - highlight of this website is a large collection of interviews with individuals whose ancestors were involved in the U.S.-Dakota War. These stories, which come from the descendants on both sides of the conflict, vividly illustrate how the war impacted all Minnesotans in 1862. [MMB]

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The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has compiled an extensive, easily navigable list of Classroom Resources for K-12 Science teachers. These resources are designed to align with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Visitors to this webpage can search for unit plans, lesson plans, and classroom activities by grade level or by subject (Life Science; Earth and Space Science; Physical Science; and Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science). While searching these categories, science instructors can further narrow their results for specific topics, including, for example, Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits, Earth and Human Activity, and Matter and Its Interactions. These resources have been created by teachers and science education organizations and are curated by a team of 55 expert science educators from around the country. [MMB]

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What inspired the poetry of the Romantic period? Why was crime such a popular subject in nineteenth century literature? How were gender roles embedded in Victorian era popular fiction? These questions are just a few of many themes explored in Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians. The British Library has created this collection of artifacts from the Romantic and Victorian periods in order to assist students and the general public engage with the historical, political, and cultural contexts behind these great works. There are currently over 1,300 items in the collection, ranging from high-resolution digitized images (including the original manuscript of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland when it was still titled Alice's Adventures Under Ground) to scholarly essays and documentary films on Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Blake, and the Bronte sisters. Educators especially will want to check out the Teaching Resources section, where lessons are offered for secondary instruction in English Literature. [CDR]

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Religion and Gender is "the first refereed online, open-access, international journal dedicated to the systematic study of religion and gender in an interdisciplinary context." Edited by scholars from the United States, Europe, and Australia, Religion and Gender is published biannually, and most issues center on a common theme or topic. Recent features have covered topics such as Motherhood, Religions, and Spirituality; Political Protest and Religious Culture; and Gender, Religion, and Migration. Readers can explore current and past articles, book reviews, and editorials at whim or by conducting a keyword search to locate archived items of interest. Scholars across a variety of disciplines will find fascinating articles in Religion and Gender as contributors include religion and theology scholars, sociologists, historians, and legal scholars among others. [MMB]

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Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the "Artisans and the Craft Economy in Scotland, c. 1780-1914" project documents the story of artisans and their work during the nineteenth century. Presenting a collection of photographs, portraits, and images of hand-made objects (e.g. jewelry, textiles, metalwork, glass, and ceramics) from various museums and archives across the country, researchers from the University of Edinburgh aim to demonstrate how the craft economy persisted through an era often associated with industrialization. By adapting, evolving, and sometimes inventing new traditions, craft workers produced items of cultural and economic significance that still resonate with viewers today. On this website, readers will find an Online Exhibition of the project. The site is easily navigated by five identified themes: Handmade and Design, Portraits, Trades and Communities, Workshops, and Vernacular and Place. Additionally, readers will find a helpful Map section, through which they may locate specific items of interest, as well as an ample bibliography for ideas on Further Reading. [CDR]

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The National Library of Medicine - part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) - has compiled this online exhibit dedicated to Mary Shelley's 1818 classic, Frankenstein. Today, this text simultaneously provokes interest in the history of science as well as literature. As the site notes, Frankenstein, as a novel, "provides a framework for discussion of medical advances, which challenge our traditional understanding of what it means to be human." This exhibition features a variety of images that illustrate aspects of Shelley's biography and writing, along with images that highlight eighteenth and early nineteenth century medical and scientific work. These later images reveal an aspect of medical inquiry that greatly influenced Shelley's work: the effort to resuscitate individuals from death. Other images in this collection highlight the ways that Shelley's tale have been subsequently adapted, appropriated, re-imagined, and often over-simplified. In the Education tab, instructors will find lesson plans for K-12 as well as college classrooms. These lesson plans focus on the intersection of literature, science, and history, and thus may be used in a variety of classrooms. [MMB]

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The Global Math Department is an informal network of mathematics instructors who met online (many blog about their instructional techniques and are active on Twitter) and decided to create a series of free, open webinars designed for use by other instructors. These webinars cover topics such as Coding in Math Class and Teaching Students to Make Mathematical Connects. Instructors can participate in live webinars each Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM EST; alternatively, anyone may view recordings of all past webinars on this website. To learn about upcoming webinars, one can check out the website's Calendar. The Global Math Department also publishes a weekly online newsletter that highlights articles related to math instruction and features digital tools that can be used in the classroom. In addition to curriculum and instruction ideas, there are also many tips about blogging and using Twitter on this website. [MMB]

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EdX is a non-profit organization dedicated to making a number of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) easily available to anyone intrigued by higher learning. Founded in 2012 by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, edX features courses relating to numerous academic disciplines and skills. The ReligionX series is one of the most recent edX additions. Taught by six religion scholars from Harvard and Wellesley, this series features six courses dedicated to the examination of five major world religions - Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism - explicitly through their texts. The series includes an introductory lesson on Religious Literacy and one course dedicated to each major religion; interested learners may either take part in individual courses or explore the series as a whole. Each course is free to take without earning course credits or, alternatively, students may pay $50 to earn a certificate. Learners can easily enroll by using their Google, Facebook, or Microsoft accounts. [MMB]

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The Nature of Cities (TNOC) is a collaborative blog where contributors from around the world share and explore insights about cities as "ecosystems of people, nature, and infrastructure." Founded and edited by David Maddox, who holds a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, TNOC is truly interdisciplinary with 400+ content writers that include activists, designers, ecologists, sociologists, architects, nature writers, and community leaders. As a result, readers will find a range of material here, from Essays on New Orleans' water management to Round Table discussions on Graffiti and street art. The homepage displays recent posts for easy browsing, while the TNOC Archive allows users to search all Reviews, Essays, Podcasts, and Roundtables by Author, Month, Tag, or Category. Additionally, among the four TNOC Projects on the site, readers may be especially interested in reading ten pre-released chapters of the Urban Environmental Education Review, scheduled for publication in Spring 2017. Available chapters include "Community Environmental Education" and "Climate Change Education" among others. [CDR]

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Gardenvisit is a website that will be of interest to garden enthusiasts and tourists around the world. Founded by British landscape architect and garden historian Tom Turner, this site includes information, photographs, design analysis, and reviews of gardens. Gardenvisit describes its aim as the following: "We link information about places to information about garden and landscape design: history, philosophy, styles, construction, materials, design methods, planting and designers. Information enriches a visitor's experience and is of value when designing gardens and landscapes." In Garden Finder, an index of gardens organized by country, visitors can explore over 2,000 gardens around the world. Meanwhile, those interested in the history and development of gardening more generally will want to check out the site's Blog, which features critical book reviews and notes on gardening history. [MMB]

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Football fans, along with anyone interested in the history of college sports, will want to explore the University of Richmond's digitized collection commemorating more than 100 years of football at the school. As the site explains, football made its debut at the school, then known as Richmond college, in 1878 when two college literary societies organized teams of 20 players. During these early years, "each side had 20 players on the field and the game appeared more like rugby than modern day football." In this online exhibit, visitors can explore Photographs (including official team portraits and game day photographs), Programs (which date back to 1922), and Publications (including an 1881 article about a match between Richmond College and Randolph Macon and a 1911 compilation of "Yells and Songs"). As a whole, this collection highlights how the game of football - and the culture and community surrounding it - has changed over time. [MMB]

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Nadieh Bremer has a degree in Astronomy and worked as a consultant, where she used Machine Learning to gain insight about data. She realized that she wanted to use these skills to create interactive visuals and became "a self taught Data Visualization designer." On her website, Visual Cinnamon, visitors can explore Bremer's collection of captivating interactive visuals illuminating a wide variety of scientific and social scientific data. Bremer's background in astronomy is showcased in her projects on the solar system and exoplanets, which help visitors visualize the relative size of these planets. Another project graphs U.S. employment data, allowing visitors to explore the relative number of people employed in a variety of fields in 2014 while also examining age demographics within each field. Visual Cinnamon has plenty to offer for visitors who want to browse Bremer's work and learn interesting facts in the process. For those looking to learn more about the craft of Data Visualization, there are Data Visualization tutorials and tips in the Blog and Resources sections. [MMB]

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Founded in July 2015 by award winning neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, the Gazzaley Lab of the University of California, San Francisco is dedicated to studying the neuroscience behind memory, attention, and perception. The Gazzaley Lab's website features a collection of lectures that relate to this research. Most recently, Gazzaley and his team have explored how certain video games may be able to provide long term cognitive processes. Visitors to this page can learn about this research through video recordings of Gazzaley's speeches (including two TED talks and a number of conference lectures) and interviews. In addition, Gazzaley has also hosted a PBS special called The Distracted Mind and has conducted extensive research on the topic of multitasking. (This special is not available for free on the website, but interested visitors can order a copy through iTunes or Amazon). [MMB]

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Since 1985, Symphony Space, a performing arts organization in New York City, has hosted Selected Shorts, an hour-long series of readings of short stories. These stories, which include works by classic writers as well as contemporary ones, are read by a variety of professional actors. Performances are then recorded and broadcasted by Public Radio International. Most episodes feature 3-4 stories that are linked by theme. For example, one recent episode, Animal Magnetism, presents three stories that feature animals in some way: Grace Paley's "The Pale Pink Roast"; Etgar Keret's "Breaking the Pig"; and Raymond Carver's "Jerry and Molly and Sam." Visitors can listen to the most recent episodes of Selected Shorts on this website or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. [MMB]

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The Crocker Art Museum of Sacramento, California - the oldest U.S. art museum west of the Mississippi River - is home to an extensive permanent collection of art from around the world. On its website, the Crocker has digitized a portion of its permanent collection and provided artist biographical information for these digitized items, allowing art fans to easily explore this collection. Visitors can search for items by category: American Art Before (or After) 1945; European Art, Ceramics, or Works on Paper and Photography. Much of the art in the permanent collection highlights the work of California-based artists, highlighting important artistic individuals, groups, and trends in the state. In addition, the collection of Works on Paper and Photography is also extensive, featuring a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century European drawings along with photographs by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. [MMB]

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This whimsically titled online exhibition is brought to readers by the Library of Congress. Staff at the Library mined the Charles Jahant Collection, nearly 2,000 photographs of opera singers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to present "a cross section of important singers who performed in the United States." Some of the opera stars were photographed in costume, while others were captured in their street clothes, making the collection of interest to opera aficionados, scholars of clothing and dress, lovers of old photography, and others. Many of the photographs are autographed to Charles Jahant. The approximately 3 dozen exhibition items have been divided into several sections for easy browsing: Operatic Singers in Formal Clothing, French Repertoire, German Repertoire, and Italian Repertoire. The images are accompanied by short IMDB style bios of the singers, for example, Helen Traubel (1899-1972), whose "predilection for radio and night club appearances annoyed the Met management and ended her operatic career in 1953." [DS]

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Open eBooks, a project headed by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and First Book with support from a variety of publishers and foundations, strives to make a variety of books freely available to children and families who need them. Any educator or librarian who works in a Title I eligible school or in a program or library that "serves at least 70 percent of children from in-need families" can sign up for an Open eBooks account. These educators and librarians can then provide an access code to youth in their program, allowing youth and their family to access up to 10 books at a time on any device free of charge. Youth can then "return" a book to check out a new one at any time. [MMB]

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Anyone who browses the internet with multiple tabs open knows that doing so can both help and hinder productivity: while multiple tabs allow users to quickly switch between websites and documents, it can also clutter one's browser so that it is difficult to remember what tabs are open. Peek A Tab, a free extension for Google Chrome, may be the answer. Users can install it with just one click. Once installed, visitors can select a small Peek A Tab icon, which will appear on the upper right corner of their browser, to see an easily readable, vertical list of all currently opened tabs. Users can then quickly visit - or close - tabs using this list. [MMB]

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