·http://undsci.berkeley.edu/teaching/index.php

The world of science is diverse and fascinating, but traditional methods of teaching sometimes don't do it justice. This site from the University of California helps teachers help their students become fascinated by the process of scientific discovery. The site contains several "teachers' lounges" where educators can share information, resources, and also learn about new pedagogical developments and innovations. Visitors shouldn't miss the Guide to Understanding Science 101, which includes answers to questions like What is science? and so on. Moving on, the site also contains other areas, including Correcting Misconceptions, Teaching Tools, and Conceptual Framework, which helps educators identify age-appropriate learning goals. [KMG]

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·http://ecomobile.gse.harvard.edu/

If you're not scared off by the acronym, the Ecosystems Mobile Outdoor Blended Immersive Learning Environment (EcoMOBILE) is a fabulous learning device. Developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, EcoMOBILE is a fairly remarkable initiative that allows students to explore a virtual pond and extend their learning through one or more field trips to a local pond environment. Students can access and collect information and clues about the virtual environment via a mobile device. Then, students can extend their learning to the real world by using environmental probes that allow collection of real-time data. On the site, visitors can learn about the application via a short video, project data, and information about the primary investigators. [KMG]

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·http://seceij.net/index.html

The mission of the Science Education & Civic Engagement Journal is "to explore constructive connections between science education and civic engagement that will enhance both experiences for our students." The journal is edited by an international team, including professors from the University of Johannesburg and Santa Clara University. The journal has been published twice a year since 2007 and visitors can access all of the issues on this site. On the homepage, visitors can look over recently published articles, such as "Designing Healthy Meals to Counter Nutrition-Related Diseases: A Learning Activity." Also, visitors can read over submission guidelines, learn about the editorial board, and also look through back issues for articles of interest. [KMG]

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·http://www.plantingscience.org/

Planting Science is a collaboration of international scientific societies, scientists, educators, and education research organizations that work together to increase young people's interest in science. The community's work includes this website, which is designed to provide access to open education resources for student-centered plant investigations that meet national science education standards. On the site, visitors can look over the What's Happening area to learn about newly added resources and upcoming seminars. The Featured Projects area contains user-generated classroom materials from science educators around the United States. The Teacher tab provides a roadmap for starting investigations and a great Communicating Science area. Here visitors can learn about crafting lab notebooks, making presentations, and sketching in science classes. [KMG]

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·http://www.ssec.si.edu/

Created through a unique partnership between the Smithsonian Institution and the National Academies in 1985, the Smithsonian Science Education Center is committed to improving "the learning and teaching of science in school districts in the United States and throughout the world." The materials on the site are divided into areas that include Books & Kits, Innovation & Leadership, and Smithsonian. In the Books & Kits area, visitors can browse through a number of lesson plans, fact sheets, and other educational materials designed to help students learn about 20 different topics, including technology, geology, botany, and meteorology. The Innovation & Leadership area provides access to resources on increasing diversity in the science classroom and improving K-8 science education. The website is rounded out by a range of social media links where visitors can keep tabs on new additions to the site. [KMG]

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·http://cber.cba.ua.edu/

Based at the University of Alabama, the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) works on crafting key policy updates and research briefs to provide information about business in the state. On the homepage, visitors will find sections that include News, Research Briefs, Publications, and Economic Forecasting. The Research Briefs cover timely reports like "Alabama: Rural or Urban? 'It Depends'" and "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the New Alabama Immigration Law." In the Publications area, visitors can look over the "Alabama Business" quarterly report, which publishes information on population and other socioeconomic issues. The Alabama Indicators area includes population estimates, income and poverty levels, and detailed tables about the gross domestic product. [KMG]

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·http://www.youtube.com/numberphile

Are you a numberphile? Maybe you are and you don't know it yet. If you have any interest in topology, geometry, algebra, or other facets of math, this website may be right up your alley. Created by Brady Haran, the site contains hundreds of entertaining videos, including titles like "Unboxing Calculators," "Politics and Numbers," and the very engaging "Pi and the Size of the Universe." Visitors can search the entire collection as they see fit, read comments by other users and also even view topical themes, such as Prime Numbers and Yahtzee. Additionally, there is a Discussion area where visitors can engage in dialogue with other scholars and folks with an interest in mathematics education. [KMG]

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·http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/visions-freedom-new-documents-the-closed-cuban-archives

Freedom in Cuba during the 20th century had many faces, some of which are revealed through this amazing collection of documents. Offered by the Wilson Center, this collection was compiled by Dr. Piero Gleijeses, who spent a significant time looking through the Cuban archives for work on several books. He gathered 3,500 pages of Cuban documents, some of which are available in this electronic dossier. First-time visitors should read the introduction by Gleijeses, look over the list of documents, and get started. The documents are dated from 1976 to 1989 and include reports from Raul Castro on technical assistance to Angola, memos about conversations between Fidel Castro and Soviet leaders, and a range of other official documents. [KMG]

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·http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157636871888613/with/10441859545/

Born in 1914 in Hamilton, Ohio, Robert McCloskey came to Boston to attend the now-defunct Vesper George Art School. He left to live in New York for a time and established a career as an author and illustrator in the late 1930s. Over the years, he became the force behind beloved tales like Homer Price, Blueberries for Sal, and Time of Wonder. His most famous work is Make Way for Ducklings, which tells the story of a pair of mallards in Boston who take their eight ducklings from the Charles River to Boston's Public Garden. The Boston Public Library has digitized over 100 of McCloskey's studies for this wonderful work for consideration by the general public. Visitors can zoom in and look around and some of these great works. Visitors can also create their own curated collections for use at a later date. [KMG]

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·http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/forman/

The late Harrison Forman was a well-known photojournalist, world traveler, and fellow of the American Geographical Society. During his long career, he focused on places such as the South Pacific, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. He was known as a "modern Marco Polo" and his primary interest was in people and their daily lives. Years after he passed away, his photo collection of about 30,000 negatives and even more slides, transparencies, and other items, was presented to the American Geographical Society Library. This digital collection contains over thousands of items from that collection. Although the photos are wonderful, visitors will will also want to look over the 24 journals offered here. They cover Forman's trips to Afghanistan in 1953, China in 1942, and Hungary in 1960. The Browse Topics area is a great way to look over these materials, as the headings include topics as varied as Sino-Japanese War, Military, Social conditions, Mao Zedong, and Rituals. [KMG]

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·http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/

In 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto the infield grass at Ebbets Field and integrated major league baseball. This online collection, sponsored by the Citigroup Foundation, brings together dozens of items related to his time on the field, including baseball programs, photographs, and other pieces of ephemera. The site includes an interactive timeline and a wonderful essay titled "Early Baseball Pictures, 1860s-1920s." Teachers can also click on the Collection Connections area to learn how to use these materials to teach critical thinking, American history, and social history. [KMG]

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·http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/activities

Monster marshmallows? The science of sugar? And the world of microorganisms? All of these come together on the Exploratorium in San Francisco's website. The site, dedicated to creative activities appropriate for school-age students, includes apps and videos that provide fun explorations of the aforementioned topics and many more. First-time visitors can browse by type of activity, look over the staff picks, and look over the list of topics, which include Human Body, Living Things, and Seeing. The Listening area is a great place to start, as it features 12 different activities, including "Kitchen Sink-o-Pation" and "Dot Mixer." Visitors can sign up to receive notices about updates via a range of social media, including Google+, Twitter, and Facebook. [KMG]

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·http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/

Based at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the core purpose of the Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIRMC) is "to develop and provide access to health information resources and technology for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery." It's an ambitious mission, but this site provides ample material for public health experts, journalists, scholars, and the general public. First-time visitors should look over the In the Spotlight area to learn about everything from disaster apps to resources about coping with disasters, violence, or other traumatic events. The New Documents area offers works that deal with biodefense, food contamination events, and nuclear terrorism response plans. Finally, additional information on a range of topics can be found on the left-hand side of the homepage in areas that include Disaster Health Literature and Librarians & Disasters. [KMG]

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·http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/victorianhome.html

What was life in Victorian England like? The British Library shares posters, pamphlets, diaries, political reports, and illustrations that tell about this seven-decade stretch of the 19th century. This illustrative tour through a fascinating stretch of British history is told via a wonderful set of essays by Liza Picard that explore topics like "The Working Classes and the Poor" and "The Rise of Technology and Industry." Each essay includes documents aplenty, along with descriptions of everything from the newly invented telephone to Friedrich Engels's take on factory conditions in 1844. The site is a wonderful introduction to this slice of British history and could be used in a range of educational settings. [KMG]

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·http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/hensel.html

The American South has been documented by legions of photographers and others seeking to capture its unique visual appearance. John LeRoy Hensel came to Columbia, South Carolina from Ohio during World War II as a bomber pilot instructor. He grew quite fond of the region and he returned after the war's conclusion to open a photography business. Over the next few years, he took hundreds of photographs documenting building construction, social gatherings, schools, and a range of other places and activities in town. All told, the archive has over 2,000 photos that visitors can browse at their leisure. The topical headings here include People, Buildings, and Aerial Photos. This last area has over three dozen remarkable photos that document the city and surroundings before the massive growth that happened in the 1960s and 1970s. [KMG]

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·http://www.page2images.com/mobile_phone_emulator

If you're a website designer, you are probably very interested in how your site appears on mobile devices. The Page2Images site makes this entire process quite seamless. Visitors just need to type in the desired URL, choose the device, screen size, and orientation and voila: a no-frills but reliable thumbnail of what the site will look like. This version is browser-based and thus compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

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·http://feedsifter.com/create.php

The concept behind Feed Sifter is quite simple. Most people subscribe to a number of feeds and it can be difficult keeping track of all this information. Feed Sifter makes this a bit easier by offering a quick and easy filter for looking for specific information in a specific feed. Visitors can type in any permutation or combination of words and receive immediate results. This version is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

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Steve Jobs' California Homes Gets Historic Designation
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/steve-jobs-calif-home-historic-designation-20713336

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' childhood home in California gets historic designation
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/229696091.html

Computer History Museum
http://www.computerhistory.org/

California State Parks: Office of Historic Preservation
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/

Hearst Castle
http://www.hearstcastle.org/

Steve Jobs 1995 Interview
http://vimeo.com/31813340

Many historic homes are the subject of great veneration in the United States: Mount Vernon in northern Virginia, Springwood in New York, and the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. This week, a new home entered this pantheon, and it's one that may surprise you. The historical commission of Los Altos, California voted unanimously to afford the boyhood home of Steve Jobs official historic status. The rather modest ranch home was where Jobs grew up and built the first 100 Apple I computers, along with his sister and early partner Steve Wozniak. The designation doesn't mean that the house will be turning into a museum anytime soon, as Jobs' sister still owns the home and has not commented publicly on the designation as of this writing. [KMG]

The first link will take interested parties to a nice news article from ABC News that discusses this recent historic designation of Jobs' early home. The second link leads to another article from the Star-Tribune that offers additional details on this recent development. The third link will take users to the homepage of the Computer History Museum. This site is full of fascinating information about the history of computers, including digital exhibits and oral histories from early pioneers. The fourth link leads to the official homepage of the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation. Here visitors can learn about the wonderful historic properties around the state. The fifth link will take visitors to the homepage of another well-known home in California: San Simeon, which was the home of noted newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. The final link will take visitors to a remarkable interview with Steve Jobs from 1995.