The Scout Report -- Volume 17, Number 48

http://practicalaction.org/home

Founded over 40 years ago by an economist, Practical Action's aim is to help impoverished people "use technology to challenge poverty", to gain "access to technical options and knowledge", and "influence the social, economic and institutional systems for innovation and use of technology." The "Downloads" tab has a link to "Practical Answers" that cover almost two dozen themes and lets users browse the extensive library, submit technical questions to expert, and it also provides users with a section entitled "Share" which documents peoples experience with Practical Action. Visitors will also find the "Featured Articles" section of the Downloads useful and full of such practical information as "Build Your Own Tippy Tap", for hand washing after toileting and a "Solar Voltaic System Design Info Sheet" that covers electrical design issues. Back on the homepage, visitors will find links to their social networking, e-newsletter, and the latest from their series of blogs. [KMG]

http://www.lifescied.org/

The Life Sciences Education journal started publishing peer-reviewed articles in spring 2002 on life science education at the K12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. The journal takes a broad view of the life sciences, and they frequently feature pieces on math, chemistry, neurosciences, genetics, and other fields. The articles are written by professionals engaged in teaching biology teaching in a variety of educational environments, and first-time visitors may wish to start by looking over the "Most-Read Articles" area. Here they will find pieces such as "Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners" and "Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best-Practice Tools". Visitors can also search for articles in the archive and also look at the "Most-Cited Articles" section. Finally, users can also sign up to receive updates about new additions to the journal. [KMG]

To find more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

http://www.e4earabyouth.com/

The Arab world is "overwhelmingly young", and the human potential throughout the area is tremendous. Recent events across the region have "amplified the social and economic disconnect between skills, jobs, and opportunity." To address this situation, a group of organizations (including the Islamic Development Bank), started the Education for Employment (e4e) initiative. The basic goal of the initiative is to position "education as a major priority to drive improved employment prospects." On their website, visitors can look over a brief summary of their work, and also look over their report from April 2011. The report is based on 200 in-depth interviews and surveys of over 1500 employers and 1500 youth throughout the region. Visitors can download the 150 page report, or view the executive summary here in Arabic or English. The report's chapters include "Perspectives of e4e Stakeholders" and "The e4e Challenge in the Arab World". [KMG]

http://www.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/

Pacific Standard Time is a multi-institutional, multi-location, initiative to document "the birth of the L.A. art scene". It is often argued that during this period, 1945 - 1980, the hub of the art world in the US shifted from New York to L.A. The exhibit, Pacific Standard Time, kicked off in October, 2011, and this website from the Getty, one of the initiative's leaders, highlights the activities at that museum, but also links to happenings all over the area. There's an incredible amount to see here, including four distinct exhibitions at the Getty alone: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 19501970; Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics, 19501980; From Start to Finish: De Wain Valentines Gray Column; and In Focus: Los Angeles, 19451980. Back on the websites homepage, visitors will also find a map of L.A. art history ("see where it all happened") and a listing of public programs at the Getty through February 2012. In addition, visitors can check out the exhibitions wonderful blog as well as the exhibition film. [DS]

http://www.greatscienceforgirls.org/

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Great Science for Girls has seven programs operated by intermediary organizations to provide informal opportunities for elementary to high school grade girls to explore science. Some of the programs focus specifically on astronomy, women scientists, engineering, and scientific inquiry. Visitors can find basic information about the target audience of the program, the setting, how long each session takes, and the cost to the organization for materials is provided in the introduction to each program. The website provides "Evaluation and Results" and "Materials and Activities" information for each of the seven curricula, under the "Curriculum" tab. The "Resources and Research" tab has resources for practitioners, staff, organizations, role models, and, of course, girls. There is also a section on "Research" that provides access to documents like the "Status and Participation of Women in STEM", "Effective Practices in STEM", and "Afterschool Program Effectiveness". For any educator looking to encourage young women to discover STEM disciplines, this site is well worth a visit. [KMG]

To find more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

http://www.thinkfinity.org/stem

The Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity website has a very large section of STEM resources for students and teachers. Near the bottom of the homepage visitors will find "Lesson Plans", "Podcasts", and "Resources and Tools". In addition, there is a community forum where members discuss their thoughts on some of the resources from the website they have found useful, or how they have date them to suit their classroom situation. Visitors to the site can easily register for free to join the community. The "At Home and Afterschool" tab near the top of the page has a "games and tools" section that includes activities, videos, and collections, as well as other types of resources. The literacy section of the "Afterschool" area has many resources for families and games for early literacy. Visitors can also use the "Professional Development" tab to find information on how to utilize the many Thinkfinity resources. [KMG]

To find more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/misc/webfeat/educationforum/

Science magazine has teamed up with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to provide "a voice for the community interested in the multifaceted world of science education and the science of education." The site presents articles and commentary dating back to 2006, and visitors can scroll through the listings to get a sense of the materials here. Recent offerings include "Drawing to Learn in Science", "Protecting Brains, Not Simply Stimulating Minds", and "Mathematics Teachers' Subtle, Complex Disciplinary Knowledge". As a whole, the site offers a wide range of materials that cover current debates about science education, educational policy, and new techniques for teaching science in a variety of educational settings. Finally, interested parties can also learn about how to submit their own manuscripts for potential publication in the Education Forum. [KMG]

http://bioedonline.org/resources/hivaidsindex.cfm

The folks at the BioEd Online website have crafted this very helpful set of educational materials for those who seek to teach their students about HIV/AIDS. The materials here will help students understand the virus that causes AIDS, how infectious agents multiply in organisms, and the worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS. The "Individual Activities" section contains five separate educational activities, including "Modeling an HIV Particle" and "Mapping the Spread of HIV/AIDS". Moving on, the "Other Resources" area includes a complete teacher's guide to all the materials, along with slides and videos that provide an introduction to viruses and infectious diseases. Finally, the site is rounded out by some "Nature News" which contains links to news pieces about HIV/AIDS research and related matters. [KMG]

To find more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

http://data.undp.org/

In an effort to expand access to large data sets and information about their work, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has created this website to provide access to such materials. Visitors can dive right in with the "Exploring the Data" section, and they have the option to look over information organized by country or project. The helpful diagram on the homepage provides a basic visual representation of where the UNDP directs its various resources. Recent data indicates that the top three recipients of UNDP funds are Afghanistan, the Republic of the Sudan, and Zimbabwe. On the right-hand side of the homepage, visitors can use the "Our Stories" section to learn about how the UNDP deploys its resources in Somalia to support local governance and their work supporting fishermen in Panama. When looking through the countries or projects for data sets, visitors will note that they can look over the data in a visual format, export it for other uses, and also filter through the dataset. [KMG]

http://digital.library.unlv.edu/hughes/

Who was Howard Hughes? He was a man who wore many hats during his lifetime, and after his death, a number of biographies appeared that claimed to know the "real" Hughes. One man did have a particular insight into Howard Hughes' life, and his name was Dick Hannah. Hannah served as the official spokesman for Hughes for several decades, and in 1996, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas acquired his papers. The collection contained hundreds of official photographs of Hughes, and it "also documents what interested Hughes". This digital exhibition offers a few highlights from this remarkable collection, and each section contains a narrative essay, complemented with photographs, diagrams, and other pieces of ephemera. The fifteen sections include "Around the World", "Howard Hughes, Aviator", and "The Flying Boat". Perhaps one of the most compelling sections is "Hughes Portraits", as it provides seventeen different images of Hughes at different times in his life. [KMG]

http://www.archive.org/details/culturalandacademicfilms

For those people who might be interested in little-seen films, the Cultural & Academic Films section of the Internet Archive is a site of great importance. The collection currently contains over 1,000 films that deal with everything from leper colonies in Burma to experimental films from the personal collection of Timothy Leary. Visitors can check out the "Most Downloaded Items Last Week" area to get a sense of the wisdom of the crowds, and then look at the "Sub-Collections" area. Here they will find films contributed from the Buckminster Fuller Archive, the Khan Academy, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. First-time visitors may wish to view the 35-minute film "The Happy City" from 1959. This film follows Bill Deneen as he travels three days by cart to the remote leper colony run by Father Cesare Columbo in Burma. [KMG]

http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fdickens2

During his life, Joseph Clayton Clarke was known for illustrating the novels of Charles Dickens. Born in 1856, Clarke also designed postcards and cigarette cards. His first illustrations of Dickens' work appeared in 1887 in Fleet Street magazine, and he continued by publishing complete illustration collections in books like "The Characters of Charles Dickens". This digital collection from the University of Oklahoma Libraries brings together 185 of his illustrations from this fine tome. Visitors can read the description of each illustration on the site, and view each item listed by character name. Here visitors will find such Dickens favorites as Clarence Barnacle from Little Dorrit and Martin Chuzzlewit from the novel of the same name. [KMG]

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/unbuilt-washington.html

As we look across an urban landscape, sometimes we may wonder: "What might have been here?" Monuments and dramatic buildings are often part of the picture, and in a federal city, there are frequently many structures that are proposed, but never built. This exhibition from the National Building Museum "reveals the Washington that could have been by presenting architectural and urban design projects that were proposed but, for widely varied reasons, never executed." The site has information about the in situ exhibit, along with a fine introductory essay by curator Martin Moeller titled "What Should a Capitol Look Like?" Next up is the interactive "Unbuilt Washington" map, which allows users the opportunity to learn about noteworthy unbuilt projects from the 1790s to the present. Visitors shouldn't miss the rendering of the proposed executive mansion from 1898 created by architect Paul Pelz or the proposal for a National Stadium from 1932. [KMG]

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/the-first-actresses/first_actresses_exhibition.php

Who were the actresses that dominated the stage in 17th and 18th century Britain? To be sure, they were a diverse lot, and they included admired writers, businesswomen, and royal mistresses. This online exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery in London pays homage to their portraits, and also offers artworks of contemporary actresses. Visitors can begin their journey by clicking on "Explore". Here they will learn about the world of the first actresses on the English stage, who were first permitted to perform in public in the early 1660s. They will find portraits of women like Lavinia Fenton, who was renowned for her work in John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera". Moving on, "The Actress Now" contains several portraits of contemporary actresses, such as Dame Helen Mirren. Finally, the "Actress Insights" area affords visitors the opportunity to learn about the inspirations for current actresses, including Zoe Tapper and Ze Wanamaker. [KMG]

http://www.stoptheclot.org/

The founders of the National Blood Clot Alliance (NBCA) first met at a workshop at the Center for Disease Control in 2003. The NBCA website has a wealth of information available to visitors in the "Learn More" tab near the top of the site. First up is a "Blood Clot Glossary" of blood clot and clotting disorder terms, including "Economy Class Syndrome", which is the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis in airline travelers that are subjected to cramped conditions and a lack of activity on long haul flights. The "Patient Stories" link under the "Learn More" provides patient-submitted stories of people surprised by their diagnoses of a clotting disorder, and in some cases, misdiagnoses that led to delay of treatment for their clotting disorder. The "News" tab provides news for healthcare providers about blood clot treatment, and blood clot advocacy, as well as information on how to sign up for their newsletter. [KMG]

http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time

Sometimes it flies, sometimes it marches on, and sometimes it seems to stands still. Regardless of its speed, time has always been measured in some fashion, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has an informative online presentation of the evolution of time measurement throughout the ages. Visitors will learn in the first three sections that calendars were the first timekeepers, then clocks, such as sundials (aka shadow clocks) and water clocks were invented, followed by spring-powered clocks, and finally the more accurate mechanical "pendulum" clock. Visitors interested in the most precise timekeeping will enjoy the sections on the "Atomic Age". "World Time Scales and Time Zones" rounds out the presentation, and explains the appearance of time zones, and the first cesium atomic frequency standard, which was built in England in 1955 in collaboration with the United States. The link entitled "Exhibits on Time", on the homepage, offers half a dozen sites that concern time, including the Smithsonian exhibit, "The Quartz Watch". [KMG]

http://muuter.com/

If you are on Twitter for work or pleasure, you may find that some users are a bit too "noisy". Muuter can help with this problem, as it gives interested parties the ability to scan their timeline and mute everyone who uses certain keywords habitually. Visitors can set up Muuter to mute certain users and their tweets for a set amount of time as well. This version is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

http://archivedbook.com/

Looking for a way to locate past information on your Facebook profile? ArchivedBook is a simple and easy way to do just that. Visitors just need to sign-in to their own Facebook profile, and after giving ArchivedBook permission, they can look at all of their Facebook messages, check-in locations, status updates, and posted links. Visitors wishing to use the site should note that the program is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

Lana Peters, Stalins Daughter, Dies at 85
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/world/europe/stalins-daughter-dies-at-85.html

Stalins daughter dies
http://themoscownews.com/russia/20111129/189244085.html

Portland granddaughter of Josef Stalin remembers her mother as a talented writer and lecturer in her own right
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/11/portland_granddaughter_of_jose.html

Tea with Stalins Daughter
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/12/01/inigo-thomas/tea-with-stalin%E2%80%99s-daughter/

Lana about Svetlana: Stalin's daughter on her life in Wisconsin
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/doug_moe/article_85ebc5d0-4978-11df-b181-001cc4c002e0.html

Twenty Letters to a Father
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1967/11/twenty-letters-to-a-father/3396/

TIME Photos: Stalins daughter Lana Peters
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2100515,00.html


This week in a small Wisconsin town, Josef Stalins daughter died (as Lana Peters) of colon cancer at 85. Born in 1926, Svetlana Stalina was the only surviving child of Stalin who doted on her as a young girl. But all was not wonderful as the daughter of the Russian dictator; her mother killed herself in 1932, her father made her romantic relationships almost impossible, which culminated in a series of tragic marriages and relationships. After her fathers death, Svetlanas life grew more difficult in Russia and she eventually defected to the United States. She arrived in New York in 1967 and over the next few years published two popular memoirs. She married again, this time to an American architect William Wesley Peters. The couple had a daughter, but divorced within three years. After her divorce, Lana Peters as she was now known lived a nomadic life including a brief return to Moscow, a stint in California, England, and Wisconsin. Peters always felt she lived in her fathers shadow, "Wherever I go," she said, "here, or Switzerland, or India, or wherever. Australia. Some island. I will always be a political prisoner of my fathers name."

The first link will take visitors to an article from the New York Times about Lana Peters and her passing. The second link will take visitors to another article about Peters death, this time from the Moscow News. The third link leads to an interview with Lana Peters daughter, Chrese Evans. The fourth link leads to a fascinating piece by Inigo Thomas of the London Review of Books that discusses his experiences with Lana Peters. The fifth link is a recent interview of Lana Peters, from the Wisconsin State Journal. In the sixth link, visitors will find a 1967 review from The Atlantic, of Lana Peters first memoir Twenty Letters to a Father. Last, visitors will find a wonderful photo book of Lana Peters from TIME Photos.