The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 20

Native Knowledge 360 (NK360) is a project of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian designed to "inspire and promote the improvement of teaching and learning about American Indians." On the NK360 website, K-12 educators will find a wealth of resources that can be implemented in the classroom. Instructors may want to start by exploring the NMAI's Essential Understandings about American Indians, which are based on the National Council for the Social Studies' national curriculum standards and are intended to guide classroom instruction. Collectively, these essential understandings outline "key concepts about the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contemporary lives of Native peoples." The Lessons & Resources page contains digital lesson plans, posters, teacher's guides, and other resources for the classroom. Instructors can browse these resources by subject (including art education, social studies, and STEM), grade level, or language (English or Spanish). Teachers may also browse by nation or region. Perhaps a highlight of this collection are the digital lessons, which engage high-school students with essential questions such as "Is a treaty intended to be forever?" and "What kinds of actions can lead to justice?" [MMB]

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Pablo Picasso's mural Guernica depicts a single horrific event: the April 1937 bombing of the Basque city of Gernika by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, who were allied with nationalist Francisco Franco during Spain's Civil War. Today, the iconic painting is held by the Museo Reina in Madrid, Spain. The Reina Sofia recently published Rethinking Guernica, a powerful online exhibit about the history and significance of this painting. This exhibit incorporates 2,000 documents, which includes photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, manuscripts, and posters. Visitors may explore these documents in the stories section, where they are arranged by categories such as "artistic debate" and "borderless geography." The latter category documents the many locations where Guernica was displayed throughout the twentieth century. Alternatively, visitors may explore these documents by learning about key individuals (referred to as agents) connected to the paintings or chronologically. [MMB]

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The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is home to the archives of novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This archival collection includes ten book manuscripts, 40 photo albums, and over 2,000 pieces of correspondence. Interested readers from around the world can explore almost 400 digitized items from this collection on the Ransom Center's website. Visitors can explore the digital collection by selecting the browse link. From here, researchers can conduct a keyword search or explore the digital collection by date, creator, format (e.g. manuscripts, color photographs) genre (e.g. fiction, journalism, novellas), or subject. A few highlights of this collection include: images from a 1966 manuscript of Cien Anos de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), a 1929 photograph of Garcia Marquez as a child, and a copy of the author's 1982 speech "La Soledad de America Latina" (The Solitude of Latin America). [MMB]

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OncoBites is a new blog designed to make information and news about cancer research accessible to the general public. The blog was recently founded by Manisat Das and Sara Musetti and is authored by a number of graduate and post-doctoral researchers. The title OncoBites comes from the blog's mission, which is to share information about both laboratory cancer research and clinical practice available to readers through a series of short, lucid essays. These short essays are accompanied by helpful visualizations, as well as hyperlinks to related articles and research studies for those interested in further reading. Recent posts in OncoBites have addressed topics including cancer immunotherapy and epigenetics. Visitors can browse previous articles by subject tags. [MMB]

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From Northeastern University's University Archives and Special Collections comes Boston's Latino/a Community History: a collection of over 8,000 digitized items from two organizations. These include Inquillinos Boricuas en Accion, a tenants' rights and community development organization founded in 1967; and La Alianza Hispana, a civil rights organization founded in 1968 by educator Ana Maria Rodriguez. These digitized items include photographs, meeting minutes, newsletters, reports, and more. Visitors unfamiliar with these two organizations may want to start by reading the project section, which provides a short history of Inquillinos Boricuas en Accion and La Alianza Hispana. From here, visitors can conduct a search or browse the collection from the homepage. This collection can be browsed by creator, year, or subject (e.g. housing rehabilitation, community centers, Hispanic-American children). This rich collection may especially appeal to researchers interested in Latinx history, urban history, and the history of community organizing. [MMB]

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The well-renowned Physics Classroom website (see the 11-12-2004 Scout Report) recently introduced Concept Builders, a series of interactive tutorials designed to help students understand and apply physics concepts. As of this write-up, the collection features thirteen concept builders, which address topics including Newton's Law of Motion, circular motion and gravitation, electric circuits, and waves and colors. When visitors select one of these concept builders, they will view a series of short tutorials related to the concept. Each tutorial is accompanied by a learning goal, which allows learners and instructors to locate relevant tutorials with ease. To participate in each tutorial, visitors simply need to select "Launch Concept Builder." Next, visitors are prompted to select a level ("apprentice," "master," or "wizard"). Based on their selection, visitors will view six practice problems related to the tutorial's learning goal. Each of these interactive tutorials is accompanied by a helpful set of teacher's notes and suggestions for instructors interested in incorporating Concept Builders into their curriculum. [MMB]

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From the history departments of The Ohio State University and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio comes Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, a collection of resources designed to put current events in historical perspective. This website was launched in 2007 and currently consists of several components. In the milestones section, readers will find essays that discuss significant historical anniversaries. These essays are authored by OSU and Miami University faculty. For instance, in an April 2018 essay, Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries writes about the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. History Talk is a podcast hosted by OSU history Ph.D. candidates Jessica Vinas-Nelson and Brenna Miller that addresses contemporary issues from a historical perspective. In the connecting history section, readers will find information about "the newest blogs and coolest links to historical stuff across the web," including podcasts, video games, and more. This section also contains shorter essays from faculty and graduate scholars that address the connections between history and current events. Those looking for further reading will find book reviews in the hot off the press section. Finally, educators will find lesson plans designed to help students see the connections between history and current events by navigating to teacher tools. [MMB]

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The Mason OER Metafinder from The Mason Publishing Group at George Mason University Libraries is a powerful search tool that allows users to search record metadata from seventeen digital libraries and repositories, including the Digital Public Library of America, OER Commons, and AMSER-Applied Math and Science Education Repository. Searches are conducted in real-time and are not pre-indexed. To get to the actual metafinder, visitors should click on Mason OER Metafinder from the homepage. The metafinder allows users to enter search terms in full record (allowing users to search across the entire content of a document), title, author, or date range. Users can also choose which sources the metafinder should search by unselecting repositories below the search bars (all repositories are included by default). As an example, by searching for San Francisco in the full record search bar, the top 755 results are displayed from over a million sources retrieved. The option to narrow down results is available on the left-hand side of the search results. The Mason Publishing Group also offers a companion Sciences Metafinder, also available from their homepage, which specifically searches scientific repositories for science resources. [JLB]

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In March 2018, BBC 2 launched Civilizations, a documentary series that seeks to "[tell] the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day - for the first time on a global scale." The series, (hosted by art historian Simon Schama, classicist Mary Beard, and historian David Olusoga) was inspired by Kenneth Clark's 1969 documentary film series Civilization, which traced the history of primarily European Art from the medieval period to the twentieth century. As of this write-up, interested viewers can stream the first four episodes of this series, courtesy of PBS and BBC, on the PBS website. The first of these episodes, "The Second Moment of Creation," discusses some of the earliest known artworks in the world, including the rock paintings in the Drakensburg Mountains in South Africa and the stone-carved architecture in the ancient city of Petra, Jordan. Other episodes investigate the historical intersections of religion and art ("God and Art") and the impact of cultural encounters on art history ("Encounters"). On the PBS website, these episodes are accompanied by a number of related resources, including interactive options that allow visitors to explore specific works of art in greater detail. [MMB]

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Whose Land is a collaborative project by the organizations TakingITGlobal, Canadian Roots Exchange, and Bold Realities designed to raise awareness about indigenous nations and territories in Canada. At the heart of this website is a web-based application that "uses GIS technology to assist users in identifying Indigenous Nations, territories, and Indigenous communities in Canada." This map also includes some information about indigenous nations and territories in parts of the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The team behind Whose Land developed their platform in collaboration with the organization Native-Land. Visitors can explore this map by indigenous communities, city, land, or by treaties & agreements. Alternatively, visitors may also conduct a keyword search. Those interested in learning more about this project can check out the F.A.Q. section. [MMB]

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The United States has a maternal death rate that is significantly higher than any other developed nation: 26.2 per 100,000 births, compared to just 9.2 in the United Kingdom, 7.3. in Canada, and 3.8 in Finland. National Public Radio (NPR) and ProPublica collaborated to create this powerful investigative series about the causes of maternal mortality in the U.S. This series, authored by ProPublica's Nina Martin and NPR's Renee Montagne, presents the stories of individual families alongside research that provides insight into why so many women in the United States face serious--and sometimes fatal-- health risks during pregnancy and childbirth. Most of the individual installments of this series are available in both audio and essay format. In addition, the series includes links to a number of outside resources that may be of interest to researchers, expecting mothers, and others concerned about maternal mortality. Visitors will find a number of such resources in the August 3rd, 2017 episode. [MMB]

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3Blue1Brown is the YouTube channel of Grant Sanderson, who studied mathematics at Stanford University and makes animated videos that are "some combination of math and entertainment, depending on your disposition." Visitors can explore Sanderson's most recent videos on the home page or browse for videos of interest on the site's playlist. In one recent video, Sanderson explains cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) and how these currencies work. In another recent video, Sanderson discusses neural networks and their role in machine learning. Other 3Blue1Brown playlists address topics including calculus, linear algebra, and space-filling curves. New viewers may also want to start by checking out the recommended playlist. [MMB]

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Fans of British Literature will want to check out the Brit Lit Blog. This blog is authored by Claire Handscombe, a self-described "bookish Brit who lives in America and wants to champion the work of British authors as much as she can." The Brit Lit Blog features daily "Today in Brit Lit News" posts, which provide a roundup of new publications, book reviews, and blog posts from around the web that may be of interest to fans of British literature. In addition, the blog also features a monthly summary of new book publications from Great Britain, including fiction, non-fiction, memoir, young adult novels, and more. Finally, podcasts fans will want to check out the Brit Lit Podcast, which features conversations with a variety of writers. New episodes of this podcast are released approximately every two weeks, and visitors can subscribe to the Brit List Podcast via iTunes or listen to the podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud. [MMB]

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Today in the 1770s is a project of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Each day, staff at the library select one article that appeared in The Virginia Gazette on the same date during the late-eighteenth century. These articles are accompanied by helpful annotations that provide additional historical context related to the selected article. The article is also accompanied by a link to Colonial Williamsburg's digital library where visitors can view fully digitized issues of the newspaper. Readers interested in learning more about early American journalism and print will want to check out the links in the learn more section. [MMB]

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Between the years 1737 and 1739, Elizabeth Blackwell published A Curious Herbal: a series intended to help physicians and apothecaries identify plants and herbs that could be used for medicinal purposes. Blackwell not only illustrated all of the plants featured in A Curious Herbal, but she also engraved and hand-colored all of her illustrations. Blackwell was one of the first botanical artists to engrave her own work and one of the few women to become of a well-renowned botanical artist. The vibrant and precisely illustrated series, which was praised by medical practitioners, contained 500 illustrations in total. On this Botanical Arts & Artists page, visitors can learn more about Blackwell and her work. In addition, visitors will find links to digital editions of A Curious Herbal along with links to outside resources that provide more information about Blackwell. [MMB]

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Last discussed in the March 30, 2012, Scout Report, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) has spent the last six years continuing to make available digital versions of many thousands of artifacts from its collections. This bounty can be searched or browsed using categories based on the MFAH's collecting areas, such as Latin American art, modern art, or photography. For those interested in American painting and decorative arts, possibly the best way to start is to select the Bayou Bend Collection - art collected by Ima Hogg (1882-1975) and housed in her former home, Bayou Bend, which is now part of the museum. Miss Ima's collection dates from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries and includes paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts - furniture, ceramics, glass, metals, and textiles. Digital versions of almost 4,000 items from the Bayou Bend Collection can be viewed online. Early American painters represented in the Bayou Bend Collection include paintings by Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, and John Singleton Copley. There are over 50 patchwork quilts and hundreds of jars, pitchers, silverware, and other household items. [DS]

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To produce their Arts and Culture service, Google collaborated with over 1,200 museums, galleries, and institutions from around the world to digitize some of their exhibits and make them available online. Exhibits can be browsed by a number of facets, including time period, artist, and color. Many exhibits were digitized in 3D and can be explored in virtual reality using Google Cardboard. Users may also take virtual tours through some of the world's most famous museums and landmarks. In addition to the online experience, the Arts and Culture app can also be used to enrich real-world enjoyment of the arts. It features an art recognizer feature that can identify artwork and provide additional context for them. It can also notify users of nearby exhibits and cultural events. Arts and Culture smartphone apps are available for iOS and Android devices. It can also be accessed on the web using any modern browser. [CRH]

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Zulip is a real-time chat service (similar to Slack, Twist, or Gitter) that incorporates a threading model similar to email. It claims to allow users to "catch up on important conversations while ignoring irrelevant ones." More than 90 integrations with popular services are available, including GitHub, Jira, Strip, Zendesk, and more. As with other services in this space, it supports drag-and-drop file uploads, images inline in chats, and provides previews of external links. Unlike many similar offerings, Zulip is an open free software and can be self-hosted. Source code is available on GitHub under the Apache license. To self-host, the Zulip developers recommend a dedicated machine or cloud server with at least 2GB ram and 10GB of disk space. Detailed instructions for installation on Ubuntu servers are provided. For users that do not wish to self-host, Zulip's free hosted offering includes 10k messages of search history and 5GB of storage for uploaded files. Users can connect to a Zulip server either through their browser, using one of the native desktop apps (available for Windows, macOS, and Linux), using a smartphone app (iOS or Android), or with a number of multi-protocol chat programs. [CRH]

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Project Vox has continued to grow since we last featured this resource in January 2017 and offers a number of resources for those interested in learning about the contributions of Early Modern women philosophers.

In the seventeenth century, Margaret Cavendish authored popular plays, poetry, and fiction, as well as a number of oft-overlooked works of natural philosophy. In 1740, Emilie Du Chatelet published Institutions de Physique, a work that was widely circulated at the time. Despite their contributions, Cavendish, Du Chatelet, and other women philosophers are often overlooked in courses about Early Modern Philosophy. Project Vox is an ongoing initiative by scholars, librarians, and students at Duke University to educate the public about the contributions of these female philosophers and to provide philosophy instructors with resources to integrate these philosophers into the classroom. Visitors may want to start by browsing this website's timeline, which provides basic biographical information about major female philosophers alongside an overview of intellectual and political developments in early modern Great Britain and France. More detailed information about four philosophers - Cavendish, Du Chatelet, Anne Conway, and Damaris Cudworth Masham - can be found under the philosopher tab. Here, visitors will find a more detailed biography of each philosopher, along with extensive primary and secondary source guides to their work and links to online resources. The Project Vox team is also working to create a set of teaching guides for each philosopher, so stay tuned.

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