The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 41

Youth Workers and educators dedicated to student-centered pedagogy will want to check out Teach Youth Radio, the official education site for Youth Radio. Youth Radio is a youth driven news broadcast based out of Oakland, California that was established to provide an alternative perspective to the dominant media narrative. On this site, teachers and youth workers will find resources for teaching journalism skills (including fact-checking, story pitching, and conducting interviews) as well as technical skills for publishing in a variety of formats (including how to make infographics and mobile applications). In addition, teachers may be interested in the site's lesson plans related to helping youth understand the benefits and risks involved in having an online presence. Each of these lesson plans includes links to additional resources to spark ideas or facilitate instruction and discussions. [MMB]

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Census data provides essential information that allows social scientists, economists, and historians to better understand and analyze the past and present. IPUMS (Integrated Public use Microdata Service) USA is a remarkable online database that allows anyone to explore and examine federal census data from 1850 through the present. Created by Steven Ruggles at the Minnesota Population Center, IPUMS lets users examine past census microdata, highlighting individual level responses rather than aggregate data. Historians will also appreciate that IPUMS assigns uniform codes to all samples, circumventing any complications caused by change in terminology over time. To use IPUMS, users will need to create a free researcher account and agree to IPUMS' citation and redistribution policies. Once users create an account, they can search for data by selecting a variety of samples and variables and submit a request to receive a free data extract. As of this writing, IPUMS USA includes over 50 samples from the federal census and the more recent American Community Surveys. [MMB]

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The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was perhaps the most prominent Native American Boarding School. Between 1879 and 1919, thousands of Native Americans from around the country, representing a number of different tribes, attended Carlisle, where they experienced a curriculum and environment designed to forcibly assimilate them into white culture. Today, a group of librarians, faculty, and students at Dickinson College are working to digitize a number of materials related to the Carlisle Indian School, with the aim of helping researchers and members of the general public better understand the school and the experiences of individual students. Digitized items include official school records and material from the National Archive's Bureau of Indian Affairs papers. Visitors can browse or search through official student records, student photographs, letters, and digitized copies of school publications. One of these publications is The Indian Helper, the official newsletter of the school, which was often printed by students but authored by school officials, recruiters, and others. This publication is especially useful in providing visitors with a glimpse into the the motivations and attitudes of school officials. [MMB]

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Oceanography is the study of the ocean and all of its complex relationships with the planet. This may include the study of weather, ocean currents, or sea life. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and Earth science research, devoted to understanding "the oceans, atmosphere, Earth, and other planets for the benefit of society and the environment." This HathiTrust collection provides access to Scripps' substantial collection of digitized books and offers a welcome resource for anyone interested in the subject of oceanography or the history of the Scripps Institution. Readers will find "The 1918 U.S. Navy diving school course notes of diver Frank W. Himsel" alongside "The 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington" and many other interesting publications. Of the 111,350 items in the collection, 19,694 are available in full and a handy search function will help users identify specific works of interest. [CDR]

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The international science journal Nature routinely publishes Nature Outlook, a supplemental series in which topics of scientific, clinical, or societal interest are explored in depth. These Outlooks provide a comprehensive picture of the current "state of knowledge" on the selected theme. For instance, this Outlook from September 2016 explores the ever elusive topic of The Dark Universe. As the authors note, "Most of the cosmos is the dark universe, a mix of dark matter and dark energy." Readers have access to seven articles written by science journalists and scholars on the topic, as well as Related Articles and informative Animations. The content here is best suited for readers with a basic understanding of physics; if used as an educational resource, the articles and animations may be most beneficial for college or advanced secondary students. Readers interested in exploring more Nature Outlook topics may select the See all supplements link at the top of the page. [CDR]

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For anyone interested in women's history during the eighteenth century, Martha Washington: A Life may be a particularly helpful digital resource. This exhibit is a joint collaboration between George Washington's Mount Vernon and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. The site is organized into four sections (Martha's Biography, Teaching Materials, Archive, and Resources) that tell the story of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington from her birth in 1731 through her experiences as wife, mother, and first First Lady of the United States. Her life is presented in detail through brief essays, pictures of rich archival material, and letters and other written documents. Through this content, visitors may explore the various ways in which class and gender affected the experiences of women in colonial America. General readers may like to start with Martha's Biography, while educators will appreciate the Teaching Materials section where they will find teaching modules on sociability, slavery at Mount Vernon, and the Revolutionary War. [CDR]

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When it comes to basic grammar rules, even the most skilled writer can use a little reminder every now and then. The Daily Writing Tips blog was created with that exact sentiment in mind. Every day the team publishes a new article on a variety of writing topics, from a discussion of That vs. Which to 44 Resume Writing Tips. One particularly helpful article, English Grammar 101: All You Need to Know, is a one-stop-shop for basic grammar rules. Readers will not only find an overview of basic sentence structure, going over the difference between clauses and phrases, but also individual sections on the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Archived posts date back to 2007 and are sorted into a variety of helpful categories, including Grammar, Misused Words, Style, and Writing Basics. [CDR]

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Post-Harvest technology is crucial to ensuring that fresh produce is safely preserved and distributed. This topic has profound implications for nutrition, microbiology, agriculture, and other areas of study. The Journal of Post-Harvest Technology is an open-access, peer reviewed publication dedicated to the science and technology of post-harvest storage, packing, and distribution of crops. Edited by a group of international researchers and published since 2013, the Journal of Post-Harvest Technology has covered an array of subjects including the shelf life or certain kinds of produce; the impact of hydro-cooling systems on tropical fruits and vegetables; and an exploration on the "preparation and preservation of fruit leather by blending indigenous fruits viz bael and anola." As this article describes, bael and anola are both high in nutritional value but difficult to eat; fruit leather provides a way for these fruits to be distributed and consumed. [MMB]

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Film fans and Anglophiles alike will want to check out the British Film Institute's interactive Map of Britain On Film. Here, the British Film Institute (BFI) has mapped out the settings of hundreds of films throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Visitors can search for films by location by clicking on a pin that indicates how many film scenes the institute has identified in a particular place (for example, visitors will find 52 films set in Manchester and 122 set in Belfast). Visitors can also search for films by decade or by subjects (tagged subjects range from "pageants" to "football matches" to "factories." Best of all, visitors are able to instantly watch short clips of identified films. There are clips from throughout British film history in this collection, including those that date back to the earliest days of film. This remarkable and engrossing tool illustrates both the importance of geography in film as well as how film can play a role in constructing and representing space. [MMB]

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Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is home to many fine collections, including over 1,100 instruments. Items range from shell trumpets to panpipes to grand pianos. On this page, visitors will find an overview of the MFA's extensive musical instrument collection, as well as nearly 25 options for virtual Collection Tours. For instance, selecting the Southeast Asian Instruments tour reveals many fascinating items from ancient times up through the twenty-first century. Each item in the collection features a high resolution image, a detailed description, and provenance information. Other Collection Tours include Percussion Instruments, Bowed String Instruments, and Zothers, Psalteries, and Dulcimers among others. For the traditionally trained musician or the novice music enthusiast, this collection has much to engage readers. [CDR]

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Award-winning writer Bethany Brookshire, authors Scicurious, a sub-blog of ScienceNews. With her engaging posts, Brookshire covers a range of topics relating to science, health, and psychology. Recent articles include an exploration of what human reactions to animal cages demonstrate about human empathy; an analysis of the research relationship of uncertainty to stress (and what we can do about this relationship); and thoughtful examinations of how women are underrepresented in research studies in sports medicine and exercise physiology - and the implications of this oversight. Visitors to SciCurious can browse for past articles of interest by subject tags. [MMB]

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This ninety-five-page report - The State of American Jobs - from the Pew Research Center discusses the changing economic landscape, workers' ideas about their own commitment to retraining and honing their skillset(s), and how workers view the role of higher education as part of this process. The report is based on a national survey of more than 5,000 adults and the findings have been divided into five sections accompanied by helpful graphics, informative data, and thoughtful analysis. Readers will understand more about how workers view their needs for ongoing training, what sectors have had the most rapid employment growth, and what knowledge and skills Americans believe are most critical for their own long-term success in the marketplace. An abbreviated version of the report may be read online; the full version may be downloaded as a PDF. [RB]

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Art Nouveau was a brief and brilliant period of art that spanned the last decade of the nineteenth century through the dawn of World War I. Europeana, the official digital repository of the European Union, hosts this gorgeously curated digital collection about Art Nouveau in everyday objects, architecture, and print. Visitors can browse this online collection, culled from museums and archives across the continent, by a variety of Themes, including Mastercrafts, Architecture & Cityscapes, World of New Interiors, and Muses & Mysticism. Within each Theme, visitors can view items alongside explanations of the influences and significance of a variety of aspects of art history. This website also illustrates the great value of Europeana as a continent-wide cultural heritage organization, as the the creators clearly illustrate the ways that Art Nouveau was a transnational phenomenon that was shaped by artists living in a variety of countries. [MMB]

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What is the moon made of? What makes light coffee taste different than dark coffee? How much money is your laptop adding to your electric bill? Does eating turkey really make you sleepy? Reactions, a multimedia publication by the American Chemical Society (ACS), has created this collection of Infographics to answer these questions and more. Each infographic is informative, engaging, and connects chemistry to everyday life. They can be browsed individually by curious readers, or ordered in poster-size for those interested in spreading the knowledge of everyday chemistry in a classroom, business, or organization. All information on each infographic is fully cited for those interested in engaging in further research on a topic. [MMB]

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From Boston Globe Media, comes STAT News, a "national publication focused on finding and telling compelling stories about health, medicine, and scientific discovery." Authored by health, biotechnology, and science journalists, STAT News features articles, editorials, and multimedia. Site features include In the Lab, which provides updates about ongoing health research; editorials in First Opinion; and longer stories of interest in Endnotes (found under The Regulars tab). Those interested in keeping abreast of daily news can check out the Morning Roundup, which readers can also subscribe to by email. STAT News has recently covered a variety of topics, including a story about Dr. Vivian Lee, who implemented a number of innovative health care practices through her role as healthcare executive at the University of Utah; news about new studies in pancreatic cancer research; and an article about genome mapping. [MMB]

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Online since 1999, and in its current perpetual form since 2005, Tout-Fait (French for "ready-made") is a not-for-profit online journal devoted to the study of Marcel Duchamp. The journal is published by CyberBOOK+ Publications, part of the Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL), located in New York City. At first glance some of the resources appear older, with posting dates in the early oughts. However, many articles have more recent updates (or have had links checked, at least). For example, a review of Wayne Andersen's book, Marcel Duchamp: The Failed Messiah, originally added to the site in 2010 around the time of the book's publication, was updated in June of 2016. In addition to book reviews, Tout-Fait offers research articles, interviews, such as "Seven Questions for Thomas Hirschhorn," the first winner of the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2000, as well as letters, personal reminisces, and shorter posts in the Notes section. Some pieces can be translated into English, German, or French. There is a Music section with audio, and a Multimedia section that includes Ludwig Schmidtpeter's "Animated Reconstruction of Rotoreliefs," a set of 6 double sided discs Duchamp created in 1935 meant to be spun on a turntable at 40-60 rpm. [DS]

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Language Arts and English Language Learning (ELL) instructors, as well as those learning Spanish or English themselves, can find news articles in a variety of proficiency levels on Newsela. Here, visitors can search for articles related to many different subjects, including Law, Health, and Science. Once users select an article, they can select whether to read the text in Spanish or English and select from five different proficiency levels. In addition to news articles, the website also includes primary sources, biographies, adapted speeches, and collections on controversial issues. Articles are accompanied by comprehension quizzes. Teachers and learners alike may access Newsela by creating a free account. With a teacher's account, educators can also access teacher's guides and create class assignment lists, which allow students to submit quizzes and written responses. [MMB]

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Recently released, DistractOff is a Google Chrome extension designed to assist workers in their efforts to be more productive while working online. DistractOff is unique from some other productivity-themed extensions in that it allows users to create a calendar to schedule times throughout the week to check websites that may be a distraction while users work or study. Thus, one can dedicate 30 minutes each morning to checking their favorite news site or a planned time on Wednesday evening to catch up on social media. Users can easily add websites to their restricted list by selecting the Chrome extension icon while browsing. Those interested in tracking their internet productivity (or lack thereof), stay tuned: DistractOff creator Dmytro Kalchenko says that he is working on adding a feature that allows users to track time spent on distracting websites throughout the week. [MMB]

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