The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 28

History educators will appreciate this trove of resources from the UK National Archives. This collection contains over 150 classroom resources that cover a myriad of aspects of (primarily) British history from 1066 CE to the present day. Resources include lesson plans, interactive games, teachers' notes, and more. These resources are searchable by time period, ages of students, and by resource type, and many of the lessons are designed in a way that employs inquiry-based learning and encourages students to think critically. Although these resources have largely been created for a British audience, non-UK educators will also find much here that they can make use of in their own classrooms. For example, there are resources on the American civil rights movement, World War Two, and the French Revolution, as well as lessons exploring ways to learn from historical photographs. Educators in the UK school system may be interested in this collection's video conference, virtual classroom, and live workshop offerings, which can also be browsed on this website. [JDC]

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In the past several years, researchers and the general public alike have become increasingly concerned about health risks associated with American football, as recent research has linked football-related concussions to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Although this research about CTE is new, concern about the health risks associated with this popular sport date back over 100 years. In 1905, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that nineteen high school and college level football players had died from injuries related to the sport over the past year, sparking an early twentieth century movement to reform the dangerous sport. From the AAAS's Science in the Classroom series comes this collection of educational resources related to the history of health concerns regarding American football. These resources include 1905 newspaper articles from the Library of Congress's archive, contemporary news articles, and an annotated research guide. These resources are accompanied by a series of suggested classroom activities, discussion questions, and relevant learning standards, which visitors will find by downloading the Educator's Guide. In addition to addressing CTE in football players, some of these resources address how CTE impacts military veterans. [MMB]

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Best known for The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer's literary and cultural influence has spread far beyond the borders of his native England, but there has historically been little scholarship examining his influence on the non-Anglophone world. To remedy this, Candace Barrington of Central Connecticut State University and Jonathan Hsy of George Washington University have spearheaded Global Chaucers, which is an international collaborative project. This project aims to catalog, translate, and analyze the non-English adaptations of Chaucer's works occurring after 1945 and intends to become a searchable online database of non-Anglophone Chaucerania. The Global Chaucers website contains a lengthy master list of translations and adaptations, as well as resources for aspiring translators and guides for those wishing to participate in the project. The site also has some audio and video recordings of Chaucer readings and performances. The first Global Chaucers essay collection, Chaucer's Global Compaignye, was just published in June 2018 as a special issue of Literature Compass. [JDC]

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Disability Studies Quarterly, published by The Ohio State University Libraries, is the academic journal for the Society of Disability Studies. This multidisciplinary international journal holds appeal for scholars across a broad range of fields, such as the social sciences, the humanities, and creative writers. Disability Studies Quarterly focuses on fostering theoretical knowledge, as well as exploring the lived experiences of disabled people, and it aims to stimulate intellectual debate and conversation around and across its many disciplines. Topics from its most recent issue include humor and storytelling, gender and sexuality, and reframing conventions and rhetoric surrounding the lives of people with disabilities. Each issue also includes reviews of books and media relevant to disability studies. In addition to this journal's academic audience, disability rights advocates and others interested in issues concerning disabled people would find value in this resource. [JDC]

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Sara VanDerWerf is a high school mathematics teacher who also serves as a consultant to other mathematics educators. Mathematics tutors and teachers will find a number of resources and ideas that may be of interest in her blog. These resources include classroom activities, lesson plan ideas, teaching reflections, and links to relevant outside resources. In one recent post, VanDerWerf discusses five things elementary school teachers can do to prepare students for secondary mathematics classes. VanDerWerf developed this list with Laura Wagenman, an elementary school math educator. In another recent post, VanDerWerf shares photographs of her classroom space (which includes a "calculator museum"), accompanied by explanations of how she sets up her classroom. In another post, she describes a "stand and talk," which is a variation of the think-pair-share activity designed to increase student engagement. [MMB]

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A collaboration between Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, this extensive resource contains two collections of key historical sources on the French Revolution. The first collection, Parliamentary archives, covers the years 1787-1794 and consists of 82 volumes of curated primary sources in chronological order, including parliamentary records, letters, and speeches. These are available as both scanned and text documents, and the text has been marked up to be easily searchable. The documents in this collection are only available in the original French, but the website is available in both French and English. The second collection, Images of the French Revolution, is a trove of approximately 12,000 high-resolution visual sources. This collection consists mainly of prints but also includes illustrations and images of medals, coins, and other objects. Each item is accompanied by extensive metadata to make the collection searchable, and it can also be browsed by category and theme. While the first collection is intended for scholarly audiences, the second will appeal to the general public, as well as to academics. Together, these collections make the French Revolution Digital Archive an exceptionally valuable resource. [JDC]

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The Center for Great Lakes Literacy is produced collaboratively by Sea Grant educators throughout the Great Lakes basin. It aims to develop a community well-versed in Great Lakes stewardship and addresses the lakes' economic and social facets, as well as their scientific aspects. The center's website provides valuable resources for educators, such as an archive of recorded webinars and over one hundred thorough curriculum plans for students ranging from kindergarten through college. These curriculum plans are searchable by topic, grade level, and subject area, and they are available as downloadable PDFs that contain fully developed lesson modules with classroom activities, quizzes, and links to relevant web resources. While these curricula were largely created with the Great Lakes in mind, educators from other regions may also find them useful as many of the lessons address concepts and scientific principles that can be applied to other bodies of water. [JDC]

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Mapping Islamophobia is a project headed by Grinnell College history and religious studies professor Caleb Elfenbein, with contributions from a number of Grinnell College students and technical support from Mike Conner. The project utilizes a series of powerful interactive maps that document incidents of violence, discrimination, and bias targeting Muslim individuals and communities in the United States. One such map, along with an accompanying interactive timeline, allows visitors to view the prevalence of Islamophobia between the years 2011 and 2018. In addition, these maps allow visitors to investigate Islamophobic incidents by incident type (including legislation, public campaigns, and crimes against people) and the gender of the targeted individual. The team behind Mapping Islamophobia collected information about these incidents from a variety of "media outlets with clear editorial oversight." By selecting individual pins on these maps, visitors can learn more about specific incidents and news sources. The Mapping Islamophobia project also contains Countering Islamophobia, an interactive map that documents "how American Muslim communities have responded to the increasing presence of anti-Muslim hostility in American public life over time." This map highlights community outreach activities, interfaith initiatives, and more. [MMB]

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The twentieth century witnessed women breaking barriers in numerous areas and the field of architecture is no exception. Pioneering Women of American Architecture features fifty women born before 1940 who have been influential in American architectural history. These women and their architecture can be explored alphabetically, chronologically, or pictorially. Each profile offers a wealth of information about the architect's life and career and is accompanied by multiple images and bibliographic entries. The resource as a whole showcases a remarkable diversity of architectural design styles and scopes, as well as a fascinating variety of personal backgrounds and stories. Pioneering Women of American Architecture was nominated for a 2018 Webby Award and was co-directed by Mary McLeod and Victoria Rosner of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which seeks to promote the recognition of women's historical and contemporary contributions to the field of architecture. [JDC]

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On July 15, 2018, the 21st FIFA World Cup Final will be held in Moscow, Russia. For soccer/football fans who are interested in either learning more about the history of the World Cup or examining statistics about the current World Cup, the Esri Story Maps team has created this series of 33 maps based on data provided by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). These maps provide information on everything from country rankings, average player age by team, and team success relative to country population and GDP. In addition, this collection features a virtual tour of the twelve Russian stadiums that are hosting 2018 World Cup games, courtesy of the Esri Imagery team. [MMB]

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The University of Minnesota's Immigration History Research Center is home to a rich collection of archival material held in the University Archives that documents the experiences of American immigrant communities in the state of Minnesota throughout history. A number of these archival materials have been digitized in the school's UMedia Archives, allowing visitors around to the world to explore hundreds of photographs, newspapers, letters, oral history interviews, and more. Visitors can explore these items through a series of collections, which include the Armenian American Collection, Digitizing Immigrant Letters, Italians in Duluth Oral History Collection, and the Twin Cities Ukrainian and Folk Ballet and Chorus Collection. Each item in this collection is accompanied by full cataloging information. This collection includes many items in English, as well as newspapers and letters in other languages including Italian, Finnish, and Greek. [MMB]

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2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which took the lives of an estimated 50 million individuals around the globe. Going Viral is a new podcast by medical historians Mark Honigsbaum and Hannah Mawdsley, a doctoral student at Queen Mary University in London who is at work on a dissertation about the influenza pandemic. In each episode of this podcast, Honigsbaum and Mawdsley discuss a different aspect of the 1918 flu and its enduring impact. The series' first episode, which features interviews with Dr. Jeffery K. Taubenberger of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and science writer Laura Spinney, offers insight into the horrific experience of those who were impacted by the flu. This episode also tells the story of the diplomat Sir Mark Sykes, who died of the flu in 1918. In 2008, virologist John Oxford exhumed Sykes' body in hopes of learning more about the virus. Interested listeners can listen to episodes of this podcast on this website. Going Viral is also available on iTunes and RSS. [MMB]

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From the University of Michigan's Museum of Anthropological Archeology and the Kelsey Museum of Archeology comes this online exhibit that "traces the growth of the two museums from their earliest collections to the present day and tells the continuing story of archaeology at the University of Michigan." This exhibit not only highlights some of the interesting objects that are held at the two museums but also offers insight into the history of anthropology and archeology as academic disciplines. Excavating Archeology consists of three sections. In Early Collections: 1850-1922, visitors can learn about Joseph Beal Steere, an ornithologist who brought "some 60,000 birds, mollusks, insects, fishes, and ferns" as well as over 800 culture objects, to the University of Michigan. Institutionalization of U-M Archeology in the 1920s allows visitors to learn about some of the museum's earliest collections, which includes a number of items collected by Carl E. Guthe in the Philippines. Finally, Archeology Expands: 1945-Present highlights some of the items that have been added to the museums' collections over the past 70 years. [MMB]

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The Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam hosts an exceptionally well-designed website that features almost 1,000 works by the artist along with hundreds of works by other artists. One highlight of the museum's website is the stories feature, which invites readers to learn more about the artist through a variety of archival materials, which includes letters, photographs, and documents. Of course, these stories also incorporate Van Gogh's artwork. One story, Brotherly Love, traces Van Gogh's close relationship with his brother Theo. This story incorporates a number of poignant quotations from letters between the brothers (in one letter, Vincent wrote, "- do let's continue to support one another and receive brotherly love") in addition to paintings and archival materials. Another story, In Daubigny's footsteps, examines how landscape artist Charles-Francois Daubigny influenced Van Gogh's work. [MMB]

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When Edward Abbey's best-known book Desert Solitaire was published in 1968, Arches National Park was merely a national monument and was as yet largely undiscovered by the public. In the decades since, Arches has grown exponentially in popularity with nearly two million visitors per year - compared to the approximately 25,000 visitors it saw annually in Abbey's day - and the solitude that Abbey celebrated has become rather less the norm for most visitors. Other national parks have experienced similar increases in visitorship as well. In this long-form essay published in The New York Times on July 2, 2018, John O'Connor describes his own recent visit to Arches National Park. His visit, like countless others, was inspired by Abbey's book. As O'Connor describes his travels within the park in search of his own Abbey-like experience, he weaves vignettes of Abbey's life and perspectives into his story and reflects on the changes that industrial tourism has wrought on the tourist experience and on the park itself. This essay is also accompanied by photographs taken by Beth Coller. [JDC]

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If you've wondered what Americans ate during the Great Depression in the 1930s (besides the mock apple pie printed on the side of the box of Ritz crackers, or the eggless, butterless, sugarless "Depression Cake" that is still seen in cookbooks in the twenty-first century) this website has the answers. What America Ate, a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project from Michigan State University presents three broad categories of information. These consist of digital versions of material collected during the original America Eats project (a Depression-era program in which writers and photographers documented eating habits of people around the country); food advertisements, pamphlets, and packaging created by manufacturers; and 200 community cookbooks that were created by women's groups, clubs, and churches and produced in small editions. The archive currently features a handful of essays, such as Domestic Workers in the South by Rebecca Sharpless, Professor of History at Texas Christian University. It's also possible to search and browse historical recipes, and sign up to transcribe more recipes to make them more searchable. [DS]

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Merlin Bird ID is a smartphone app from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who is well-known for their numerous educational resources about birds and birding. Users can identify a bird by supplying a photo or by answering a short series of questions, then the app presents them with a list of possible species based on their input, along with photos, recordings of each species' calls, and maps showing their ranges. The app can be used to explore the species that are likely to be seen in the user's area based on their location, and it can also be used offline (with appropriate setup beforehand) to identify birds while in isolated areas. Currently, the app's available species focus primarily on North America, but it also covers parts of Central and South America and Europe. Aimed at beginning birders, Merlin Bird ID makes a handy bird identification field guide available on Android and iOS devices. [JDC]

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For those of us who often glance at our browsers to find that we have far too many tabs and windows open, Tabli is a free Google Chrome extension (created by Antony Courtney) that might help. Tabli allows Chrome users to instantly view all the tabs they have open in a single list, organized by window. In addition, users can conduct a keyword search in Tabli in order to find the particular website that they are looking for. Users may also save windows, offering an alternative to bookmark folders that may appeal to folks working on certain projects, such as building a website or taking an online tutorial. Users can browse or search their tabs by simple selecting the Google extension on their browser. Alternatively, users can also use keyboard shortcuts, as outlined on the extension's website. [MMB]

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Originally featured in the September 2, 2016 issue of the Scout Report, the Historical Software Collection allows visitors to revisit (and play) a number of computer games from the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Vintage software can provoke distinct memories from the early days of personal computing. Perhaps you remember typing up documents using a 1981 version of WordStar or entering data into VisiCalc. Alternatively, you may have childhood memories of honing your budding math skills by playing Number Crunchers in your elementary school classroom. The Historical Software Collection allows you to relive these experiences by providing an open archive of early software. Curated by Jason Scott of the Internet Archive Digital Library, the Historical Software Collection includes dozens of vintage software packages, including the programs highlighted above. Gaming fans will also want to note that the site includes Pac-Man and a number of other early Atari games. Thanks to browser emulators, visitors can use featured software just as they did in the 1980s and early 1990s. While the Historical Software Collection can make for an enjoyable afternoon for anyone looking to nurse some nostalgia, it also provides a useful, accessible online archive to preserve this important pioneering work. [MMB]

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