The Scout Report -- Volume 25, Number 6

Launched in January 2019, RomArchive is a new international digital archive dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and contextualizing the arts and culture of the Roma, Europe's largest ethnic minority. Visitors to RomArchive can explore approximately 5,000 objects, including photos, sound and video recordings, and texts, organized into ten sections representing the breadth and diversity of Romani culture, such as music, visual arts, Flamenco, and the Roma civil rights movement. For those interested in conducting research, RomArchive maintains an internal archive of additional material to which researchers can request access. This project's goals extend beyond mere collection; it also aims to serve as "a reliable source of knowledge that contrasts perceptions, myths, and stereotypes about Roma with counter-narratives that are told by Roma themselves based on established facts." RomArchive was founded by Franziska Sauerbrey and Isabel Raabe with most of its financial support from the German Federal Cultural Foundation, and it is compiled by artists, curators, academics, and activists from across Europe, the majority of whom are of Romani descent. The contents of RomArchive are currently available in English, German, and Romani. [JDC]

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Originally launched in 2010 and currently in its third iteration, NASA's Climate Kids website offers children, parents, and teachers a fantastic resource for exploring "the story of our changing planet through the eyes of the NASA missions studying Earth." Here, visitors can learn about various aspects of Earth's climate and climate change in approachable terms, such as the difference between weather and climate, the urban heat island effect, and the climate's effects on oceans. Toward the bottom of the main page are links to Climate Kids' collections of interactive games, educational activities, and even information about related careers. In addition to its own pages, Climate Kids occasionally links to relevant educational resources on other federal agencies' websites, such as NASA's Space Place and NOAA's SciJinks, which are denoted by a darker color. While Climate Kids primarily targets children in upper elementary grades, anyone wanting to brush up on their climate science basics can also benefit from perusing this resource. With its content updated regularly, Climate Kids is produced by the NASA Space Place team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by Heather Doyle. [JDC]

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Readers with an interest in higher education demographic trends, particularly in STEM disciplines, may wish to check out the 2018 Status Report on Engineering Education, published by the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). Funded by the National Science Foundation, this report "examines trends in engineering degrees conferred at national and institutional levels to determine areas of growth among various groups, changes in racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in engineering, and which colleges and universities graduate a larger number of underrepresented groups in specific engineering disciplines." Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (part of the National Center for Education Statistics), the analysis compared degree completion data for the 2010-2011 academic year to data for the 2015-2016 academic year. Here, visitors may view the report's major findings and download the 122-page report in full or its 22-page section summary. A research, policy, and advocacy organization representing universities in the US, Canada, and Mexico, the APLU describes itself as "North America's oldest higher education association." [JDC]

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For Black History Month 2019, we're looking back at "Mixed History," an essay by Osayi Endolyn that appeared in the Southern Foodways Alliance journal and podcast Gravy in summer 2018. The essay itself looks back and analyzes what happened when Joe Stinchcomb, the beverage director at Italian-inspired Oxford, Mississippi restaurant Saint Leo, introduced five special cocktails to the restaurant's seasonal drink menu for Black History Month in 2018. The drinks were titled "Blood on the Leaves," a Mai Tai twist that quoted a lyric in Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit;" "Bullock & Dabney," a mash-up of the Corpse Reviver and Mint Julep; "The Clyde;" "(I'm Not Your) Negroni;" and "Black Wall Street." After only 11 days, the seasonal drink menu was pulled because the restaurant received numerous calls threatening protests. Stinchcomb's intent was to use the drinks to present unknown Black history to a wider audience. For example, Bullock & Dabney references Tom Bullock, a bartender at the St. Louis Country Club in Missouri who published a drink manual in 1917, while John Dabney, born a slave in Virginia, was a prominent caterer and social figure. The drink menu was promoted online where it was presented without context, and viewers had no way of telling that the author was a Black man. Saint Leo was named a 2017 Best New Restaurant Semifinalist by the James Beard Foundation, and Stinchcomb has been inserting hip-hop or pop-culture references into his cocktails (which are by all accounts delicious) since the restaurant opened. See the full essay for more details in this complicated narrative of Black history. [DS]

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Over the decades, many wonderful and thought-provoking films with high educational value have been produced. For those interested in using film as a jumping-off point for teaching or discussion, Journeys in Film is an excellent resource. This nonprofit organization develops standards-based, interdisciplinary curriculum guides that are based on carefully selected films and are designed to engage students in active learning. Each curriculum guide includes several lesson plans, with each focused on a specific topic in the context of one or more disciplines. For example, the guide for Schindler's List includes lessons for social studies, English, and film literacy, while the guide for Whale Rider has lessons that incorporate science, math, and cross-cultural understanding. In addition to their high-quality curriculum guides, Journeys in Film has created some discussion guides that could be used for non-academic settings such as community film screenings or family discussions. All of these resources can be downloaded with a free subscription to Journeys in Films' email newsletter. Founded by its executive director Joanne Ashe, Journeys in Film has had an official partnership with the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education since 2015. [JDC]

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World Radio Day, which falls annually on February 13, is designated as "a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves." This date was chosen in 2012 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to commemorate the establishment of the United Nations Radio in 1946. For 2019, the theme of World Radio Day is "Dialogue, Tolerance, and Peace." On this day's official website, visitors can learn more about how radio fits into the current year's theme by listening to (or broadcasting) interviews with people such as Brigitte Alepin, a tax specialist from Quebec and founder of a multilingual radio initiative for children called Radio-Dodo, and Daniel Aldrich, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Northeastern University who has studied "how radio can be used to counter violent extremist organizations." Readers will also find a map showing all the World Radio Day events taking place around the globe, and those interested can access the materials from previous years going back to 2012 via links at the bottom of the website. [JDC]

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Throughout its history, the United Nations has produced thousands of multimedia materials, many of which are archived online in the UN Audiovisual Library. This resource provides public access to the UN's extensive audio, film, and video collections going back as far as the 1920s. These collections include over 200 UN radio classics, which features speeches by notable figures such as Maya Angelou, who in 1996 recited her poem "Human Family" at the meeting for the UN Development Fund for Women's Achievement Awards, and Nelson Mandela, who addressed the General Assembly in 1990 with a speech about his fight against apartheid four years before he was elected president of South Africa. Those interested in downloading audio files from this archive may register for a free account, but it should be noted that only low-quality audio files can be downloaded for free. The Audiovisual Library also includes large amounts of both historical and contemporary video recordings, such as archival footage documenting activities of the League of Nations in the aftermath of World War I, as well as current "audio and video recordings of daily meetings and events coverage" with new material added frequently. [JDC]

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Educators who are considering incorporating radio or podcasting into their curriculum may want to check out these course materials from Digital / Media / Arts (DMA). Here, readers will find a fully developed, semester-long curriculum that "introduces students to principles of sound design and techniques of audio production that they can use during the course...and in other media projects they undertake." Using Sound to Tell Stories centers around an audio project through which students learn pre-production, production, and post-production skills such as "research, story development, interviewing, audio recording, script writing, and digital editing" while working in small groups. The course is organized into 35 fifty-minute sessions and created for students in grades 10 or 11, but it is also designed to be flexible, and the teacher's guide includes suggestions for adapting it as needed. This resource also includes links to several relevant integrated units to help connect this course with other disciplines, including physics, English language arts, math, and history. DMA is a curriculum project created collaboratively between the international nonprofit Education Development Center, Inc., the James Irvine Foundation, and ConnectEd. [JDC]

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To the Best of Our Knowledge is an hour-long, nationally-syndicated radio show and podcast "where long-form interviews lead us to dive headlong into the deeper end of ideas." This Peabody award-winning show began broadcasting in 2001 and is hosted by Anne Strainchamps, who co-founded the show with Steve Paulson. Each episode centers on a conversation-starting theme and interviews five or six guests who are knowledgeable in some aspect of that theme. One recent episode (which aired on December 22, 2018) explores the question of whether we should abandon social media or improve it, while the January 26, 2019 episode focuses on the new generation of rising Native American writers. Readers can access the show's complete archive on its website, where episodes can be sorted by date or browsed by topics such as science & technology or arts & culture. Each episode's page includes articles written to accompany its audio segments, links to further information about its guests, and sometimes accompanying videos. Those interested can find which local radio station broadcasts the show, listen online, or subscribe to its podcast on platforms such as Apple Podcasts or RadioPublic. To the Best of Our Knowledge is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio. [JDC]

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STEM educators looking for an engaging way to introduce students to radio's engineering aspects may be interested in Riding the Radio Waves, a lesson plan from the TeachEngineering collection. This standards-aligned lesson teaches students "how AM radios work through basic concepts about waves and magnetic fields" and includes several demonstrations "to help students better understand these concepts." In addition to the demonstrations, the lesson is also designed to be taught in conjunction with a hands-on activity where students build working AM radios from kits. This curriculum, which was created with students in grades 7-9 in mind, emphasizes the concepts of waves and magnetic fields as engineering fundamentals as well as the practical applications of those concepts. TeachEngineering is a digital library of standards-aligned K-12 STEM teaching resources whose development was funded by the National Science Foundation and is currently managed by the University of Colorado-Boulder and Oregon State University. Riding the Radio Waves and its accompanying activity was contributed by the MUSIC (Math Understanding through Science Integrated with Curriculum) Program in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. [JDC]

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We originally featured Big Picture Science in the Scout Report on 2-16-2018, and this nationally-distributed radio show and podcast continues to be an excellent resource for learning about current trends in science and technology.

From the SETI Institute comes Big Picture Science: a weekly radio show/podcast dedicated to "connect[ing] the hottest and coolest in scientific research and technology with lively and intelligent storytelling." The show is hosted by Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, and Molly Bentley, a science journalist and executive producer of the show. Each 50-minute episode centers on a specific scientific topic or question, often with guest researchers. For example, in the "Creative Brains" episode, released on February 5, 2018, Shostak and Bentley interviewed neuroscientist David Eagleman and composer Anthony Brandt about the science behind human creativity. In another recent episode, "Geology is Destiny" (released January 15, 2018), Shostak and Bentley chatted with geologist Walter Alvarez, planetary scientist David Grinspoon, and biologist Eugenia Gold about how geology has shaped human activity and how humans are shaping geology in the age of the Anthropocene. Each episode of this podcast is accompanied by a short description. Interested listeners can check out current and past episodes of Big Picture Science on this website. Listeners may also subscribe on iTunes or RSS.

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