The Scout Report -- Volume 25, Number 23

The Special Collections Department at the College of Charleston Libraries has created this wonderful digital exhibition exploring Charleston's queer history as a virtual walking tour. With brief text descriptions and one or more photographs for each place, this project takes visitors to twenty different locations in Charleston that speak to the histories of its LGBTQ residents. For example, the tour begins at the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. This building houses the Joseph Towles Collection, which includes the papers of Towles' partner Colin Turnbull, who Towles married in 1960, as well as the "unpublished story of their relationship, 'Lover and Beloved.'" The Real Rainbow Row also has an accompanying story map for readers who would like to take this walking tour in person. However, as the embedded story map is not mobile-friendly, readers wishing to use this feature should open the story map in its own tab using the link at the map's bottom right. The Real Rainbow Row was authored by Harlan Greene, the Special Collections Scholar in Residence, and Sandra Slater, an associate professor of history at the College of Charleston. [JDC]

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Readers with a scholarly interest in the history of architecture and the built environment may appreciate Architectural Histories, the journal of the European Architectural History Network. Launched in 2012, Architectural Histories is a peer-reviewed, open-access digital journal that "creates a space where historically grounded research into all aspects of architecture and the built environment can be made public, consulted, and discussed." As of this write-up there are seven volumes with well over one hundred articles in the journal's archives and new articles published on a rolling basis. In addition to Architectural Histories's annual issue, it also publishes special collections of articles exploring themes such as how the concept of "Europe" interacts with modern geopolitics in architecture and how travel has shaped architecture through time and space. The publication's editor-in-chief is Petra Brouwer, an assistant professor of architectural history at the University of Amsterdam, and the journal boasts an international team of editors at universities around the world. Architectural Histories is published by Ubiquity Press and indexed by EBSCOHost, Google Scholar, SCOPUS, CrossRef, and other services. [JDC]

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From the American Academy of Arts & Sciences comes Encountering Science in America, a report released in February 2019. The Public Face of Science, an on-going project of the American Academy, recently released this follow-up report to Perceptions of Science in America (featured in the 3-22-2019 Scout Report). Encountering Science in America aims to "improve understanding and awareness of this complex landscape of encounters with science among communities interested in participating in or supporting the practices of science communication and engagement." The report's major takeaways indicate that while today's society has a growing range of diverse opportunities to encounter science outside the classroom, both digitally and in person, relatively little is currently known about the cumulative impacts of those informal engagements or about what motivates people to participate in science- and STEM-oriented activities. This shows that more social science research is needed, so that science outreach practitioners, such as those from museums, national parks, and online initiatives, can achieve greater societal impacts. Here, interested readers may view the complete report online or download it as a 48-page PDF. PowerPoint slides and JPEG files of the report's figures are also available to download. [JDC]

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Social science students and researchers who use political economy concepts in their work may be interested in this fantastic resource provided by David Harvey, a professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) and a leading urban studies theorist. Here, visitors will find Harvey's complete video lecture series focused on close readings of Capital by Karl Marx, one of the foundational theorists of classical sociology. The lectures are organized into three major sections. The first section comprises 13 lectures covering Capital, Volume 1, while the second contains 12 lectures discussing Capital, Volume 2 and parts of Volume 3. Each video is roughly 90 minutes or more in length, and downloadable audio files are available for those who prefer to just listen. Readers who appreciate something more condensed may enjoy the third section, a six-part lecture series on political economy entitled Marx and Capital: The Concept, the Book, the History. [JDC]

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WBUR, the Boston National Public Radio affiliate, created this series of podcasts about what is likely the art world's largest unsolved crime: the theft of 13 artworks by luminaries including Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, and Manet from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the early morning hours of March 18, 1990. Originally aired in the fall of 2018, visitors can now listen to all 10 episodes, presented in a gritty true crime style, at this website. For example, Episode 2 delves into the question of whether the theft was an inside job facilitated by overnight security guard Rick Abath, who will go down in history as the person who let the thieves (disguised as police) into the Museum. Episode 8 looks into the story of Brian McDevitt, who in 1980 attempted to steal artworks of similar value and vintage from the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, and who has since disappeared. The final episode, a Last Seen live event recored at the GlobDocs Film Fest in Boston, features a discussion by the reporters and producers of the podcast on their process of putting together the show. [DS]

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The world's oceans are enormously influential for life on Earth (both human and otherwise), but many people do not fully understand or appreciate the complexities of oceans and their impact on human lives. To help address this, the non-profit organization Ocean Wise has created several online ocean literacy courses that may be of interest to educators, students, and the generally curious. These comprehensive courses are based on the Ocean Literacy Framework, a standards-aligned educational framework developed collaboratively by U.S. scientists, educators, and government agencies. Visitors will find three interactive, self-guided courses for students grades 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12, each course offering a how-to manual, multiple lessons, and seven colorful badges. In addition to the student courses, Ocean Wise has also created an Educator Resource Library to help teachers learn how to integrate ocean literacy into their classrooms. Access to these courses is free with email registration, and links to additional ocean literacy resources are also provided. Ocean Wise is led by Lasse Gustavsson, its president and chief executive officer, and headquartered at Canada's renowned Vancouver Aquarium. [JDC]

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Story maps offer viewers a highly visual medium that incorporates text, multimedia, and (of course) maps into their narratives. Here, the GIS software giant Esri has curated a collection of approximately fifty stellar story maps related to ocean science and ocean conservation that are sure to provide interested visitors with an informative and engaging experience. As Esri explains, these story maps "were chosen for the outstanding ways that they are informing, educating, and inspiring scientists, conservationists, decision-makers, and the general public, on a wide variety of ocean issues." For a basic primer in ocean science and conservation issues, the first story map on the list (entitled "The Ocean") is an excellent starting point. From there, readers can explore whichever ocean topics strike their fancy, as this collection ranges from stunning photographic expeditions created by the International League of Conservation Photographers to explanations of oceanographic concepts and scientific research, and even history and engineering. While story maps created by Esri staff are well-represented, most of this collection features story maps that were made by government agencies, universities, and non-profit organizations from around the world. [JDC]

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Interested in learning more about ocean issues, but short on time? Then World Ocean Radio may be for you. Launched in 2010, World Ocean Radio is a weekly podcast and radio show that offers listeners five-minute audio essays on a wide range of ocean-related issues and recently celebrated its 500th episode. This long-running series is hosted by Peter Neill, founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory (W2O), and produced by W2O in association with WERU 89.9 FM, Blue Hill, Maine. Recent episode topics include the possibilities offered by saltwater engineering (such as electricity generation and desalination for fresh water) and an introduction to citizen science projects that enable ordinary people to contribute to ocean-related research. Listeners are able to stream and download episodes of World Ocean Radio at the link above (which also provides transcripts of each episode), and they can also subscribe via RSS or Stitcher, as well as listen to one of the show's many broadcast affiliates. [JDC]

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Those curious about deep ocean research may want to check out the current expedition of Okeanos Explorer, the research ship of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This ongoing two-part expedition is taking place from May 30 to July 12, 2019, and aims "to collect critical baseline information about unknown and poorly understood deepwater areas of the Southeastern United States" off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Readers may like to begin with the background information section (found in the right sidebar) to see an expedition overview and learn about this mission's goals and scientific context. A growing collection of high-resolution photos and maps resides in the Image and Video Gallery, and after the expedition begins its second leg on June 20, daily updates and mission logs will also be added to this site. STEM educators should check out the Expedition Education Module, where they will find several collections of multimedia educational content on the themes of oceanic cold seeps, deep-sea corals, and marine archaeology, as well as links to this expedition's live video feeds and the Okeanos Explorer's general education materials collection. [JDC]

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Science teachers may be interested in this collection of classroom resources provided by the New England Aquarium in Boston. The main feature of this collection is the Aquarium's Blue Impact video series, which was "[o]riginally developed as a tour for visitors to the New England Aquarium ...[and] presents the challenges ocean animals face from global climate change, and how communities are working together to make a difference for the blue planet." The series comprises seven short videos (ranging from about three to five minutes in length) explaining topics such as the science of sea level rise and how climate change affects species like shorebirds, sea turtles, and whales. Each video is accompanied by a downloadable student worksheet and a separate answer key for teachers. A glossary and overall teacher's guide are also provided. These resources are intended for "intermediate-advanced" students and are aligned with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Following the Blue Impact series, visitors will also find a Digital Appendix with links to additional resources, lesson plans, and activities related to the topics discussed in the video series. [JDC]

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Clippings is a Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird extension that maintains a database of frequently entered text snippets, which can be pasted into websites or emails. These clippings may contain built-in placeholders that will be filled-in when the text excerpt is pasted, such as the current date or time. Users are also able to create custom placeholders. When a snippet is pasted, Clippings prompts the user to provide values for each of the custom placeholders. A menu of available text excerpts is accessible either from the right-click context menu or through keyboard shortcuts, which users can also assign for even faster access to particular clippings. Users can organize their snippets into folders, color-code them, and back them up by exporting them into a variety of file formats. Text excerpt databases can be synchronized between Firefox and Thunderbird on the same computers or shared across Firefox browser windows on multiple machines. Clippings is free software, distributed under the Mozilla Public License, with source code available on GitHub via the About menu on the Clippings site. [CRH]

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F-Droid is an alternative app store for Android devices that contains exclusively Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Every program description includes a clear description of the license terms and links to the program source code. When available, there are also links to the upstream issue tracker for reporting bugs in the program directly to the software maintainers. If a program contains anti-features that product sellers charge users to disable, like user tracking, advertising, or the use of non-free network services, these will be flagged prominently in program descriptions. In addition to accessing the F-Droid store over the internet, F-Droid users may also share programs with each other in peer-to-peer fashion over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Android Beam. F-Droid has been recommended by the Free Software Foundation Europe and the GNU Project, a crowd-sourced effort focused on developing free software. The Docs section of the F-Droid website is a helpful place for prospective users to begin, with a Getting Started section with several FAQs and a step-by-step tutorial demonstrating how to use the program. [CRH]

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We originally featured this in the 11-24-2017 Scout Report, and it continues to be a valuable resource for K-12 science teachers looking for ocean-related material.

Launched in 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) is dedicated to research and education related to all aspects of ocean science. For K-12 science educators, this organization offers a number of resources that may be of interest. These resources are divided into two sections: For Teachers and For Students; although, the two categories contain considerable overlap. While some of these resources are perhaps most helpful for those able to travel to the Cape Cod headquarters of WHOI, other resources may be useful for science educators around the globe. For example, the Interactive Science section (which can be found under Images & Multimedia) features a number of hands-on, virtual learning activities addressing issues ranging from algae identification to the carbon cycle. Another highlight of this website is a list of citizen science projects, which can be found in the Resources/Materials for Teachers section.

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