The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 19

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum virtually overflows with resources and information related to the 43rd president of the United States. Readers may like to begin by scouting the information contained within The President & His Family, before moving on to the fascinating archives contained within Photos & Videos, including a flip book of condolence materials that the United States received from citizens around the world in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In addition, educators will find much to appreciate in the Classroom Resources housed within the Teachers section. There are a number of Lesson Plans and a Primary Sources Toolkit, where students and teachers alike can learn about the analysis and use of primary sources. General readers and educators will both find much to appreciate on this comprehensive site. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Educators who prefer to root their lessons in current events will find much to appreciate in this beautifully arrayed section of the New York Times, in which the renowned news source recounts the year 2015 through visually stunning graphics and images. For example, Derek Watkins' account of Japan's new satellite that snaps a picture of the earth every 10 minutes is accompanied by a drawing of the 17-foot-long orbiter, as well as shots of the swirling masses of typhoons and the red rock deserts of Australia. As well, the Voyages section, sends readers straight to the heart of Nigeria, the Black Sea, Tokyo, Venezuela, and other exotic locales with stunning video and astonishing photography. Or, readers may like to explore the Walking New York interactive, in which they may discover Sonny Rollins's favorite corner of the Williamsburg Bridge and locate the best can-collecting route in Bushwick. Culled from the past year, the material here is as aesthetically enlivening as it is educational. Including Visual Features, Longform Stories, Data-Driven Articles, Maps, Motion Graphics and Video Stories, and Data Visualization, one can imagine many exciting uses for the classroom hide in these stores. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

With a budget of 150 million dollars a year and a history dating back to 1890, Cold Spring Harbor (CSH) Laboratory is one of the nation's most respected private, non-profit research institutions. Now, the Lab has given the world an excellent educational website on the topic of DNA Barcoding, a method that allows experts and non-experts alike to objectively identify species based on their unique pattern of DNA sequence. On the site, readers may like to start by scouting the Introduction page, which outlines the methods and applications of DNA Barcoding. From there, educators may want to download "Using DNA Barcodes to Identify and Classify Living Things," the PDF document that outlines the experimental methods used to document species. Here readers will learn how to gather samples, use a smartphone to take photographs, drop a pin for location, use a field guide to identify the specimen to the degree possible, and then label and analyze the DNA. All the necessary equipment is listed in the document. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Since the nation of Israel was established at midnight on May 14, 1948, the state has been wrought with conflicts and upheavals of all kinds, from military campaigns against its Arab neighbors, to assassinations, to debates between secular and Orthodox Jews. This in-depth exploration of the modern State of Israel by the Pew Research Center finds that the shaky lines of political dissent are far from resolved. There are, of course, stark differences of opinion about the Israeli state between Arabs, who make up 14 percent of the population, and the rest of the population, nearly all of whom identify as Jewish. There is also conflict, however, between secular Jews and their Orthodox neighbors, and even between the Orthodox and the merely Traditional. Educators who are teaching about this most fascinating and controversial nation in the heart of the Middle East will find excellent information in the Complete Report, the Topline Questionnaire, the Israeli Survey, and other resources, which are all freely downloadable in PDF format from this site. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Teachers and students of biology and other biosciences will find first-rate resources on this well-endowed and attractive site. Readers may like to start with the Bioscience Topics tab, where they will find sections dedicated to Animal Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Biodiversity, Bioethics, and a host of other related topics. Each subheading contains an explanatory article, links to resources around the web, and information about sub disciplines. For instance, the Cell Biology page features links to a Virtual Library of Biochemistry & Molecular Cell Biology, among others. Also of interest, the About Bioscience page boasts an entire tab dedicated to Bioscience careers, including job descriptions, salary ranges, educational requirements, and links to more specified sites. Of the many careers covered here, readers will find information about the working lives of Mammalogists, Genetic Counselors, Immunologists, and Entomologists. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

This video instructional series from Annenberg Learner takes readers on a complex journey through the dying process. Best suited for advanced high school students, undergraduates, and adult learners, these 10 half-hour videos present case studies, personal stories, and a wide range of North American cultural perspectives on the death process. Issues around hospice care, death by violence, suicide, how children make sense of death, and other topics are also presented. The series begins with the question, What is Death? It then moves through episodes on the Dying Person, Facing Mortality, the Deathbed, Fear of Death and Dying, and more before culminating in a provocative 30-minute episode entitled The Good Death. Hosted by Robert J. Kastenbaum, a leading authority on the topic of death and dying, these superlatively produced videos provide an excellent supplement to any educational treatment of this topic. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

W.B Yeats once famously quipped, "Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry." This exemplary Teacher's Guide from the Library of Congress (LOC) offers a seven-page outline for how to use over a dozen freely available LOC primary sources in the teaching of "found poetry." From the letters of Helen Keller to the poetry of Walt Whitman to the speeches of Alice Paul, these original scraps of text bring to life not only the poetry of America, but its rich and complicated history and its interweaving and sometimes conflictual cultures. The guide itself, which can be downloaded as a PDF, provides historical background, suggestions for teachers, and links to additional resources, along with commentary on the beautiful poems and prose contained on the main site. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Reno Historical, which is managed by Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries, is a mobile app and website that is chock full of historical essays, images, facts, and photos of the Biggest Little City in the World. On the homepage, readers will find essays on the building boom of 1946, the historical churches of Reno, and virtual tours of local hot spots like the historic riverfront and the University of Nevada. The Stories tab is another great way to experience this website. Within its folds are 140 stories about Reno's history, including tales about the car dealerships and mechanic shops that once lined South Virginia Street, the Barnes Radio Service that once ruled the Reno airwaves, and the classic Sewell's Supermarket. Readers may also download the Reno Historical app for iOS or Android devices to "put Reno at your fingertips." [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, died more than 2,500 years ago. As far as scholars can ascertain, he never wrote his teachings down, but instead traveled widely in what is now northern India, teaching to merchants, peasants, kings, courtesans, monks, nuns, and others as the occasion arose. After his death, a community of followers was left to make sense of the many things he had said. They started by memorizing and reciting teachings, and eventually codified the important points and began the process of organizing and clarifying. One result of this centuries long process was the Abhidharma, a collection of doctrinal investigations and commentaries on the original teachings. This excellent, in-depth entry from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, presents the history and content of these complex texts, including ideas about time, the nature of human beings, causation, and the Buddhist schools trenchant epistemological analysis of the self. For readers who would like to explore the depths of Buddhist philosophy, this resource provides an excellent introduction, as well as links to supplemental material. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

In this multimedia interactive story, readers will explore the rebuilding efforts undertaken by the Haitian government and scores of NGOs in the years since the January 2010 earthquake. Each page features a representative narrative of Hatian life post-earthquake, from the still-empty, multi-million dollar, brand new housing development Morne-a-Cabri, to the problems of illegal hill towns and washed out roads during the rainy season. Along the way, readers are asked to make choices, as if they are officials involved in the reconstruction of the nation. Will you send in bulldozers to raze an illegally built neighborhood? Will you pay a bribe to expedite construction work? Available in both English and French, this detailed and informative project, which was funded by the European Journalism Centre and the Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme, presents colorful images and complex narratives to bring readers into the reality of what it will take to rebuild this island nation. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Founded shortly before the historic 2008 election, Frontloading HQ focuses its incisive attentions on the big questions of national politics, such as the ups and downs of presidential elections and the shifting rules that govern the Democratic and Republican nomination processes. A current, ongoing series of posts, for instance, has examined the Republican delegate allocation rules by state as the RNC recalibrated its policies among the high winds of the primary season. Recent posts in this vein examined the winner-take-all primary in Nebraska, the winner-take-most primary in Indiana, and many others, paying special attention to what is changing in the ways the political parties count votes, and how this contributes to shifts in how democracy plays out on the national stage. Readers will also find colorful and informative electoral college maps from previous elections, as well as a blog archive with well over a thousand entries dating back nearly a decade. For readers who want to understand the underpinnings of the our national politics, this blog by political scientist Josh Putnam can provide the details and analysis. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

With more three million subscribers, Veritasium is one of the most popular science channels on YouTube. Here readers will find brainy, entertaining videos on such topic as the World's Roundest Object, the Northernmost Town on Earth, and the Science of Hair Removal in Slow Motion. Videos have been divided into categories for easing scouting. For example, under Misconceptions, viewers will find quippy clips, such as Where Do Trees Get Their Mass From? and Misconceptions About Temperature. The Test Yourself! category features problems to solve and quizzes to conquer. And readers won't want to miss the Atomic Bonding Song and Experiments A Cappella, featured under the Songs category. For readers looking for three- or four-minute explanations of life's mysteries, Veritasium is a lovely place to begin. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Founded in 1970, the Baylor University Institute for Oral History has been collecting interviews ever since. To date, the Institute has collected more than 5,800 interview transcripts, 3,500 of which are available for free online to anyone who might like to view them. In addition, the Institute began to upload audio files of interviews in 2013. The collection is easily browsable and may be filtered by Interviewer, Interview Date(s), and Project. Projects have included such fascinating topics as Western Swing, Woman in Waco, Mexican Baptists, School of Music, and others. Readers may also use the Advanced Search function to better narrow results. For readers interested in the Baptist church, the culture of Texas, and related topics, this archive will pay rich dividends. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

The Archives & Reference page at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) provides one stop shopping, enabling vistors to select from an array of services that range from the library catalog to in-person reference services to a list of regional depositories. Some services are primarily designed for those who either live in Texas or can make a research trip, while others can be used remotely. The Texas Digital Archive probably provides the most interesting materials for the casual browser, as it includes the Prints and Photographs collection of over 750,000 images related to Texas history. A quick search on Austin retrieves 42,483 results. These results are then organized into subject and thematic groupings, as an additional aid for the new user. [DS]

Comment on or rate this resource

When Google retired Picasa in 2015, some users bemoaned the loss of one of the web's more beloved photo services. Google Photos, however, has proven itself a more comprehensive, flexible, and advanced free service than Picasa ever was. Setup, which features easy drag and drop methods, is simple. From there Google Photos automatically organizes photos by people, places, and things, using advanced image technology, and allows readers to search their photos in a manner similar to the way they might search their Gmail account for a missing email. Google Photos also provides easy-to-learn tools for cropping, filtering, and sharing, as well as tools that allow readers to create albums, GIFs, collages, and more. Google Photos is an advanced and streamlined free photo service, and the app can be downloaded for both iOS and Android devices. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource

Kahoot! is a service that allows teachers to create educational games for their students in a matter of minutes. The games are usually built from a series of multiple choice questions, onto which teachers may add videos, images, and diagrams in order to encourage engagement. The games are designed to be played interactively, in a group setting, in which each player answers questions on his or her own device while games are displayed at the front of the room so every student can engage in the total experience of the lesson. There is also a social learning component, in that students contribute to discussion boards and chat rooms in order to deepen their understanding. [CNH]

Comment on or rate this resource