The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 1

Mathematics educator Dan Meyer, who holds a Ph.D. in Math Education from Stanford University and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of California, Davis, blogs about teaching math on dy/dan. Meyer has authored this blog since 2006, sharing teaching ideas along with reflections about mathematics curriculum and pedagogy. Mathematics instructors of all levels may want to periodically check out dy/dan for insights and humor about the challenges and joys of teaching this subject. Those new to the site may want to start with the Archives, where visitors may search through past posts via a variety of subject tags, including Classroom Management, Assessment, and Great Classroom Action (which features a number of creative and engaging classroom activities). A highlight of this blog is Three-Act Tasks, a series of lesson plans centered on student problem solving. These engaging lessons are accompanied by videos that are sure to pique student interest. [MMB]

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From the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at the Stevens Institute of Technology comes this extensive collection of resources for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the K-12 classroom. Interested readers may browse materials in this collection by subject, including Life Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Data Analysis, and more. There are lesson plans, classroom projects and activities, and unit plans. For example, in Earth Science, readers will find Musical Plates: a Study of Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics. This activity allows middle school and high school students to map the location of earthquakes around the world using data to identify patterns and relationships between earthquakes, plate tectonics, and volcanoes. Meanwhile, the Population Growth Project (in the Data Analysis section), teaches students about the factors that contribute to global population growth and how to use exponential models to predict future growth. Many of the lessons and activities on this site feature a Student Gallery, allowing students to share their observations and work with others around the country. [MMB]

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The Progressive Era marks a time in American history when popular conceptions of childhood were in transition. As the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) explains, many Progressive Era reformers, including those who protested child labor laws and sought to institute education reforms, "sought to define what a happy and healthy childhood should be in the modern age." With this DPLA exhibition, visitors can learn more about the experiences and perceptions of childhood around the turn of the twentieth century. Visitors can browse historical photographs and other images via a number of categories, including Working (featuring photographs of children laboring in factories, fields, and farms); Reform (featuring a photograph of a "Newsboys Camp" in Staten Island, one of a number of camps designed to get working children out of the city and into nature); and Children's Organizations (including photographs of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts throughout the first half of the twentieth century). Materials in this collection are accompanied by captions that provide additional historical context and information. [MMB]

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Public librarians, youth workers, children's educators, and caregivers may want to check out this extensive resource list from the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). Here, visitors will find a number of curated lists of recommended books. Each list features both recently published works along with classic publications in order to help young readers - and those who teach them - discover great material. For instance, Building a Home Library includes recommended reading for children across four age groups, ranging from birth to 14 years old. Each book is accompanied by a short description. Other book lists include Unity. Kindness. Peace., Notable Children's Books, and Growing Up Around the World. Many of the book lists are available as printer-friendly PDFs, enabling libraries and organizations to provide attractive, readable lists to patrons. [MMB]

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The National Society of Genetic Counselors has compiled a series of short videos to help familiarize prospective students and the general public with the profession of genetic counseling. The Master Genetic Counselor (MGS) series contains three simulated genetic counseling sessions. One of these three videos presents a scenario where a father receives genetic counseling about a heart condition that he has recently learned he shares with his young daughter. In another video, a couple has a session to discuss prenatal testing results. Finally, a third video depicts a woman who is pursuing BRCA genetic testing. Each video is approximately 30 minutes in length, which is, as the center emphasizes, shorter than a typical counseling session. Nevertheless, viewers will receive an overview of what genetic counseling entails. While these videos are aimed at those considering genetic counseling as a career, they may also be of interest to individuals who would like to learn about the experience of receiving genetic counseling. For those interested in learning more about the profession, this site also features a Resources for Prospective Genetic Counseling Student guide. [MMB]

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An increasing number of educational resources are available via the public domain, providing instructors with unpreceded opportunities to incorporate a diverse range of primary source material, textbooks, open courses, and more into their classrooms. This abundance of materials, however, can present instructors and librarians with a new challenge: how to discern what materials will be relevant and useful in their classroom or educational institution. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has created this guide to Open Educational Resources to help. Here, visitors will find an extensive list of resources organized into five categories, including For Educators, For Learners, and Image and Video Resources. Lists are accompanied by short video tutorials designed to familiarize visitors with open educational resources and the role of these resources in both the classroom and in the broader academic community. One video in the For Educators section depicts faculty perspectives on the specific distinction between Open Education Resources and Open Access. While aimed specifically at those working in higher education, instructors and librarians in all settings will find material of use in this research guide. [MMB]

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In 1607, a group of 104 male settlers, led by Captain John Smith, established Fort James in what is now modern day Virginia. Today, the Jamestowne Rediscovery Society, a project of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, is dedicated to researching the first permanent English settlement in North America and to educating the public about the "dramatic story" of Jamestown's establishment and demise. Visitors will find a number of resources for teaching and learning about Jamestown on this page. Nine lesson plans have been designed to engage elementary, middle, and high school students with the story of Jamestown, while encouraging student interest in the practice of historical and archeological inquiry. For example, How to Think Like an Archeologist, a lesson aimed at upper elementary school students, facilitates an introduction to the field of archeology via an examination of grocery store receipts. While some of these lesson plans are designed to prepare students for a visit to the settlement, many of these lessons may be implemented in classrooms around the world without an accompanying field trip. Readers will also find a link to the organization's YouTube page, which features a number of short videos about ongoing archeology efforts at the site of the former settlement. [MMB]

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This spectacular website, which garnered a Webby nomination for Best Art Website in 2016, is dedicated to the work of Russian Photographer Boris Ignatovich. Beginning in 1923, Ignatovich photographed the world around him until his death in 1976. His photography captured Russia during the earliest days of communism, World War II, and throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Created by the Innovator Foundation, a non-profit organization formed to preserve Ignatovich's work, this website invites visitors to learn more about Ignatovich's life and work through a collection of online exhibitions. These exhibitions display the skill and variety of Ignatovich's work, from portraiture to aerial photographs of the architecture and nature of the Caucasus region to haunting scenes from World War II. Visitors can explore the collection in two ways. Those who want to simply focus on Ignatovich's photographs can browse the Gallery; alternatively, the Museum, which is best viewed on desktop computers, offers an interactive timeline of Ignatovich's life and work set to music. While some items require a password to view, much of this remarkable collection is freely open to the public. [MMB]

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Since 2008, the World Science Foundation has sponsored the World Science Festival, a series of lectures, panel discussions, performances, and debates that aims to "produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries." The Festival has featured a diverse collection of guests, including Anna Deavere Smith, Philip Glass, Stephen Hawking, and Oliver Sacks. On this website, visitors can check out dozens of videos created through this project. Many videos take the form of ninety-minute panel discussions, allowing visitors to hear multiple perspectives on a range of engaging issues. For example, the most recent video features a geneticist, a synthetic biologist, an ethicist, and a philosopher/bioethicist in conversation about the ethics of altering the humane genome. Another recent panel features actors, directors, and writers discussing the process of capturing important scientists and scientific discoveries in film and on stage. Visitors can watch most recent videos directly from this website, while the complete archive of World Science Festival videos is available on the organization's YouTube page. [MMB]

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Harvard University's Houghton Library is home to a large number of rare books and manuscripts, including early modern manuscripts and the papers of Samuel Johnson, Emily Dickinson, and James Joyce. As the library's homepage notes, these collections, collectively, "touch upon almost every aspect of the human record, particularly the history and culture of Europe and North America, and include special concentrations in the history of printing and of theater." The Houghton Library has also created this fascinating Tumblr page as a way to highlight a diverse selection of remarkable items in its collection. Regularly updated, this site will appeal to anyone interested in print culture, art, or ephemera. In the past month, the Houghton Library Tumblr has featured an illustrated page from the original 1868 publication of Little Women; a close-up photograph of a gorgeous pierced silver bookbinding from the late eighteenth century; and a detailed illustrated frontispiece that accompanied the 1759 publication, A New universal history of arts and sciences, shewing their origin, progress, theory, use and practice, and exhibiting the invention, structure, improvement, and uses, of the most considerable instruments, engines, and machines, with their nature power, and operation. [MMB]

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Shots is NPR's online news channel dedicated to investigative reporting and human interest stories related to health. Visitors can simply read through the most recent stories on this site, or they may browse stories by a number of tags, including Treatments and Tests (which features news about recent studies and ongoing health research); Policy-Ish (which includes reporting about national health policy and debates); and Public Health (which highlights news about contagious diseases and other public health related issues). Recent Shots stories include a report on new research about the link between sleep and brain trauma recovery and an article about the science behind how certain songs get stuck in your head. Shots also features a number of moving stories that illustrate the experiences and challenges faced by those who are affected by disease. For example, one story profiles a woman who has been intimately impacted by early-onset Alzheimer's disease. [MMB]

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For fans of literature and creative non-fiction, Witness is a literary magazine that "blends the features of a literary and an issue-oriented magazine to highlight the role of the modern writer as witness to his or her times." Readers of Witness may explore poetry, fiction, and nonfiction essays. The most recent online issue of the magazine features five short stories, the work of six poets, and an essay by writer Cynthia Lim about deciding to revisit, as an adult, the loss of her father and grandfather in a plane crash over Lake Tahoe when she was seven years old. Witness has been published since 1987 and is currently published out of the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Readers can browse archived material by issue or by genre (Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Photography). At the time of this writing, archived material dates back to 2009; the website indicates, however, that earlier work will be added to the magazine's webpage soon. [MMB]

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In October 2016, the Smithsonian Institution launched Sidedoor, a podcast dedicated to "science, art, history, humanity and where they unexpectedly overlap." Hosted and produced by Smithsonian staff members Tony Cohn and Megan Detrie, this podcast explores a wide range of issues in the form of twenty-minute episodes. In the inaugural episode, Cohn and Detrie examine how technology is shaping human interactions and identity via interviews with both researchers and contemporary teenagers. In another episode, dedicated to squabbles throughout history, Cohn and Detrie interview Smithsonian paleontologist Hans Sues on what dinosaur skulls can tell us about physical confrontations between these early creatures. On this website, visitors can listen to podcasts in full and check out related resources from the Smithsonian's collections and other sources. Interested listeners can also subscribe on iTunes. [MMB]

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Renowned geographer Nicholas Crane and the UK branch of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) have teamed up to create this engaging story map about the geological history of Great Britain. Crane is an award winning writer and documentarian and currently serves as the president of the Royal Geographical Society; ESRI is an international company that creates GIS software. This story map traces the history of Great Britain from 12,000 years ago, when "Britain was the colourless, glacial extremity of a continuous landmass," to the present. With traditional and interactive maps, gorgeous photographs, and lively prose, this story map illustrates natural phenomena and human endeavors. Highlights include a three-dimensional diagram of Silbury Hill, the largest human-made mound in Europe, and the earliest surviving map of Scotland, created by Timothy Pont in the late sixteenth century. Those interested in learning more may want to read Crane's book of the same title. [MMB]

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Although most of us probably think of Victorian England first, these Victorian Collections are from the State of Victoria in Australia. Artifacts have been contributed by hundreds of organizations, and in fact, the website serves as a kind of cultural heritage inventory, listing organizations that have contributed artifacts alongside those that have not contributed as yet. It's possible to approach the collections in several ways. A rotating selection from the 73,450 items in the collections is displayed badge-style on the home page, with additional information on any item of interest available with a click. Visitors can select Organisations to be taken to the directory and map; basic descriptive and contact information is provided for those organizations with no collection records. It's also possible to search across all collections using keywords and names, and searches can be limited to include only those artifacts with images. Finally, there's a growing set of stories - curated groupings of items on a theme. Available stories include: Stories of Women on the Land; SS Casino, 50 Years Steaming in Victoria's Western District; and Symbols of Survival, Prisoner of war and internee objects in Victorian cultural collections. Victorian Collections runs on a locally developed collection management system that is free to use for organizations within Victoria - terms of use for those in other geographic locations are not specified. [DS]

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For mathematics teachers and students, Meta-Calculator is a free, online graphing, matrix, scientific, and statistics calculator. All four calculators are easy to use with either a cursor or a computer keyboard. The user-friendly design of all four calculators makes them a bit easier to use than traditional calculators, as they allow users to quickly toggle between different tools with just a click. Users may save graphs as a portable network graphic and share specific calculators as a URL. The full screen display provides a useful teaching tool. [MMB]

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Taking a screenshot is an easy way to share what you see on your computer screen or mobile device with friends, family, colleagues, or IT support. But sometimes simply sharing what you see isn't enough; it would be nice to add notes and comments. Nimbus Screenshot is a free Google Chrome or Firefox browser extension that allows users to easily take screenshots and add annotations before sharing. Once installed, users can take full screenshots or select part of a screen to capture. Users can then add notes, arrows, and images to help explain or direct others to certain elements of interest. Nimbus Screenshot is also available as an application for Windows computers and Android devices (as "Nimbus Clipper"). [MMB]

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