·http://www.humanitiescommission.org/AboutHumanitiesSocialSciences/resources.aspx

This list of Resources for the Humanities and Social Sciences from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences will keep educators and knowledge lovers busy for many gratifying hours. The page is divided into ten categories, including Major Reports, Governmental Organizations, Online Resources and Archives, Social Sciences Resources, Online Toolkits, and others. Beneath each category, the listed links take readers to sundry sites from around the web, including everything from the American Statistical Association to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to a 1980 Rockefeller Foundation Report on the Humanities in American Life. Whether one is an educator looking for primary resources and humanities-related inspirations, or a lover of the social sciences seeking a wider purview of online resources, this list will repay investments of time and interest.[CNH]

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·http://gallery.usgs.gov/

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) seeks to "serve the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth." While the agency provides numerous resources of interest to Scout readers, the USGS Multimedia Gallery may be particularly handy for educators looking to use audio and visual aids to galvanize lesson plans and classroom activities. The site is organized into three categories: Photography & Images, Videos & Animations, and Audio and Podcasts. Each category features hundreds of multimedia resources. For instance, selecting "View All... Collections" under Photography & Images navigates to a page where readers may choose among subcategories such as Geography, Native American and Tribal Activities, Satellite Images, and many others. Additionally, the Public Lecture Series, a collection within Videos and Animations, features a number of webinars on such topics as the Resilience Potential of Coral Reefs in the Mariana Islands and Climate Change Effects on Fisheries in the Great Lakes. [CNH]

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·http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/railroad-maps/file.html

The history of 19th century America is, among other dynamics, a story of railroads. The burgeoning American rail network expanded the nascent country's economy, connected the coasts, and contributed to colonial dominance of Native lands. It was, in fact, one of the central concerns of both the federal and state governments for a number of decades. This site is packed with teacher-ready resources about how the railroads developed and their impact on various aspects of American life. While the heart of the site revolves around using the 634 primary source materials that make up the Railroad Maps, 1828-1900 collection, the informative write up also covers several broad topics, including Railroad Transportation, Military Campaigns, Westward Expansion, Agriculture and Industrialization, Postal Service, and Tourism. There are also welcome analyses of songs, literature, and other topics related to the railroads, as well as links to related resources from around the Library of Congress website. [CNH]

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·http://csunplugged.org/

What if we could teach kids the basics of computer science and programming without sitting them down for hours in front of a computer? That was the idea that sparked this program at the University of Canterbury, and the entire curriculum is now available online completely free and under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License. Educators will find an exceptional range of resources here. For example, navigating to a section called The Book allows readers to freely download the fully updated 243-page, 2015 edition of the CS Unplugged textbook. The Activities section navigates to several dozen lively exercises, games, and events, each of them accompanied by photos, videos, and textual explanations. A number of Videos are available on topics such as Binary Numbers, Searching Algorithms, Cryptographic Protocols, and many others. For anyone hoping to spark the interest of children in computer science, this site is one of the best resources on the web. [CNH]

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·http://www.readwritethink.org/

With 886 Lesson Plans, 58 Student Interactives, 106 Activities & Projects, 23 Games & Tools, and 25 Tips & How-To's (among many other resources), ReadWriteThink, a site assembled by the International Literacy Association, is a welcome boon to educators, parents, and communities alike. One category particularly worth exploring is Classroom Resources, which includes activities such as story maps, peer editing, plot diagrams, and word games. Parent & Afterschool Resources also shouldn't be missed. These resources run the gamut from a very engaging Comic Creator game to a tool called Profile Publisher, in which students "can create printed social networking or magazine/newspaper profiles for themselves." The site also features a number of inspiring Community Stories, in which educators reflect on how they have been able to utilize the various activities on the ReadWriteThink site. Interested readers may also search and filter according to their interests with a tool bar on the lefthand side of the page, where they may organize resources by Grade Level, Resource Type, Learning Objective, and Theme. [CNH]

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·http://aodl.org/

Based at Michigan State University, the African Online Digital Library (AODL) is "a portal to multimedia collections about Africa." A collaborative project between MATRIX, the Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, the African Studies Center, and universities and cultural heritage organizations in Africa, the site boasts sixteen distinct collections of videos, documentaries, images, and other multimedia resources. Whether readers start with a collection of video interviews with Muslim men and women in "Everyday Islam in Kumasi" (Ghana) or let their interest gravitate to the Community Video Education Trust where there are more than 90 hours of video documenting South African political activities in the 1980s and 1990s, there will be plenty here to edify and inform. Other topics include a series of podcasts on Africa Past & Present, a collection of African Oral Narratives, and many others. [CNH]

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·http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/brain/

In 2013, President Obama unveiled "The Brain Initiative," a ten-year, nearly one billion dollar effort to unlock the mysteries of the brain. With contributions by everyone from the National Institute of Health (NIG) to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Google, the initiative focuses on diverse fields and research methodologies. Readers will find much to explore on this accompanying website from NSF, including several dozen beautifully produced videos designed for classroom use. The videos, most of which are about five-minutes in length, cover topics such as the thinking brain, the perceiving brain, brain states and consciousness, the evolving brain, the emotional brain, the effects of musical training on the brain, and interviews with a number of groundbreaking brain researchers. Additionally, readers may peruse information about the brain initiative on the site, including Funding, Events, Resources, and News related to the project. [CNH]

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·http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.2015.1336.issue-1/issuetoc

With the bulk of scientific articles and reports placed behind a paywall, it's always a welcome gift when good research is made available for free. This report on the New York Panel on Climate Change 2015 is loaded with excellent information - and it's free and available to anyone with an Internet connection. As the introduction to the report notes, "The climate of the New York City metropolitan region is changing - annual temperatures are hotter, heavy downpours are increasingly frequent, and the sea is rising." The rest of the report includes a knowledgeable forward by Mayor Bill de Blasio, an executive summary on the findings of the panel, an article outlining the panel's climate observations and projections, and chapters on sea level rise, coastal storms, coastal flooding, public health impacts, and conclusions and recommendations. For inspired readers, there are also appendices to the report that feature infographics and technical details. [CNH]

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·http://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography.html

The Photo Archive of the Naval History and Heritage Command comes with one great advantage: all items in the online collections are in the public domain, allowing for easy download and use without permissions or special requirements. And there are many, many fascinating historical photos here to scout. After perusing the informative introduction on the landing page, readers may like to move immediately to the the photos themselves, which are classified into ten categories: Aviation, Navy Life, US People, People-Special, US Navy Ships, Places and Bases, Technology, Wars and Events, Numerical Lists, and Donations. Selecting any of these leads to further fascinating subcategories. For instance, under Wars and Events, readers may scout The American Civil War, The Spanish American War, the 19th Century, World War I, World War II, and several others, while selecting Places and Bases opens to possibilities like Washington DC, Guantanamo Bay, and New York Navy. The photographs on the site are as beautiful as they are historically significant. [CNH]

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·http://www.frick.org/visit/virtual_tour

The Frick Collection is physically located at 1 East 70th Street in New York City, sitting on the Northeast corner just next to Fifth Avenue. But for those who can't make the trip to see the museum's world renowned collections of paintings and fine furniture, all 21 rooms and spaces of the former mansion are available for virtual viewing on the museum's website. To view one of them, readers may simply select a zone from the floor plan on the landing page. From there, readers may zoom in and out, as well as turn in panoramic circles that offer a full view of the rooms, hallways, and gardens of the museum. Additionally, some of the galleries, such as the Portico Gallery, feature optional audio commentary. Add to this the archival images and related links available on each page and the site provides excellent education and entertainment for readers fascinated by the intricacies of old world art. [CNH]

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·http://www.oldradioworld.com/

Before television (or Netflix, or Buzzfeed) families around the country used to sit together in the evenings and listen to the radio. This website gathers some of the classic radio favorites that defined the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Organized by Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Sci Fi/Superheroes, Western, Detective Stories, Music, and Miscellaneous, each of the categories includes famous entertainers, including big band leaders like Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman as well as famous comedians like Abbot and Costello. For readers who are new to old-time radio, there is also a Recommended Favorites section that includes Vintage Commercials, The Shadow, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and Amos 'n' Andy. In particular, the 1957 Chevrolet commercial, which can be located in the Vintage Commercials tab, should not be missed. [CNH]

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·http://www.redorbit.com/

redOrbit, the online science magazine, covers everything from revolutionary triceratops discoveries to the latest psychological research to speculations about the moisture density on Mars. Recent articles, in fact, have examined just why it is that people buy more junk food when they shop with reusable bags, the subtle dangers of helicopter parenting, and lifestyles of the ancient Maya. The Oddities section, which can be found in the News tab, is a special treat; a recent article here wondered whether there are enough gold particles in human feces to warrant commercial mining. Also of interest, the Education section harbors alphabetized information on everything from Amphibians to Viruses (simply select Read More). [CNH]

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·http://www.onlineveterinaryanatomy.net/

Readers fascinated by the diversity of anatomical structures in the animal kingdom will be thrilled by the depth and breadth of this trailblazing website. Designed by graduates of the British Veterinary College and curated by a phalanx of vet students, the Online Veterinary Anatomy Museum (OVAM) is a virtual emporium of anatomical information. Interested readers may scout the site by Body Region, Body System, and Species. Of course, each category branches into more particular subcategories for detailed exploration. For instance, the Species tab reveals a drop down menu with an option to select Birds, Cat, Cattle, Dog, Horse, Other, Pig, Rabbit, or Sheep. Selecting any of these will navigate to a page of visual and textual resources. Additionally, the site features several Online Lectures. One word of caution: some of the material here contains graphic images that depicts real animal specimens and anatomy. [CNH]

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·http://www.nelson-atkins.org/collections/collection-history.cfm

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri houses an assortment of art work from around the world. Although not all 35,000 works have been digitized, the online collections are well-curated, with excellent written explanations, links to related works, and accurate dates and artist attributions. The site can be searched by collection (African, American, American Indian, Ancient, Chinese, Decorative Arts, European, Japanese, Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park, Modern & Contemporary, Photography, Prints, and South & Southeast Asian), or by using the Advanced Search feature. A handy section on Helpful Searching Tips explains how to use the Advanced Search and offers advice on locating specific works of art. Among the collections, the Decorative Arts stand out for their wide selection and charm. Here readers may explore French porcelain, an early 20th century Austrian tea set, and a room from the 18th century home of the American merchant, Robert Hooper. [CNH]

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·http://digital.library.cornell.edu/c/cuda/class.html

Readers should prepare for a virtual trip through time with these eight complete Class Books from the Cornell University Digital Archives. Spanning the years 1897 to 1904, the books, which are each several hundred pages long, feature vivid portrait photographs, short biographies, and other quippy snapshots into college life at the turn of the twentieth century. For instance, the 1897 Class Book reports: "Robert Emanuel Brandeis comes from Louisville, Ky. Although well known in his class, he has taken no active part in its affairs. He graduates in Electrical Engineering." One may also learn the class colors (purple and lavender for 1897), the class cheer ("Zip-a-la, Zip-a-la, Zip-a-la, Boom-ha-ha; Cornell, Ninety-Seven, Rah, Rah, Rah!"), and other cultural tidbits. Everything on the site is freely accessible and printable. However, it should be noted that the files are quite large; the site warns that downloading entire books have been known to crash web browsers. [CNH]

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·http://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/blog/

Created in 2013 by two scholars at British universities, Ludivine Broch (Westminster) and Alison Carrol (Brunel), the French History Network (FHN) aims to promote the work of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in French history, generate intellectual collaborations, and create more exchanges between French and English-speaking historians of France. The blog has a number of monthly features, such as Under the Spotlight, where some recent interviews include Dr. Sarah Easterby-Smith, lecturer in Modern History at St Andrews; Prof. David Bell, Princeton, whose book, Napoleon: A Concise Biography, will be published in 2016; and Dr. Penny Roberts, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Arts Doctoral Research Excellence (CADRE) at Warwick. Other categories on the site include Call for Papers; Conference/Workshop Announcement; and Launching Your Career, subdivided into both the Application Process and the Writing/Publication Process. [DS]

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·http://www.tubechop.com/

For those of us who give presentations, write blogs, or post on social media, we often want to offer a snippet of a longer video to make a point, get a laugh, or otherwise spice things up. Enter TubeChop. The platform is beautiful for its simplicity. Just find the YouTube, Vimeo, TedTalk, or other video that you would like to sample and paste the link into TubeChop. Then use the end bars to choose the exact second when your clip will begin and end, select "chop it," and copy or embed the generated link. [CNH]

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·https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/hello/

For Firefox users who would like to video chat without downloading a third-party plugin (such as Skype or FaceTime), Firefox Hello can be an efficient, no-frills option. The audio and video quality are above average, there is no hard drive hogging plug-in to download and install, and the Firefox privacy policy says that, once connected, your conversations are encrypted. To use Firefox Hello, make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Firefox, then select the Firefox Hello icon (a smiley face on the right hand side of the tool bar). A video box will appear with a link that can easily be emailed or shared with a friend so chatting can ensue. They don't need to have Firefox to join the conversation. [CNH]

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New Study Tries to Predict Law School Grades
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/07/13/new-study-tries-to-predict-law-school-grades/

What Makes a Law Student Succeed or Fail? A Longitudinal Study Correlating Law Student Applicant Data and Law School Outcomes
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2627330

Validity of the SAT for Predicting First-Year College Grade Point Average
https://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Validity_of_the_SAT_for_Predicting_First_Year_College_Grade_Point_Average.pdf

Do ACT and SAT scores really matter? New study says they shouldn’t
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/nail-biting-standardized-testing-may-miss-mark-college-students/

Study: High school grades best predictor of college success - not SAT/ACT scores
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/21/a-telling-study-about-act-sat-scores/

See How the First SAT Compared to Today's Test
http://time.com/3921975/the-first-sat/

A new study by two University of Colorado Law School professors has called into question the emphasis that law school admissions committees place on Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores. In fact, the paper, which examined the relationship between LSAT scores and law school grade-point average (LGPA) in more than 1,400 students from two major universities, found that even a difference of six points (enough to easily make or break an application) only predicts a very small difference in LGPA. The findings echo concerns that critics of standardized assessment tests like the SAT and ACT have been raising for years. So are these tests valid predictors of student outcomes? It's complicated. While a slew of older studies have established the validity of the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests, newer work has questioned institutions' uncritical use of test scores. In the end, it may be that test scores provide a piece of valuable information to admissions counselors. However, the research seems to suggest that looking at an applicant's GPA, work experiences, and overall richness of life is at least as important. [CNH]

The first link navigates to the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, where Jacob Gershman draws out the conclusions from the recently published study about the relationship between LSAT scores and law school GPA. Next, readers may peruse the study itself, which is available for free from the Social Science Research Network. The third link takes readers to a 2008 report from the College Board that establishes the SAT as a significant predictor of first-year college GPA. The fourth and fifth links, from PBS and the Washington Post, offer coverage of studies that have been critical of the SAT and ACT. In the last link, Time magazine compares today's SAT to the first SAT, which was administered on June 23, 1926.