The Scout Report -- Volume 25, Number 11

In March 2019, Google Arts & Culture launched what may be its most ambitious exhibition thus far. Once Upon a Try, created in collaboration with over 100 institutions from around the world, is a rich collection of online exhibits celebrating science, discovery, and invention throughout centuries of human history. Here, visitors can explore more than 400 digital exhibits, collections, articles, and more, contributed and developed by institutions such as the Smithsonian and NASA in the US, the UK's Science Museum Group, and India's National Council of Science Museums. Examples include an exhibit created by the Deutsches Museum on how textiles are made (part of Once Upon a Try's series on the backstories of everyday objects); a video and augmented reality app about the Big Bang narrated by Tilda Swinton and developed in collaboration with CERN; a series of exhibits featuring women pioneers in multiple scientific disciplines; and a documentary discussing the invention of gunpowder in China and Cai Guo-Qiang, a contemporary artist who paints with gunpowder in homage to Leonardo da Vinci. Once Upon a Try can be accessed at the link above or through the Google Arts & Culture app, available for both Android and iOS devices. [JDC]

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Educators at a variety of levels may be interested in Wisconsin First Nations, a resource that provides "accurate and authentic educational materials for teaching about the American Indian Nations of Wisconsin." Visitors to this resource, which launched in December 2017, will find a well-organized collection of teaching and learning resources for students in grades pre-K - 12, as well as for educators themselves. These include lesson plans, videos, educational websites, a map of treaty lands and present-day tribal lands in Wisconsin, and suggestions for field trips and books. For teachers new to this topic, this resource also includes a series of five video exemplars featuring teachers who have successfully incorporated Native American studies into their classrooms. In addition to serving as a hub for educational resources about the state's tribal nations, Wisconsin First Nations was also created to aid teachers in complying with Wisconsin Education Act 31, which mandates classroom instruction on this topic in all school districts. Wisconsin First Nations was developed by a coalition of seven partners, including the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, WPT Education, and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (a multi-state agency of eleven Ojibwe tribes). [JDC]

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Readers interested in learning about the perspectives of refugees and immigrants may appreciate i am a migrant (IAAM), an initiative of the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM). This project features the testimonials of more than 1,200 migrants around the world. Visitors can browse individuals' written stories by country of origin, current country, or hashtag. IAAM also features more than 20 short videos. Collectively, these narratives highlight the diversity of migrants' experiences. For example, Abdulfatha arrived in Minnesota from Ethiopia in 2004 as a refugee and is now a college student who hopes to start a nonprofit to provide information resources in Oromo (his native language). Another profile features Juliana, who left the Philippines to work in Greece, then after 17 years returned to her hometown with Reintegration Assistance from the IOM and started a business. In the project's words, "while we aim to promote positive perceptions of migrants, we do not shy away from presenting life as it is experienced." With content available in seven languages in addition to English, IAAM offers visitors the opportunity to gain insights into "the human stories of migration," and migrants are also invited to add to this project by sharing their stories. [JDC]

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Online learners of all stripes, whether they are college students or lifelong learners, may find helpful methods for making the most of their experience in Learning to Learn Online. This free textbook offers a comprehensive guide to effective learning strategies with advice and tips specific to the challenges of self-directed online learning. It opens with a three-part workshop introducing readers to core skills needed for successful online learning. Other topics covered include time management for online learners, information management, professional communication, analyzing assignments, and strategic reading tips. While this resource was created with online learners in mind, many of its suggestions may also be useful for students on traditional campuses, particularly those whose studies are more independent. Part of the B.C. Open Textbook Collection, Learning to Learn Online was published in 2018 by Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres in British Columbia. It can be read entirely online, and those interested may also download it as a PDF, EPUB, MOBI, or other file formats. [JDC]

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The Capturing Campus Cuisine project applied archaeological techniques to investigate the eating habits of students at Michigan State University (MSU), during what the project referred to as the "Early Period," from 1855-1870. Research conducted during the project included excavation of a privy located near the first dormitory on campus, research in the MSU archives, and visits to centers of food production on campus, such as the dairy plant. The food practices section of the site documents food production, acquisition, processing, and consumption. Archival research informed the consumption section, using diaries kept by students in the 1860s although the project researchers admit that, "some are better than others" in terms of how much the diary author wrote about the foods they ate. The culmination of the project was the recreation of a meal that could have been served on campus in the 1860s. The menu, featuring codfish balls as an appetizer followed by walleye, pressed and spiced beef, turkey with oyster dressing, and beef tongue washed down with ginger beer, can be seen in the meal reconstruction section of the website. [DS]

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Marie Curie, famous for her two Nobel Prizes and her work with radioactive elements, may be one of the most prominent women in the history of chemistry but many other women have also made significant contributions to this field. Here, readers will find nine videos created by the Science History Institute (formerly the Chemical Heritage Foundation) celebrating the contributions of eight of these women chemists. The first video, produced in partnership with WHYY Philadelphia for broadcast in 2013, is an hour-long television documentary showcasing the accomplishments of all eight women. Readers curious to learn more about any of these individuals should check out the remaining eight videos, which comprise a series of 15-minute films that each highlight one of the women and include a brief text description of her background and career. Examples include Stephanie Kwolek, who invented the Kevlar material used in body armor and Paula Hammond, a Professor of Engineering at MIT who researches nanotechnology. [JDC]

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The periodic table of elements is a familiar image for anyone who has spent time in a chemistry classroom, but despite all the information packed into those classic wall posters students today need to understand more than just the elements. This is the inspiration behind Isotopes Matter, a set of interactive educational resources from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Visitors to Isotopes Matter will find a colorful interactive periodic table where clicking on each element brings up information on its isotopes, highlights a current use of that element, and links to a PDF with further isotopic information. In addition to this, Isotopes Matter also provides a set of peer-reviewed educational resources about isotopes and their atomic weights, which may be helpful for chemistry learners and teachers alike. Launched in 2016, these resources were created to accompany the IUPAC Isotopic Periodic Table and "designed to communicate the importance of isotopes and their diverse applications, while helping students and educators understand why atomic weight intervals have been introduced for some elements and how they should be used." [JDC]

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Chemistry instructors at a variety of levels may be interested in Education in Chemistry, the web version of a magazine for teachers published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Here, readers can view all of the magazine's articles and digital resources published since 2007. Content is organized into three main sections: classroom, which offers teaching tips and resources such as videos; staffroom, where readers will find career and administrative advice; and science, which offers articles on contemporary chemistry applications and contexts to help pique students' interest, many of which also include classroom resources. Visitors can also search the site by keyword, browse by topic, or view content by magazine issue. It should be noted that after viewing a few articles, full access to Education in Chemistry's online content requires registration for a free account, which also enables the reader to create their own library of favorite articles. [JDC]

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From the University of Ottawa comes OrgChem101, "a set of organic chemistry learning modules that provide structured guidance as you (the student) explore organic chemistry concepts." This resource features three interactive modules: organic chemistry nomenclature, organic reaction mechanisms, and organic acid-base reactions. Each module provides "interactive instructional videos, animations, and interactive activities that promote the mastery of concepts, provide feedback, and link to real-world contexts." Appropriate for use as a supplement to traditional classroom learning or for blended, flipped, or online learning, these modules are designed so that they can stand alone or be completed as a series. OrgChem101 bases its modules on the theory of metacognition, which it defines as "awareness of your knowledge (or lack thereof) and ... the strategies you use to plan and monitor understanding and performance." This valuable study and teaching resource can be accessed with registration for a free account and is available in both English and French. OrgChem101 was created by Alison B. Flynn, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa whose research focuses on post-secondary chemistry and science education. [JDC]

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Science teachers for grades 6-8 should check out Middle School Chemistry, a resource created by science educators Jim Kessler, Patti Galvan, and Adam M. Boyd of the American Chemical Society. Here, visitors will find an extensive suite of fully developed, standards-aligned lesson plans and accompanying multimedia, all of which can be downloaded for free. Organized into chapters, the lessons cover a variety of introductory chemistry topics: the components and states of matter, how matter changes state, density and mass, the periodic table and atomic structures, the properties of water, and chemical reactions. The inquiry-based lessons are created with student engagement in mind, and some of their hands-on activities involve experiments that students help design as part of their learning experience. Many lessons are also accompanied by a pedagogical video to help teachers with its implementation. Lessons and their activities may be downloaded as PDFs individually or all at once as a single 740-page book, and selected lessons from Middle School Chemistry have also been translated into Spanish. A helpful list of necessary classroom materials, most of which are readily available at grocery or office supply stores, is also provided. [JDC]

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When a computer is unable to display a glyph in a chunk of text, it will include a substitute character (often diamonds with a question mark inside) instead. These are commonly called tofu and can be a major pain-point when using a computer in anything but English. Furthermore, even when fonts are available for all the glyphs in a text, they can often vary widely in their typography, resulting in aesthetic not unlike a collage of headlines pasted together from dozens of publications. Google's Noto font family (for "No tofu") seeks to end this situation by providing support for every glyph that can be represented in Unicode all with "a harmonious look and feel." Currently, the Noto fonts cover approximately 64 thousand of the 137 thousand glyphs defined in Unicode 11 with work ongoing to add the remaining glyphs. The Noto fonts can essentially be installed on any computer. Instructions in the install section cover Windows, macOS, and Linux computers. Package managers for Linux and other UNIX systems generally include system-level installers for the Noto fonts as well. [CRH]

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BorgBackup is a deduplicating backup system that includes support for optional compression and encryption. A single Borg repository can store multiple archives, with the archives representing different folders, different points in time, different machines, or any combination thereof. Borg's deduplication is based on variable-length file chunking, with only chunks that aren't already present in a repository being added as new archives are created. An advantage of this approach is that it does not care at all about file names. As a consequence, files that occur in multiple archives will only be stored once and files can be moved or renamed without breaking the deduplication. This approach also means that only new portions of files are backed up. In addition to saving backups locally (e.g., to an external hard drive), Borg can also save them remotely on any machine that is reachable with an ssh connection. Borg's quick start guide gives a brief step-by-step example of how to use the software. The usage guide provides detailed information on all the software's features. In the installation section, users can find instructions on how to install Borg for their system as well as single-file executables of Borg that support Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD. Borg is free software, distributed under the 3-clause BSD license, with source code available on GitHub. [CRH]

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We originally featured Reactions in the Scout Report on 3-10-2017. Since then, this excellent channel has been joined by PBS Digital Studios and has added dozens of educational and entertaining videos.

What is catnip, and why do cats react to it? What is the best way to clean and care for a cast iron skillet? How does Xanax work? Why do onions make you cry? From the American Chemical Society (ACS) comes Reactions, a series of videos that address the kind of chemistry questions that you've probably found yourself pondering about at some point. Each video is approximately three to five minutes in length and presents a series of engaging video clips and diagrams. Through these videos, viewers will learn about an array of chemical compounds that affect their everyday lives, perhaps in a way they did not realize. These videos make for enjoyable browsing for the generally curious and provide some helpful life hacks to boot.

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