The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 9

Data analysis can often feel intimidating to K-12 students, especially those with math anxiety. To help instructors engage young learners with scientific data analysis, researchers at Michigan State University's W.K. Kellogg Biological Station created Data Nuggets, a series of authentic classroom activities that make use of "messy" scientific data. Developed in collaboration with K-12 educators, these activities bring real data into the classroom. Science teachers can currently browse 54 different Data Nuggets by content level or keyword. Each Nugget is based on the research of a current science graduate student and includes a set of data, a teacher's guide, a variety of classroom activities, and a grading rubric. For instance, in Dangerously Bold, students learn about the research of Melissa Kjelvik on the "boldness," or willingness to take risks, of bluegill sunfish. Students must examine data in order to independently evaluate Kjelvik hypothesis. Data Nuggets provides students with a unique opportunity to sharpen their mathematical and inference skills while learning about real-world scientific research - and a possible career path for themselves. [MMB]

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Khan Academy has teamed up with Pixar to create this interactive lesson about the Art of Storytelling. In this Pixar in a Box lesson, young writers get to hear the perspectives of numerous Pixar storyboard artists as they explain their creative processes and their personal favorite stories. These videos are accompanied by four activities designed to get youth to reflect on and discuss different aspects of storytelling, including memory. In the opening video, film director Pete Docter provides an especially helpful reflection on what it really means to "write what you know." Other clips urge students to consider their favorite films or the different storytelling elements that appear in their favorite films. Youth are also encouraged to ask their own What if? questions in regards to their favorite films, fostering creativity. This Khan Academy collection could make a strong addition to an elementary school language arts class or an enrichment class. As of this write up, this series includes one complete tutorial; additional tutorials on storytelling are coming soon. [MMB]

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The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a division of the American Library Association dedicated to "support[ing] library staff in alleviating the challenges teens face, and in putting all teens - especially those with the greatest needs - on the path to successful and fulfilling lives." For those who work with teens, whether that be in a library, classroom, or youth program setting, YALSA offers YALSA Academy, a series of short training videos, created by youth library experts, that address a number of topical issues. There are currently 19 videos viewable on the YALSA Academy YouTube channel. In one video, Oklahoma City librarian Meghan Hunt Wilson discusses how to connect teenagers to mental health resources and services. Other videos outline how librarians can use social media programs, such as Twitter, for outreach efforts, or offer advice for creating and fostering a teen-friendly space in a public library. While aimed specifically at young adult librarians, YALSA Academy is a valuable resource for all public librarians as well as anyone who works with teens. [MMB]

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The Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), Conceptual Image Lab (CI Lab) and Goddard Media Studios have teamed up to create "visualizations, animations, and images in order to promote a greater understanding of Earth and Space Science research activities at NASA and within the academic research community supported by NASA." These creations are organized into a number of galleries, including Mars Missions and Science, NASA's Heliophysics Gallery, and The View from Space: Data Visualizations and Hurricane Katrina. Alternatively, visitors can also explore these visualizations by keyword. As of this write up, the most recent visualizations are two animations that portray the precipitation patterns in California and across the globe during February 2017. Another visualization illustrates how deforestation has reduced chimpanzee habitats in Tanzania. Collectively, these visualizations highlight both the diversity of NASA's research efforts along with a number of environmental, geological, and astronomical phenomena. [MMB]

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The University of Manitoba publishes the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, a journal dedicated to issues related to educational policy and practice across Canada. Published irregularly but frequently, this peer reviewed journal is presented entirely online. On this website, visitors can download the full text of all current and archived articles, dating back to the journals debut in 1995. In a December 2016 article, Brenton Faubert, assistant professor of Education at Western University, investigates the financial impact of students failing secondary courses. Meanwhile, in November 2016, the journal published a special issue featuring eight different papers discussing some aspect of the privatization of Canadian K-12 and higher education institutions. The journal also publishes articles related to issues arising within the classroom or individual schools. For example, a December 2015 article examines best practices for coordinating the roles of school counselors and school administrators. While specifically aimed at Canadian educators and policy makers, many of these articles may also be of interest to members of the educational community outside of Canada. [MMB]

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Originally featured in the July 12, 2002 issue of The Scout Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) offers a number of databases and datasets related to public health. In the WONDER Systems tab, visitors can explore 23 online databases that allow visitors to retrieve data on a range of issues including Population statistics, Mortality Statistics, and Environmental Statistics (e.g. sunlight and air temperatures). The Topics tab offers additional data via eight broad categories: Chronic Conditions, Communicable Diseases, Environmental Health, Health Practice and Prevention, Injury Prevention, Nationally Notifiable Conditions, Occupational Health, and Reference Data. [MMB]

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The UK's Keele University, along with the University of Oxford and the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King's College, have collaborated to create the Jonathan Swift Archive, a digitized collection of Swift's writings, transcribed from their original print editions. As the site notes, this collection provides "a comprehensive account of the establishment and textual evolution of Jonathan Swift's prose works." Literature scholars and fans can browse over 300 texts penned by the famous seventeenth and eighteenth century author and satirist. Texts are organized chronologically and can also be browsed by Short Title, Publisher and Printer, or Year. As of this write up, the archive includes the full text of most of Swift's fiction and prose, including Gulliver's Travels and "A Modest Proposal." Readers may also view multiple editions of texts alongside one another via the Compare feature. For example, readers can check out six different publications of Gulliver's Travels, published between 1729 and 1736, and view corresponding page numbers side-by-side. [MMB]

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Digital Collections for the Classroom is a free online service for educators offered by the Newberry Library. The website provides access to digital versions of primary source materials from the Newberry's collections, optimized for teaching a variety of historical topics by providing study questions, contextual essays, and full citation information for the artifacts. Some lessons are Chicago-focused, such as 1893: Chicago and the World's Columbian Exposition or Art In Chicago 1900-1935, while others branch out into other regions and the World. For example, Imagining the American West in the Late Nineteenth Century starts by asking two questions: How has the West been imagined as both America's manifest destiny and a wild frontier? and In what ways do American Indian art and literature challenge these popular narratives of the West? The unit goes on to discuss Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and images of frontier women. To contrast white settler's viewpoints versus those of Native Americans, the unit is illustrated with items such as a program cover for Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a watercolor painting of a Zuni pueblo by Seth Eastman, a soldier in the U.S. Army, and a Self-portrait by Silver Horn (Hawgone), a Kiowa leader and artist. [DS]

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In June 2016, the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum launched an exhibit to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United State's National Park Service. On this website, visitors can learn more about how national parks evolved throughout history via numerous digitized artifacts including photographs, documents, and ephemera. Visitors can browse categories such as Origins (highlighting the life and work of pioneering conservationists including John Muir and John Wesley Powell), the New Deal (spotlighting the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Federal Arts Project in developing and promoting national parks during the Great Depression), and Wish You Were Here (featuring postcards and souvenirs from national parks over the years.) Each collection features a myriad of colorful images for visitors to examine in detail. Those interested in learning more about the history of U.S. National Parks can check out book suggestions for adults and kids alike in Resources. [MMB]

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Anyone who enjoys knitting or crocheting (or who enjoys donning knit goods) will want to check out the Internet Archive's delightful Knitting Reference Library. Here, visitors will find a wealth of materials about knitting across time and geography, courtesy of the University of Southampton's Library Digitisation Unit. These items can be browsed in a number of ways; for new visitors, they are perhaps most enjoyably browsed by date published. Included items span from the 544-page publication dedicated to the history of British cotton production (1835) to a cover image for a Sirdar crochet pattern for a vest (1971). Other featured items include a 1911 crocheting guide (which includes patterns for a "bath slipper" and for "drawers for a child"); and an 1885 guide from the Nonotuck Silk Company entitled "How to Use Florence Knitting Silk." [MMB]

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science's EurekAlert provides members of the general public with news releases about scientific developments from universities, research institutions, journals, and government agencies from around the world. EurekAlert also features three topical news portals, including this one dedicated to marine science. Updated with multiple news releases almost daily, this portal lets anyone keep abreast of the most recent marine science news from National Science Foundation, NASA, and universities form around the world. In the Breaking News section, visitors can read the most recently updated press releases. For instance, news releases from February 2017 include news from Rutgers University about how a recent wastewater spill is impacting microbes in West VirginIa; a report from the Environmental Defense Fund about the impact of global warming on fisheries; and a summary of a new Current Biology article about "How whale nerve cells survive huge stretching during feeding." [MMB]

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From the Virtual Museum of Canada comes this online exhibit dedicated to the 1912 tornado that wrecked havoc in Regina, Saskatchewan. As this website explains, the tornado, which is estimated to have been an F4 on the Fujita scale, was the worst in the history of Canada; tragically, 28 people lost their lives and an estimated 2,500 lost their homes in the storm. On this website, created by the Regina Plains Museum, visitors can examine over 100 primary documents relating to the cyclone. In addition, visitors can learn more about the city of Regina, the tornado, and its aftermath in the Stories section, which provides additional context to these powerful photographs. These documents are perhaps best browsed via the Thumbnail Gallery. Here, visitors can examine maps of Regina, haunting images of demolished buildings, newspaper headlines and clippings from 1912, and letters and postcards penned by tornado survivors. Collectively, these items demonstrate the impact of the storm on the growing prairie city in turn-of-the-century Canada. [MMB]

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MoRE Museum - the Museum of Refused and Unrealized Art Projects - is a digital museum that "collects, preserves and exhibits on-line refused and unrealised art projects." Founded by art historian Elisabetta Modena and art history doctoral student Marco Scotti, the museum features a wide variety of works that visitors can search by artist, title of art project, or by geographic location. As of this write-up, the MoRE museum features over 90 projects; five exhibitions feature multiple projects. For example, one exhibit features work created by the Gorgona, a Croatian avant-garde artist collective, during an artistic residency in Italy in 1991. The artists' work centered on the theme La Livre: A Tribute to Ezra Pound. However, the group ultimately decided to "[distance] itself from Ezra Pound because of the possible political implications conveyed in his figure" and never released this work to the general public. Collectively, MoRE Musuem calls attention to the relationship between art, logistics, and politics. [MMB]

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How did religion and the quest for religious liberty shape the history of the United States? This 2010 PBS documentary series investigates the evolving relationship between religious ideologies and movements within American culture, the U.S. government, and the market place. Organized chronologically into a series of six 60-minute episodes, God in America highlights the impact of Puritans in colonial America, the role of religion during the American Civil War, the faith of Progressive Era reformers, and the importance of the black church throughout U.S. history - to name just a few of the topics explored in this series. On this website, visitors can watch the complete documentary and view a number of accompanying resources. These resources include an interactive timeline, which juxtaposes major religious reform events alongside one another; a series of interviews with scholars of religion, theology, and history; and links to outside resources of interest. [MMB]

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Slate magazine's Lexicon Valley is "a podcast about language, from pet peeves, syntax, and etymology to neurolinguistics and the death of languages." Founded by Slate contributor Mike Vuolo, Lexicon Valley is currently hosted by linguist John McWhorter, professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of numerous books about language. New episodes are released once every two weeks, and each episode is approximately thirty minutes in length. These episodes often feature interviews and highlight new research related to linguistics. For example, in one recent episode, McWhorter interviews sociolinguist Alexandra d'Arcy about the incorporation of the word "like" into our everyday speech. In another recent episode, McWhorter talks to University of Wisconsin psychology professor, Mark Seidenberg, about how children learn to read. On this website, visitors can listen to all current and past episodes of Lexicon Valley (over 100 episodes have been released so far). Interested listeners can also subscribe to Lexicon Valley on iTunes. [MMB]

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For anyone interested in the evolution of graphic design and peeking at old posters and signage, Quad Royal is a blog dedicated to mid-twentieth century British posters. Named for the British term for posters that measure 40 inches by 50 inches, Quad Royal features a number of posters, most of which were created for advertising on railroad or tube trains. One recent post, for example, features two gorgeous "map posters" of Norwich and Cambridge created by artist Kerry Lee. These colorful posters, published by the British Railways, feature buildings and sites that can be found in each city. Another recent post highlights the work of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, who created a number of posters for London Transport, including a series of birds and a curious, cubist-inspired piece which, a bit bafflingly, suggests "It's better to shop early...Early in the month." [MMB]

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Today, over 25 million books in the public domain are available online via Google Books. The Google Books Ngram Viewer is a tool that allows researchers, along with the generally curious, to perform a text search on all of these books in order to uncover major trends, vocabulary, and themes over time. By simply typing a name or word into the search box (e.g. "Shakespeare") and selecting a time frame (e.g. the years 1700-1900) users can instantly view a line graph to see how often that word appeared in books by publication date. Users can also select a narrow date range (which will appear underneath the graph) in order to explore specific titles featuring the selected term. Google Books Ngram Viewer allows users to compare the frequency of multiple keywords or names by using commas to separate variables. [MMB]

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Perhaps you have a video of a butterfly approaching a flower that you'd like to slow down in order to view each wing flap in full detail. Alternatively, you may have footage of a crowded party or your growing herb garden that you want to speed up. Lapse-It is a free mobile application that allows users to create "astonishing time-lapse videos." Available for iOS and Android devices, a basic version of Lapse-It is free; users have the option of purchasing a Pro version in order to take videos at higher resolutions. Looking for inspiration? The Lapse-It website includes a gallery of time-lapse videos to browse. [MMB]

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