The Scout Report -- Volume 26, Number 4

Calling all history buffs and legal theorists: You may find We the People of particular interest. This weekly podcast is produced by the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing "awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people," offering well-regarded visual tools and Educational Resources (featured in the 09-13-19 Scout Report). Hosted by the President of the National Constitution Center, We the People provides Constitutional insights on a variety of topics and feature stakeholders on all sides of the political spectrum. The 44 episodes (as of this write-up) offer in-depth discussions on constitutional clashes, civil rights, and constitutional legacy. Listeners will learn from experts in the field who explore the constitutional and historical dimensions of issues that are making headlines, covering ground from the Founding Fathers to the current Supreme Court. A new episode is released each week, and most are around an hour in length. Readers can stream episodes at the link above by clicking the "We the People" link under Podcasts, or subscribe to We the People via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and other platforms. [EMB]

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Launched in 2011 by Mr. Derek Hanekom, Minister of Science and Technology, the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) seeks to cultivate mentorship and opportunity for young scientists that will address "national and global challenges facing society." This website contains a wealth of resources, broken down into a few different pages. On the Projects page, readers will find the SAYAS Blog, which features posts such as "A Letter from 2050" where students write to their future selves. The News page allows visitors to stay up-to-date on the latest advancements and opportunities from the Committee. Next, on the Lindau page, readers can learn about the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting, an annual conference that brings together young scientists across many different disciplines. Finally, on the Publications page, readers can find reports such as "Policy Direction Eradication of Hunger and Achievement of Food Security," and "Science and (Un)Certainty: Exploring Science, Knowledge Production, Communication and Uptake in a Post-Truth World." Readers may also want to check the Home page for access to SAYAS's recent Twitter posts and Calendar. [EMB]

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For the storyteller in all of us, Narratively provides a platform to share and read stories that embody all aspects of the human experience. Founded in 2012, Narratively has nearly a decade of experience reimagining the way we craft and consume stories. Their mission is simple: "human stories, boldly told." This "storytelling studio" looks to uplift voices of the "underdog," the imaginative, and the marginalized. They do so by embracing a variety of expressive mediums from podcasts, to short stories, to documentaries and a variety of topics, such as crime, culture, and culinary arts. Recent pieces include (for example) "The Sea Farming Sisters in Recovery," which highlights sustainable farming in Maine by a group of women "in recovery for alcohol." This resource may be of interest to those looking for a creative spark from global, authentic, and passionate storytelling. With a network of storytellers thousands strong and spanning all corners of the world, Narratively highlights content often overlooked by other news outlets. Learn, create, connect, and refresh; there's always something new to read and explore. [EMB]

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The United States Water Crisis is an interactive report published as a part of a graduate thesis in May 2019 by Andrew Levinson (now a coder and graphic developer for The Wall Street Journal) that explores the effects of forces like "population growth and climate change," on the United States's water supplies. The graphic storytelling website allows users to scroll through three sections that demonstrate how our water systems have changed and what the consequences of these changes are. The first section, Background, answers questions such as "Why Are We Running Out of Water?" and "Where Does Our Freshwater Come From?" The second section, Water Stress, explores conditions and climate events that alter our water systems, such as droughts and floods. The third section, Water Action, allows users to "pick [a] conservation strategy," including "behavioral changes" and "infrastructure investments," and use sliders to explore how different magnitudes of each strategy will influence overall conservation efforts. While the site focuses on a national water crisis, it does reference other critical water events that have occurred globally in Cape Town, Mexico City, and Australia. The United States Water Crisis concludes with a hope that "understanding the magnitude of these specific courses of action will enable us to drastically change our relationship with the most valuable natural resource on earth." [EMB]

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Ornithologists and birders may enjoy the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The origins of the RSPB trace back to Emily Williamson, who founded the group from her Manchester home in 1889. Since then, the mission and work of the organization continue to expand to promote "species recovery" and conservation efforts. The site is packed full of useful learning tools and resources to explore. Users may want to begin by navigating to the About RSPB page, where they can learn the history and mission of the organization. From there, explore the Our Work page, which features News and Blog sections detailing the state of birds and biodiversity in the United Kingdom. Under the Birds & Wildlife page, users can explore interactive features such as "Identify a bird," a tool that asks questions about the location and look of a bird to attempt to identify its species. On the Get Involved and Reserves & Events pages, users can learn more about activities hosted by the RSPB. Finally, under Fun & Learning teachers and other users will find games, activities, and other resources to bring birding to life in their classrooms or homes. [EMB]

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Wogrammer was founded by Erin Summers and Zainab Ghadiyali, software engineers on a mission to tell the stories of women around the world who are challenging and changing the landscape of STEM fields. Under Stories, readers will find the fruits of over 200 interviews (as of this write-up) with women in STEM, including (for example) Olamide Opadokun, a Nigerian mechanical engineer interested in clean energy who was the lone woman graduate from her university class, and Madhura Maskasky, a computer scientist from India who went on to co-found her own company. Stories are published weekly and seek to inspire more young women to enter into STEM fields, while also commemorating the accomplishments of women who paved the way. In addition to the stories featured, Wogrammer recently launched a Podcast to add another element to conversations about women in STEM. Finally, readers can click on the Fellowship page to learn more about the writers producing content for Wogrammer and how to apply to be one! [EMB]

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Emerging Female Scientists is the only electronic, peer-reviewed, open access journal specifically for female middle and high school students. The journal is unique in that all articles are authored and edited by girls and women, and it was created by and for future women in STEM. Emerging Female Scientists was founded by Margaret DiRuggiero, a high school student who had the vision to encourage STEM research publishing from young women in order to advance women's presence in STEM fields. The publication features writing in the following categories: original research, interviews of prominent or significant women in science, summaries of current scientific events, public policy pieces, and historical biographies. Emerging Female Scientists has published two volumes (as of this write-up), Spring and Fall 2019, which can be found on the Articles page. Additionally, teachers of middle school students may want to check out the Publication Process and Types of Publications pages to learn more about opportunities for their students to get published. The website is currently in the process of adding resources for those interested in starting STEM clubs in their own schools, so teachers should stay tuned for additional content to come. [EMB]

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Looking for timely history or physics curriculum highlighting key contributions by women to STEM fields? This Common Core Standards-aligned lesson plan from the American Institute of Physics, titled Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese Nuclear Physicist may be of interest. The curriculum focuses on the work of Chien-Shiung Wu, a prominent nuclear physicist who is well-regarded for groundbreaking contributions as a senior scientist and professor while simultaneously advocating for women to have a place in scientific communities. Her major accomplishments include serving as Princeton University's first female instructor and being elected into the National Academy of Science. The lesson plan includes a link to an introductory YouTube video, reading materials, discussion questions and answers, and supplementary resources. The materials also provide an in-depth breakdown of what teachers should be doing during each point in the lesson, including how much time to spend on each activity and how to frame each point of discussion. The lesson plan is designed for grades 9-12 and is estimated to take about an hour to complete. All learning materials are free to download in PDF form. [EMB]

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Despite advances in equality, women still face barriers to entering STEM fields. The Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Quick Take tackles this issue, highlighting the disparities for women in STEM, both in educational and vocational settings. Notably, the report states that women accounted for less than a third (28.8 percent) of those employed in scientific research and development across the world in 2015. And, the percentage of women employed in high-tech manufacturing positions is even smaller. It further highlights that women of color in STEM fields experience even greater disparities, noting that in 2015-16 Asian women earned only five percent of bachelors degrees awarded in STEM fields, and black and Latina women earned even fewer. In addition to highlighting unequal representation in STEM fields, the Quick Take explores root causes for many of these disparities, including unequal treatment at work, lack of representation in leadership, and gaps in earnings between their male counterparts. The resource concludes with an Additional Resources section for those who want to further explore the topic. The Quick Take was created by Catalyst, a global nonprofit working with some of the world's most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women. [EMB]

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This resource offers a curated collection of books that celebrate women who have made advancements in STEM fields and broke barriers along the way. Featured books from the Women in Science list include Wangari's Trees of Peace, a story about a woman fighting deforestation in Kenya, and Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, which highlights black women who shaped history, such as mathematician Katherine Johnson and pilot Bessie Coleman. The books included span suggested reader ages from 3 to 12 years old. Each of the 17 entries includes a brief description of the book, the appropriate reader age level, links to related thematic reading lists on the site, and a link to purchase the book. The Women in Science booklist is provided by Colorin Colorado, a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). The page also links to other themed booklists, such as the Horn Books Women in STEAM and Reading Rockets booklist finder, which includes a list on Science and Math. [EMB]

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Nift is a framework for managing and generating websites. Numerous tools exist to generate static sites (e.g. Hugo, Jekyll, etc.), and Nift is able to work in that way as well. However, Nift is also capable of managing dynamic sites that use frameworks such as Node.js, Vue.js, Laravel, CakePHP, and others. While many site generation tools are amenable to the use of revision control systems for managing site source code, Nift takes this a step further with explicit Git integration. The Nift documentation includes specific instructions demonstrating how to use this Git integration to publish static sites on Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, and Netlify. Under the Resources menu on the Nift site, users can locate both a bare-bones Get Started guide and a more detailed Tutorial demonstrating how to create sites with Nift. The Installing Nift section of the documentation details how to obtain Nift for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. [CRH]

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Corgi is a command-line workflow manager that stores sequences of commands as named, reusable "snippets." It was inspired by the Pet snippet manager, which does a similar task but for snippets comprised of single commands rather than workflows that consist of multiple steps. When creating a snippet, users can define variables (called "template fields") that will be filled in before the workflow is executed. Commands executed as part of a workflow are able to receive user input just as if they'd been run directly from a shell, so prompts (e.g. for a password) work seamlessly. Users are able to execute either entire snippets or just a subset of the steps they contain. If a fuzzy finding utility is installed (currently Corgi supports fzf and peco), then users can select a snippet to execute using an interactive search interface. The Installation section of the Corgi ReadMe details how to install Corgi on macOS and Linux systems. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 01-16-15 Scout Report, The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology continues to be a source of inspiration and celebration of women who have influenced STEM fields by "writing their stories permanently into history."

The White House provides this website, a set of largely unknown stories of female pioneers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, dating from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Examples include Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) who, in 1843, wrote the first computer algorithm for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Lovelace's story is read by U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith. Other women in STEM who appear on the site are astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, environmentalist Rachel Carson, molecular biologist and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Cytonome/ST Lydia Villa-Komaroff, and geneticist Barbara McClintock, the only woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize for her work. With women from across the Administration sharing stories of their personal heroes, this website is intended to inspire girls to go into the STEM fields. Visitors are also invited to share what they are doing in their own communities to inspire young women to pursue careers in science and technology.

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