The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 43

Ambitious Science Teaching offers tools and ideas for K-12 science classrooms and serves as a social networking site for science educators. Created by the University of Washington, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Ambitious Science Teaching is a pedagogical philosophy that emphasizes student-centered inquiry and learning and authentic assessments. On this website, teachers can check out video guides that demonstrate the principles of this pedagogy. In addition, the website includes a Video gallery with videos of full lessons - or even units - accompanied by written explanations of the instructor's objectives and strategies. For example, one resource features video clips from a nine-day unit about the physics of sound from a 9th grade physical science class. Meanwhile, in the Tools section, teachers can download a variety of graphic organizers, templates, unit guides, and more. Finally, science teachers looking to connect with other instructors in their field and share ideas can do so via the Community aspect of this website. [MMB]

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From the British Library comes this remarkable, engaging collection of critical essays, videos, biographical sketches, and original documents related to 20th century British literature. Readers will find close readings of poetry by Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden, and T.S. Elliot (among others); an essay about the role of music in influencing the work of W.H. Auden; and an essay about postcards sent by Angela Carter. Embedded within each of these essays are related materials from the British Library, including original manuscripts, copies of diary entries and letters, and other primary documents. These essays are perhaps best searched by theme (including European Influence, Gender and Sexuality, Art, Music, and Popular Culture). Alternatively, visitors can also read short - yet informative - biographical sketches of a number of key writers and explore related articles on individual author pages. Those interested in exploring the digitized items from the British Library on their own can browse or search the 300+ artifacts in Collection Items. High school and college educators will also want to check out the Teaching Resources related to this collection. [MMB]

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) as part of the New Deal to provide loans that would enable citizens to buy homes. Between 1935 and 1945, the HOLC, in partnership with mortgage lenders, housing developers, and real estate appraisers, assessed and mapped the relative risk of providing home loans to individuals looking to purchase homes in different neighborhoods. Race played a central role in the HOLC's conception of the riskiness of a neighborhood; as a result, white homeowners were able to gain low-interest mortgages from the HOLC that black and Latino homeowners were largely denied. Scholars from the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab, the University of Maryland's College of Information Sciences ("iSchool"), and Virginia Tech, in collaboration with historian N.B.D. Connelly, have collaborated to digitize these maps alongside census information from 1930 and 1940. Visitors to this website can explore how different neighborhoods were "graded" by the HOLC and read area descriptions, authored by HOLC appraisers, for individual neighborhoods. Mapping Inequality currently includes 150 HOLC maps and over 5,000 descriptions. This project offers considerable insight into the history, sociology, and economics of American cities. [MMB]

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Texas A&M University Commerce's Center for Faculty Excellence and Innovation has compiled this resource list for university level instructors looking for ideas and tips about a number of classroom related issues. This list includes links to outside resources related to issues as diverse as managing college-level classrooms, structuring effective assessments, crafting writing assignments, and leading discussions about difficult topics. The links included on this resource list come from colleges and universities around the country. In addition, visitors can download a free peer-reviewed checklist or a template to use for crafting a syllabus. One strength of this resource list is that it includes resources for instructors teaching in a variety of settings, including online classes. [MMB]

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For mathematics instructors and tutors, Hamline University's Adult Basic Education (ABE) Teaching and Learning Advancement System (ATLAS) has compiled this resource library of materials for teaching numeracy and mathematics. These resources include instructional videos, curricular guides, lesson plans, blogs, select articles, and webinars designed for mathematics instruction. While designed for educators of adults, many included resources are created with K-12 students in mind, and almost all resources can be adapted for a variety of student populations. Instructors can browse resources by content area (Numbers and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Statistics) or by Instructional Resources, which include a variety of topics including Equity, Professional Organizations, and Reference & Definitions. This website also contains a number of resources regarding the College and Career Readiness Math Content Standards; in addition, many resources here align with the Common Core Standards. [MMB]

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From Pennsylvania State University, with support from the Lilly Endowment and the John Templeton Foundation, the Associate of Religion Data Archives (ARDA; formerly known as the American Religion Data Archive) is an extensive online repository for data about religion around the world. Aimed at educators, researchers, journalists, and religious congregations, the ARDA features U.S. and international religious surveys and congregation membership data. One highlight of this website's data collection is the Congregational Resource Center; here, visitors can explore religious affiliation data alongside a number of indexes about religious freedom in that country. In addition to a wealth of data, the site boasts a number of teaching tools, including lesson plans and sample syllabi for religious studies and social science classrooms. Also of note are three interactive timelines that highlight the history of religion in the United States and a number of family trees, which trace the development of a number of religions over time. [MMB]

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When reading early modern philosophical texts, many undergraduate students struggle to understand their content, in part because these texts were written (or translated) into now-antiquated English. To address this obstacle, Jonathan Bennett, a former philosophy lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Syracuse University (among other schools), adapted a number of early modern texts to make them more comprehensible to contemporary students. At Early Modern Texts, philosophy students and instructors can download and read a number of key texts written between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. These texts include major works by Niccolo Machiavelli, Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Immanuel Kant. To prepare these texts, Bennett "translated" obsolete language, edited individual sentences into simpler syntax, and organized certain passages by adding paragraph indentations, numbers, and bullets. Instructors and students can read more about Bennett's process in Frequently Asked Questions. By providing these translated versions, Early Modern Texts aims to enable philosophy students to engage with the major ideas behind crucial texts without being encumbered by antiquated language, lengthy sentences, or page-long paragraphs. [MMB]

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The Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health offers this free online course on Urban Health in Developing Countries. Taught by Abdullah Baqui and William Brieger, two senior professors in the Department of International Health, this course addresses "urban demography, epidemiology, changes in urban physical and social environment and their consequences for health, nutritional issues, the inadequacy of conventional health services, and the design and implementation of a coordinated and cost-effective health care system." Here, readers will find all lecture slides, readings, and assignments used to teach this course in Spring of 2009. There are also a number of recorded lectures from a handful of guest speakers and links to related resources. This online course is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to better understand issues relating to urbanization, geography, globalization, and public health. [MMB]

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Do you have something to say that may be best expressed by a GIF of John Kennedy giving a speech or with vintage footage of the original Superman television show? History enthusiasts and GIF lovers alike will appreciate the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Giphy.com page. Giphy (featured in the 07/01/2016 Scout Report) is a free online tool that allows anyone to quickly and easily create a GIF (Graphical Interchange Format) using video footage of their choice. NARA, of course, is home to a great deal of rare video footage, and has created this collection of GIFs using this footage. NARA notes that its collection includes "animated history of all flavors including major historic events, celebrities, National Parks, newsreels, animated patents, and dancing sailors." Animated patents are GIFS created by using two photographs, usually of an individual or event recorded before moving picture technology. Thus, a Walt Whitman GIF is possible, and included in this collection. To learn more about images and footage included in this collection, visitors to this page should besure to check out NARA cataloging information by clicking on a link just below each GIF. [MMB]

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New Yorkers, tree lovers, and anyone interested in urban spaces will want to check out Jill Hubley's interactive map of New York City Street Trees by Species. Hubley, a web developer with a skill for data visualization, used data from the 2005 tree census to map out the presence of dozens of tree species across the five boroughs. Each species is color coded and labeled. Visitors can choose to zoom in on a particular neighborhood (or even block) to learn about the particular tree species in that area. Alternatively, visitors may conduct a search for a particular species to see where that species is distributed across the city. Hubley plans to update her map soon with the latest tree census data, so stay tuned. [MMB]

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The Tengger Desert lies on the southern edge of the Gobi Desert, southwest of Beijing. The desert is rapidly growing as the result of global climate change; meanwhile, China's urban populations are increasingly sprawling toward the desert. Josh Handler, Edward Wong, Derek Watkins, and Jeremy White examine the impact of desertification on communities in the Tengger in this multimedia article from The New York Times. The article, part of an ongoing series on the global impact of climate change, features photographs and videos from the Tengger along with interactive maps. As the article explains, desertification has radically altered China's landscape; today, there are 21,000 more square miles of desert in China than there was in 1976. This desertification has produced a number of "ecological migrants" who are no longer able to live in their home communities. A follow up article, linked at the bottom of this article, further examines the experiences of these migrants. [MMB]

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Constantine Cavafy was a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Greek poet from Alexandria, Egypt whose poetry was greatly inspired by the city's ancient history, along with classical Greek and Roman art. E.M. Forster once described this singular poet as "standing at a slight angle to the universe." The Kelsey Archeological Museum at the University of Michigan has curated this online exhibit that highlights Cavafy's life as well as the connections between Cavafy's poetry and a variety of artifacts that are housed in the Kelsey Museum. Here, readers can learn about Cavafy's life in Alexandria and examine a number of translations of his poetry. Each poem is paired with a related object from ancient Egypt, adding additional context and depth to his work. This collection will be of interest to fans of poetry as well as those interested in ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. [MMB]

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From the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis, Minnesota comes Minnesota by Design, an interactive guide to "the human-built world in Minnesota." This guide - which will be of interest to anyone familiar with the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" as well as anyone interested in the history of design - features dozens of items, buildings, and landscapes. Visitors can browse the guide via map, or by Type, including Architecture, Graphic Design, and Urbanism; alternatively, visitors can search by title, designer or date. Highlights of this rich collection include the Louis Sullivan- designed Farmer's National Bank of Owatonna, Minnesota; downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul's respective skyway systems (a series of distinct, enclosed footbridges that offer downtown pedestrians a respite from the chilly winters); and an iconic Grain Belt beer sign, designed to look like a giant bottle cap, created by an unknown designer in 1940. This guide also highlights a myriad of inventions that arose from Minnesota, including magnetic poetry, SPAM, Target shopping carts, and Post-it Notes. Those familiar with Minnesota design themselves are encouraged to nominate additions to the guide. [MMB]

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Paleo Porch is an engaging and versatile blog by James Burnes, a Ph.D. student in the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma who studies the history of field work. Burnes writes about a range of topics with curiosity and an eye for important details. As a result, Paleo Porch features posts about Paleontology, Archeology, Art History, Popular Culture, and more. In one blog post, Burnes reports on new DNA evidence that suggests that glyptodonts are related to armadillos. More recently, Burnes has shared texts and ideas related to the topics of his comprehensive exams, including print culture and American studies. Burnes also shares a 2013 TedXOU (Oklahoma University) take on "The History of Paleontology in Three Minutes." [MMB]

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Fans of Science Friday or RadioLab who are looking for a new science podcast will want to check out Sift, a podcast researched, produced, and edited by physics and chemistry teacher, Bishop Sand. Released monthly, Sift explores topics related to physics, neuroscience, biology, philosophy, and more. Visitors to this website can search for past episodes by topics including Learning, Origins of Life, Paradoxes, and Sound. Sand explores these topics in a series of related episodes; recent episodes relate to the theme of sports. Included here is an exploration of the biomechanics of medicine and a consideration of the psychology behind sports fandom. Interested listeners can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes. [MMB]

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From Marco Santonocito and Antonio Giarrusso, iMathematics is a free phone application for practicing a variety of mathematical subjects, including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and probability. As Giarrusso explains, this phone application can be considered "the Duolingo for Learning Math." Like the popular application for learning new languages, iMathematics teaches users new skills in small steps and then quizzes them on new concepts. Students and teachers alike can create a free account; however, some topics and quizzes require purchasing a Pro version. iMathematics is available for iOS or Android devices. [MMB]

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Anyone looking to create appealing visualizations as a way to share data will want to check out Sizzle Analytics. This free tool is designed for creating data visualizations. To create one, users simply upload data as a CSV (Comma Separated Variable) file. Next, users select what variables to measure and what kind of graph to use. Notably, Sizzle Analytics allows users to create graphs that allows others to select variables themselves - allowing for sleek, versatile visualizations. By creating a free account, users can save their work. Those looking for inspiration can check out Featured Boards, which include visualizations of the top Spotify tracks for 2015-2016. [MMB]

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