·http://www.learner.org/courses/learningmath/algebra/

This wide-ranging and informative online course from Annenberg Learner can be a powerful resource for both high school and K-8 teachers. The site features 10 two-and-a-half hour sessions on a range of related topics, starting with an overview of Algebraic Thinking, moving through Patterns in Context, Functions and Algorithms, Proportional Reasoning, and other topics before finally culminating in a section that utilizes Classroom Case studies. Along the way, a series of edifying and entertaining videos and interactive web activities keep the material fresh, while the various support materials help explain everything from simple equations to some of the more complex topics in the course. Though it is possible to register for the course and take it for credit, interested teachers can also simply learn at their own pace and on their own time. [CNH]

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·http://www.johnkyrk.com/index.html

Available in English and six other languages, this interactive site provides dynamic insight into the lives of cells. Readers may select from just under two dozen categories, including Amino Acids, DNA, Mitosis, and many others. Each section harbors a new activity that explains an aspect of how cells work. For instance, readers may select Meiosis, which will pull up a cell that is ready to divide. Clicking the cell than sets off a barrage of actions, including interphase, prophase I, pro metaphase I, metaphase I, and so on. With many processes to choose from, the site can provide hours of educational entertainment to anyone who would like to learn more about cell biology. [CNH]

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·http://www.sciencegeek.net/

Newly updated for better viewing on cell phones and tablets, this site from high school science teacher Andy Allen offers insights into Chemistry, AP Chemistry, Biology, Online Apps, and Other Resources. Selecting any of those topics pulls up a list of resources from Mr. Allen's own classes, including blogs, classroom plans, and other resources. For example, selecting Chemistry produces a drop down menu where readers can view PowerPoints on Atomic Structure and Nuclear Chemistry, Periodic Behavior and Ionic Bonding, and many other topics. Readers may also view Videos about Mole Conversion Problems, Stoichiometry Problems, and other topics. For students of chemistry and biology, educators looking for resources and inspiration, or just about anyone who'd like to refresh their knowledge of basic science, ScienceGeek.net has a lot to offer. [CNH]

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·http://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/1918-influenza

Created by a class of college students at Wayne State University, this well-curated site explores the outbreak of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, a global catastrophe that infected a fifth of the world's population. After reading the excellent introduction, readers will likely wish to make their way through all four themes on the site. The first theme, The Flu Strikes: 1918, covers the outbreak, symptoms, and etiology of the "Spanish Flu." Next, the Impact of the Flu traces how the disease impacted doctors, hospitals, and entire communities. The third theme, The Military Fights the Flu, provides an overview of how U.S. military forces balanced the need to care for ill soldiers with the necessities of fighting a trench war. Last, the Legacy of the Pandemic provides insight into how the 1918 outbreak impacted medicine and policy. Photographs, contemporary reports, and medical articles accompany each thematic section, helping round out this moment in American and global history. [CNH]

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·http://water.epa.gov

This site from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) features a host of resources about water and water-related issues. With many helpful articles available under categories such as Drinking Water, Education & Training, Laws & Regulations, Our Waters, Pollution Prevention & Control, Science & Technology, Water Infrastructure, and others, the site is a welcome reference for readers who want to know more about water and the treatment of water resources in the U.S. For instance, the Our Waters section reveals a list of how the EPA demarcates different types of water, from Drinking Water to Ground Water to Rivers & Streams. The page explains each type in a sentence or two, then links to a more in-depth explanation, complete with additional links and resources. [CNH]

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·http://www.cyberphysics.co.uk/index.html

This site, designed for students, parents, and educators in the British educational system, is not regionally exclusive. In fact, it can be helpful to anyone learning or teaching physics in high school or early college. For easy navigation, the site features an excellent Google-powered custom search bar. In addition, categories such as Atmosphere, Atomic, Electricity, Energy, Forces, Geophysics, Heat, Light, and more than half a dozen others make navigating the page simple and intuitive. There is a tremendous amount of information available here. In fact, each category opens to a number of subcategories (there are, for instance, over a dozen subcategories under the Geophysics category) with diagrams, informative text, and links to external resources that will help flesh out the physics topic of interest. Additional YouTube videos and PowerPoint presentations can be found under the Useful Extras tab. [CNH]

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·https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/home

This archive from the Legal Information Institute is an excellent and frequently updated database concerning the activities of the U.S. Supreme Court. Readers may like to start with the Most Recent Decisions. Selecting any case navigates to a page featuring the Syllabus, Opinion, Concurrences, and Dissents of the Supreme Court's most recent deliberations. In addition, readers may scout the Current awareness section, which examines decisions, orders, and case updates by date, as well as an Archive of decisions, which can be browsed by topic, author, and party. The site also features an excellent search function. For instance, typing "gay marriage" returns half a dozen important cases, including the landmark 2013 decision, United States v. Windsor, in which the court held that restricting marriage rights to heterosexual couples was unconstitutional. [CNH]

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·https://www.edx.org/course/world-wine-grape-glass-adelaidex-wine101x-0

Australia has been producing wine since the late 18th century, shipping its first exports to England in 1854. Today, the Land Down Under is one of the top producers of wine in the world. So it should come as no surprise that this popular, self-paced (and free) online course is taught by four instructors from the University of Adelaide. Readers who take the class will learn to "evaluate and communicate the various sensory attributes" of wine. They will also come to understand the "structure, growth and development of grapevines" and, by the end of the course, will become skilled in contrasting "the different winemaking techniques employed in the production of different styles of wine." For readers who are looking for an excellent, entertaining, and cost-free introduction to the wide world of wine, this may be just the resource. [CNH]

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·http://discovery.wisc.edu/home/discovery/recorded-lectures/prior-lectures.cmsx

The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, espouses five interrelated and mission-shaping values: curiosity, connectivity, experimentation, rigor, and elegance. And these values are brightly displayed on the center's archives of recorded lectures, where speakers from around the country and the world offer insights into everything from virtual reality to evolution of the universe to social marketing for startups. One particularly interesting panel discussion (recorded on April 13, 2015) concerns the university's role in promoting entrepreneurship. [CNH]

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·http://www.nature.com/nature/archive/specials.html

The Specials Archive at Nature, the international weekly journal of science, contains wonders. Hundreds of supplements cover a staggering range of topics, from science in India to controversies in stem cell research, from the latest in microscopy, to the advances in microbial genetics. Readers may view all specials, or limit their search to one of five categories: Biological sciences specials, Chemical sciences specials, Earth & Environmental sciences specials, Physical sciences specials, and Community and Society specials. They may also browse the Subject Category and Article Category archives, or search by Author and Subject Index. One particular special of note, The University Experiment, may be of special interest to Scout Readers as it chronicles the pressure on universities to not only produce and convey knowledge, but to be "engines of economic growth, beacons of equal opportunity, laboratories for new modes of learning and more." [CNH]

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·http://www.alabamahumanities.org/news/mosaic/

Mosaic Magazine, the flagship publication of the Alabama Humanities Foundation, is published twice-yearly, and can be read online for free. The colorful issues cover the latest art, poetry, and music of the Yellowhammer State, as well as articles concerning the culture of the South, past and present. For instance, the Spring 2015 issue features an article on the historical events that took place in Montgomery in 1955 and Selma in 1965. Meanwhile, the Fall 2014 cover story honors the Italian immigrants that helped shape the culture of early 20th century Birmingham. Additionally, an article from the Spring 2014 edition examines the impact of reading as a family. [CNH]

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·http://www.npr.org/sections/health/

According to a recent (May 1, 2015) post on NPR's health blog: "People who got up and moved around for at least two minutes every hour had a 33 percent lower risk of dying." This is just one example of the fascinating health-related information dished out by NPR across its varying blogs and newscasts. Other articles featured in the health section of the NPR site have covered the number of steps per day adults need to take in order to keep their knees healthy, suggestions for addiction treatment in emergency rooms, and costs and benefits of screening for cervical cancer. Many of the stories can be read or streamed for easy listening. For readers looking for a variety of well-written and easily accessible health information, this collection of health news is an excellent place to start. [CNH]

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·http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/

In the latest national survey conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, nearly two-thirds of respondents reported that they believe climate change is happening and about half believed climate change is impacted by human activities. Interestingly, these numbers have remained relatively stable for the past years, perhaps, according to the report, because Americans aren't hearing about climate change very often. Findings like these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is available on the site. Readers may browse Yale Climate Opinion Maps, which examine perceptions of climate change by state, congressional district, or county. They may also read peer-reviewed articles, as well as explanations of those articles, and watch a six-minute video that explains the results from the group's 2012 Six Americas Report. [CNH]

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·http://www.bamradionetwork.com/

BAM! (body and mind) Radio started out in 2007 as a single online radio program aimed at parents who were interested in encouraging a healthy body and a healthy mind in their children. It has since expanded and now features four distinct yet related stations: Educators Radio, EdTech Radio, Leaders Radio, and Parents Radio. Users can find a good deal of content on the homepage, including episodes listed under New For Teachers, New For Leaders, and New in Ed Tech, or they can delve into one of the stations. For instance, selecting Leaders Radio pulls up all the latest from that station, including a fascinating episode featuring four experts on how to handle racial and cultural conflict in educational settings. [CNH]

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·http://digital-library.usma.edu/cdm/

For anyone intrigued by the history of the United States Military - and especially the training of officers at military academies like West Point - the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) Library's Digital Collections will arrive as a welcome find. For example, the 1897 Annual Report of the Superintendent details the faculty and staff on hand at West Point as of September 1st: "7 professors, 1 associate professor, 55 commissioned officers, 1 chaplain, 1 sword master, and 1 teacher of music." In the same document, readers may peruse details about the academy's water supply, buildings and grounds, and the building of a battle monument, among other details. There are numerous items of interest in the collection in addition to annual reports describing the activities of West Point through the 1980s; there are also extensive maps, photographs, journals, and class albums featured in the collections. Last but not least, readers should not miss the opportunity to scroll through a handful of issues of the Assembly Magazine, West Point's former alumni magazine. [CNH]

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·http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/africa/

The UK National Archives presents this collection of images taken over 100 years of African history, dating from the 1870s to the 1960s. The photographs document life during the Colonial period in Africa, showing visiting British royals, anthropological observations, hospitals, mission schools, and local markets. An 8-minute introductory presentation by the National Archives Diverse Histories Specialist, Jenni Orme, provides context by pointing out the differing attitudes found in the colonial era vs. the present day. A small selection of the images here can be browsed on the National Archives website; to see the complete collection (CO 1069 series), links are provided to Flickr, where the images are arranged in groups by geography. The National Archives also invites visitors to add their own knowledge, by tagging and commenting on the images on Flickr. [DS]

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·https://readfold.com/

Brought to us by the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Center for Civic Media, FOLD is an open-source "reading, authoring, and publishing platform allowing storytellers to structure and contextualize stories." Anyone with a Twitter or email account can join the platform for free, then easily build stories using narrative cards and context cards. narrative cards are the blocks of text that tell the story; context cards are the videos, maps, photos, gifs, tweets, interactive visualizations (or just about any other media format) that accompany select words and phrases in each narrative card. The effect is fresh and compelling. For instance, a recent story explicated the ins and outs and history of Bitcoin, using a combination of original narrative and various YouTube content to tell the tale. While reading the content already on the site is interesting, it becomes even more compelling when you start using the innovative, user-friendly service to join the conversation yourself. [CNH]

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·http://ahkscript.org/

AutoHotkey, the free, open-source custom scripting language, was originally designed to provide easy keyboard shortcuts ("hotkeys") for Microsoft Windows applications. While advanced programmers can utilize the software to do much, much more, the average user will still find AutoHotkey to be wonderfully in line with its initial aim. Using very simple scripts, users can program Windows apps to do a host of interesting tasks, from changing the meaning of keys on the keyboard, to remapping the keyboard from QWERTY to Dvorak or opening programs and documents with custom keystrokes. More information on just how this all works can be found on the Forum and Docs sections of the site. [CNH]

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Scientists celebrate comet lander Philae's call after 7-month slumber
http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/2015/06/scientists-celebrate-comet-lander-philae-s-call-after-7-month-slumber

Comet Lander Philae Wakes Up From Nap
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/comet-lander-philae-wakes-nap-180955599/

Revived Philae poised to do comet science
http://www.nature.com/news/revived-philae-poised-to-do-comet-science-1.17767

Rosetta spacecraft to change orbit in bid to strengthen Philae communication
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/15/rosetta-spacecraft-to-change-orbit-in-bid-to-strengthen-philae-communication

Now That The Philae Comet Lander Is Awake, What Happens Next?
http://io9.com/now-that-the-philae-comet-lander-is-awake-what-happens-1711631749

Where's Philae? Space Agency Narrows Search Area for Lost Comet Lander
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/11/12/comet-landing-a-success-european-craft-makes-fairly-gentle-touch-down

When the European Space Agency (ESA) lost contact with its celebrated comet lander, Philae, in November of 2014, no one was sure what would happen next. Would the batteries recharge when Comet 67P, where Philae had recently touched down, circled back toward the sun? Would the 220 pound, cube-like, unmanned spacecraft ever resume communications? On the evening of June 13th, those questions were answered when an 85-second-long transmission was received. The report covered some basic diagnostics. The ESA now knows, for instance, that Philae is drawing about 24 watts of peak power per day from three hours of sunlight. They also know that the temperature on the comet's surface is well above the -45 degrees celsius necessary to reboot the onboard computer. Last but not least, they know that there are still 8,000 data packets on that computer, waiting to be transmitted. What's next for Philae? Perhaps only time will tell. [CNH]

Science Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, and Nature News - featured in the first three links above - all ran informative articles this week on the fresh burst of communications from comet lander Philae. In addition, the fourth link will take readers to an article by Ian Sample in which the Guardian's science editor details the European Space Agency's attempts to reposition its communications satellite, Rosetta, for more efficient transmissions from Philae. Next up, George Dvorsky at iO9 asks: What's next for the comet lander after its 211-day nap? Readers may also like to re-read an article from November 2014 that details the days after the ESA lost contact with Philae more than half a year ago.