The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 33

The World Science Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit organization most well known for the annual World Science Festival, offers World Science U, a series of multimedia educational resources that may appeal to science and mathematics teachers and students. World Science U consists of three components: Science Unplugged, Master Classes, and Courses. Science Unplugged offers a series of video clips that explain scientific and mathematical concepts in just a minute or two. Hosted by World Science Festival founder Brian Greene, topics of these videos include the Higgs particle, Schrodinger's cat, and string theory. Next, Master Classes features online courses headed by a variety of science experts. These classes integrate recorded lectures, interactive quizzes, animation, and more. These Master Classes are designed to be accessible for "everyone from high school students to lifelong learners." Finally, the Courses section features two longer courses hosted by Greene, designed to be completed over the course of several weeks. One of these courses addresses Special Relativity, the other is entitled "Space, Time, and Einstein." To access these materials, users will need to complete a free registration. [MMB]

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Laboring-Class Poets Online is a new, extensive database that allows visitors to explore over 2,000 poets from the laboring class who wrote between 1700 and 1900. This collection, headed by John Goodridge of Nottingham Trent University and developed in collaboration with an international team of English literature scholars, mostly features poets from the British Isles. Visitors can explore this database in a number of ways. In the Poets section, visitors can browse poets by name, location, nationality, or occupation. Each entry includes biographical information about each poet accompanied by links to digitized editions of known works when available. Alternatively, visitors who know of a specific work that they want to explore may browse the Publications. Laboring Class Poets Online also features a number of Visualizations, including a Laboring-Class Timeline that provides context to eighteenth and nineteenth century Great Britain, a Poet Gallery that reveals portraits of some of the poets, and additional visualizations that illustrate the ways that poets were connected. [MMB]

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In 1971, Jane O'Reilly penned an essay called "The Housewife's Moment of Truth," which was subsequently published in the premiere issue of Ms. magazine and in New York magazine. O'Reilly described the experience of the "Click! moment" in which one "perceived the basic disorder in what has been believed to be the natural order of things" and came to question traditional gender roles. This online exhibit from Clio Visualizing History is named in honor of O'Reilly's "Click! moment" as well as the "clicks" that we use to navigate the internet. Here, visitors will find a wealth of resources relating to women and gender from the 1940s through the present day, including detailed Wikipedia-style entries, video clips, photographs, links to outside resources, and more. This exhibit is largely authored by prolific writer and historian Susan Ware and features contributions from several other academics and filmmakers. Visitors can browse topics by category (Politics & Social Movements, Body & Health, Workplace & Family) or via an interactive timeline. This engaging, accessibly written resource will be of interest to the general public as well as to scholars of women's and gender studies or other instructors of high school or college-level students. [MMB]

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The Val Skinner Foundation, the LIFE Center at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Rutgers School of Public Health, and Discovery Education have teamed up to create Decoding Cancer: a collection of classroom resources designed to help high school students "expand their understanding of the science of cancer and the biological, genetic, and emotional impact on the patient and loved ones." These resources include five interactive Lesson Plans designed to help students understand different aspects of cancer, including genetics, treatment, and prevention, via a scenario about high-school aged siblings who have learned that their mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer. This collection also includes a Virtual Lab about a patient who is undergoing tests for breast cancer, accompanied by an educator's guide and a student handbook. In addition, students and educators can explore a series of career profiles that highlight professions serving individuals with cancer in a variety of ways. Finally, this collection includes a discussion guide and glossary to facilitate further conversations about the science and human impact of cancer. Collectively, these resources provide instructors with a number of tools to facilitate inquisitive yet sensitive study about the science behind the disease. [MMB]

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Between 1965 and 1970, a team of researchers conducted interviews with with almost 3,000 individuals from all across the United States in order to create the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). The Dictionary, first published by Harvard Press in 1985, documented words, phrases, and pronunciations unique to various regions of the U.S. Recently, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, in collaboration with a number of other organizations, have digitized many of the fieldwork recordings from this ambitious project. Here, students and scholars of linguistics can listen to over 1,700 recordings, including participant interviews and recordings of individuals reading "Arthur the Rat," a short story used to highlight "the essential differences in pronunciation across the country." As the team behind this digitized collection notes, "The recordings contain American regional speech samples from all fifty states, but their value is not linguistic alone. The full interviews contain an abundance of oral history from the 1960s, with topics ranging from the making of moonshine to the moon landing; from light-hearted jokes, recipes, and songs to serious discussions about race relations, politics, and the Vietnam War. It is truly a time capsule of American voices." [MMB]

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The University of Central Florida offers this collection of materials related to digital archiving in the humanities which may be of interest to professional archivists and instructors alike. Founded and managed by Dr. Mark Kamrath, Digital Archiving Resources has two purposes: first, to "collect and provide effective and informative resources in the vast array of material on archives" and second, to "provide access to a wide range of related materials that shed light on the field of archiving." These materials are perhaps best explored by the Browse Collections tab, which features What is an Archive?; Ethics Privacy, Copyright, and Publication; Teaching Strategies; and Public Participation and Memory among others. Each collection includes a number of items of interest, including reports, articles, presentations, and more. Each item is accompanied by a detailed description and full citation information to allow visitors to locate materials of interest with ease. [MMB]

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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) publishes about 57,000 topographic maps, many of which can be downloaded for free. These maps may be used in a variety of science, math, geography, and history classroom settings, from elementary to college level. Here, educators looking for inspiration can check out a number of ideas about how to utilize these maps as a lesson or classroom activity. These ideas range from activities that introduce and engage students with the basics of mapping (such as latitude and longitude, coordinate systems, and projecting) to activities that facilitate exploration of what topographic maps can reveal about geographic and social change over time and the relationships between humans and land. In addition, this page includes links to three full K-12 lesson plans and a printable Topographic Map Symbols guide. [MMB]

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The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers this collection of resources for teaching students about plagiarism and strategies for avoiding plagiarism while writing. These resources, which may be of interest to middle school, high school, and college level instructors as well as adult educators, are divided into two sections. In Contextualizing Plagiarism, instructors will find eight detailed lesson plans designed to engage students with the definition of plagiarism (to see the complete resource, including class handouts, teachers will need to click the Full Resource for Printing link below each lesson). For example, in one lesson, Truth or Consequences, students read articles about four individuals accused of plagiarism in recent history, including a college president and a newspaper columnist. In another lesson, Collaborative Authorship, students explore a number of scenarios involving student authors who received additional help in their writing and discuss whether or not these examples are plagiarism. Meanwhile, the Avoiding Plagiarism section includes activities to help students practice skills including paraphrasing, incorporating direct quotes, and using in-text citations. [MMB]

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The Mauritshuis in the Netherlands, home to a number of masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age, offers this multimedia online exhibit dedicated to Carel Fabritius's famous 1654 painting The Goldfinch. Fabritius was a student of Rembrandt, and visitors can view Rembrandt's influence on the artist in many of his early works, which are included in this online exhibit. By the 1650s, however, Fabritius had developed a more distinct style, on display in both the Goldfinch and in a 1654 self-portrait. This style likely influenced Johannes Vermeer's work in the 1660s. One highlight of this exhibit is Two Sides of Delft, part of the Between Rembrandt and Vermeer section, which compares Fabritius and Vermeer's depictions of the same city side-by-side. Tragically, Fabritius was killed at the age of 32 in 1654, the same year he painted The Goldfinch, when a gunpowder magazine exploded in the city. This exhibit also features information about the bird that inspired Fabritius, an explanation of what recent CT scans of the painting reveal about the artist's technique, and a consideration of the works this painting inspired, including Donna Tartt's 2014 novel of the same title. [MMB]

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Quanta Magazine, the online publication dedicated to mathematics, theoretical physics, computer science, and life science, is home to Abstractions, a blog that explores promising ideas in science and mathematics. For example, one recent post describes new theories about Type 1a supernovae and why they explode. Another recent entry commemorates Marjorie Rice, who died in July 2016 at the age of 94. Rice, who had only taken one mathematics class in high school, discovered four tessellating pentagons that "'tile' the plane, locking together with copies of themselves in endless patterns." Another recent post explores the Human Cell Atlas project and what this atlas may contribute to research about diseases and human behavior. As with the rest of the magazine, Abstractions is a great resource for those interested in keeping up with new theories, conversations, and debates in the mathematics and science communities. [MMB]

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The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) was launched in 1978 in Cooperstown, New York, which is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. SABR's easily navigable website allows for baseball fans, historians, and curious visitors to page through a variety of interesting materials dedicated to America's national pastime. While some materials require a subscription to view, others can be explored for free. For example, the SABR Baseball Biography Project includes biographies of over 4,700 baseball players, broadcasters, writers, umpires, and others. Each biography is fully cited and accompanied by additional resources for those interested in further reading. Similarly, the SABR Baseball Games Project includes entries about significant games throughout the history of the sport, organized by decade. Visitors can use the Research tab to browse and read archived articles from SABR's two publications, the Baseball Research Journal (published since 1972) and National Pastime (published since 2009). Visitors can also check out the frequently updated and communally authored SABR/Baseball-Reference Encyclopedia. [MMB]

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The Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Gardens hosts Community of Gardens, a digital archive of gardens across the United States and throughout time. Visitors with a connection to any kind of garden, historical or contemporary, are invited to submit stories and photographs to this project (via Share A Story). On the Community of Gardens homepage, visitors can explore these stories on the interactive map, which includes both public and private gardens. One private garden in this collection is Cecelia Auge's Garden in Mendota, Minnesota. In 1924, nineteen-year-old Auge wrote a letter in response to a contest, hosted by W. Atlee Burpee & Company, called "What Burpee's Seeds Have Done for Me." Visitors can read Auge's letter in full and view photographs of the gardener and her letter. Meanwhile, one of the public gardens featured here is the Jones Valley Teaching Farm of Birmingham, Alabama. This urban farm was created in 2007 on the site of a number of vacated properties in downtown Birmingham and now hosts a number of educational programs. In addition to the interactive map, this page also includes a number of educational resources designed for community organizations interested in implementing gardening programs. [MMB]

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Fans of street art as well as those with a personal connection to the city of London may be interested in Hookedblog, dedicated to murals and street art "from London and beyond." The blog is designed as a news site for those who want to learn about new projects and art events in the UK. One recent entry showcases a new mural by artist Pedro Campiche that was created for the UK edition of Festival Iminente. In another entry, an author describes his recent trip to Paris and some of the street art in the city. Another entry showcases work by the Barcelona-based street artist PEZ in the city of London. Visitors can also follow this photography-focused blog on Instagram and Pinterest. [MMB]

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The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum offers a virtual tour of its museum for interested visitors who can't make the trip to Hyde Park, New York. Artifacts, images, and documents (such as letters written to the Roosevelts) are available to view from the museum lobby. The exhibit features a number of photographs of items from the collection accompanied by reports, audio clips, short videos, and more. These materials contextualize the events of Roosevelt's presidency as well as his biography. Showcased in this collection are a series of portraits that highlight FDR's family tree, a number of audio clips from his "fireside chats," and the "bedside note" the former president penned on September 1, 1939 upon learning that Germany had invaded Poland. [MMB]

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Place plays an important role in literature; numerous American novels strongly evoke the cities, regions, and countrysides in which they are set. Earlier this year, novelist Susan Straight wrote an essay entitled "There are Riches Here" about "books, geography, and America." Straight also teamed up with the Ersi story map team to create this interactive map that places 737 novels across the United States. As visitors zoom in on each state or region, they can view a series of novels that are set there, accompanied by a short description. In addition to exploring this map, visitors can also check out Susan Straight's essay, accompanied by photographs and maps, via a link on the top of this webpage. This project provides a delightful way to discover (or rediscover) books closely tied to parts of the United States, from Maine to Alaska. [MMB]

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Interactive data visualizations are a powerful tool for quickly and clearly demonstrating complex topics. However, constructing such visualizations on a webpage can require significant coding ability. ChartsBin is a web based visualization tool that can be used without writing code. Visualizations created with the tool can be easily embedded in a website or blog, on social media, or even exported for use in presentations. In addition, ChartsBin maintains a public gallery of visualizations derived from authoritative sources. Each visualization in the gallery is attributed to a primary source, many of which provide their data in downloadable formats. ChartsBin can be used with all major browsers. [CRH]

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Readers who find traditional to-do lists to be overly linear and hard to conceptualize may be interested in Iris. Iris is a graphical task manager that incorporates mind map principles. Rather than presenting a checklist, a conceptual diagram of work to be done. Iris users set a number of goals, then breaks each goal down into component sub-goals. These goals can be nested as deeply as required to fully capture the task to be done. As users mark individual sub-goals completed, Iris provides a completion percentage to indicate progress. Users may also invite friends or co-workers to collaborate add comments, suggestions, and notes to each goal. Iris can be used with all major browsers. [CRH]

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