The Scout Report -- Volume 26, Number 3

The Pathogen Tracker Game is perfect for science teachers seeking a hands-on activity to demonstrate the power of pathogens. The game was created and launched by Cornell's SciCentr, with educational resources produced by science teacher Mimi Cooper and fellow researchers. The goal of the game is to demonstrate the effects of "foodborne illnesses and how online databases can help track down the source of the organisms that cause them." Instructors may want to start on the Educators' Resources page, where they will find information on how to use the game as a "three-stage lesson in [their] classroom." This includes a teachers' guide, classroom worksheets (with answers), and a vocabulary chart. Worksheets can also be accessed on the Players' Resources page, for those interested in playing outside of a classroom setting. Then, on the Play the Game page, players take on the role of "Foodborne Illness Investigators (FBII)." Moving between the casefile, email, encyclopedia, and lab tabs in the game, users will undertake an in-depth and hands-on learning experience to engage with the study of foodborne illness. At the conclusion of the game, users may want to explore the "Food Safety Careers" and "Related Resources" informational sheets that are accessible at the bottom of the Educators' Resources page. [EMB]

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Art lovers and art historians may enjoy The Way I See It. This audio and video series from the Museum of Modern Art in New York features "leading creative thinkers" (writers, actors, activists, and more) discussing a piece from the Museum that speaks to them. Interviewees analyze the complex meanings and emotions that the pieces encompass, wrestling with the dichotomy of anger and joy. The series also explores "countless stories and connections," and examines the ways that art demands that we "confront history." The Way I See It is hosted by Alastair Sooke, an art critic and historian, and takes the form of two mediums: a 30-part podcast (each episode around 15 minutes in length) and several YouTube videos that accompany select episodes (each clip around five minutes in length). These videos are available as a playlist on MoMA's YouTube channel. As filmmaker and series guest John Waters declares, "bad taste and good taste in art are very, very close;" see for yourself with The Way I See It. [EMB]

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First launched in 2017, A Street Near You provides a comprehensive database that "explore[s] the local legacy of the First World War." This resource contains "nearly 500,000 location records for 410,000 men and women who died whilst serving in the First World War," and displays them on an interactive map that allows users to see how the War affected countries and communities alike. The site allows users to search by cemetery, regiment, or date, and users can also scroll through the interactive map directly to search by location. The records contain biographies of lives lost in the War, usually including the name, rank, cemetery, date of death, and a picture. The display helps users grasp the magnitude of lives lost, while also visualizing "the scale of the impact that that would have had on their local communities." The website was created by open-data enthusiast James Morley and utilizes data obtained from Lives of the First World War, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Imperial War Museums Collections, and War Memorial Registrar. [EMB]

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While the enormity of the universe is hard to conceptualize, this visual graphic created by computer scientist Neal Agarwal helps provide some context. The Size of Space allows users to click through a series of images that categorize elements of space and space exploration by size. The site begins with an astronaut, and sizes-up from there, taking users on a journey through space shuttles, stations, asteroids, planets, black holes, nebulae, and galaxies, concluding with the end of the observable universe. The interactive methodology and clear visuals provide an engaging way for users to interact with space themes, making it a desirable supplemental tool for teachers completing space related units. The site concludes with a quote from Carl Sagan: "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." This quote encompasses the theme of the site, an invitation to explore mystical aspects of space in an effort to better understand beyond what we can directly see. [EMB]

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Access to a smartphone is a privilege often taken for granted, and a November 2019 report from the Pew Research Center highlights the "mobile divide" faced by those who experience accessibility barriers to these devices. The report surveyed 28,122 individuals from 11 countries with "emerging economies" to better understand mobile phone access issues. The study revealed that "a median of six percent of adults do not use phones at all, and a median of seven percent do not own phones but instead borrow them from others." In addition to this finding, the study explored connectivity issues, cost prohibiting concerns, and other challenges faced by those who did have mobile phones. Other issues cited by those surveyed included fear of stolen identities and other security concerns, expensive data costs, problems charging phones, inconsistent phone signals, and linguistic barriers. In response to whether those who didn't have a phone were interested in having one, the results were extremely varied (ranging from 86 percent of those surveyed in Venezuela being interested in "get[ting] a mobile phone in the future," to only 9 percent in Lebanon). Readers interested in taking a deeper-dive into the results can click through the corresponding 10 pages (including appendices) which narrow-in on specific access issues. [EMB]

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Dive into "inspiring stories about space and science," with Scheherazade Speaks Science. This publication was founded by astrophysicist Ghina M. Halabi, who recognized that "the world needs science and science needs more women." The site gets its name from the story of Scheherazade, a character from the book of Islamic Golden Age folktales One Thousand and One Nights, who uses storytelling as a platform to push back against misogyny. On a similar mission, Scheherazade Speaks Science allows readers to indulge in various kinds of stories that "promote the visibility of women scientists." Examples of such stories include "Can We Still Save the Northern White Rhinos?" and "Martian Deserts on Earth." Select stories are also available in Spanish. In addition to story collections and archives, the website also has a Resources page, which compiles supplementary tools and websites to assist storytellers. Scheherazade Speaks Science was launched in 2018 and is supported by the University of Cambridge. [EMB]

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Science writing can feature complex terminology that may put off ordinary readers. Make sure your writing is accessible and universal with the De-Jargonizer, "an automated jargon identification program aimed at helping scientists and science communication trainers improve and adapt vocabulary use for a variety of audiences." Users have the option of copying and pasting the text they want analyzed into the tool, or directly uploading a Text (.txt) or Word (.docx) document of any length. Users will then receive results that color-code their text into groupings based on words that are "high frequency/common words, mid-frequency/normal words, and jargon." As the site notes, "studies have shown that a reader needs to understand 98 percent of vocabulary in a text to adequately comprehend its contents." Using this system, the De-Jargonizer can help users identify and rewrite portions of their text deemed inaccessible. The tool was designed by a group of professors and researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and Holon Institute of Technology and is compatible with both English and Hebrew text. [EMB]

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Readers interested in multi-media storytelling and its uses in science journalism may enjoy Scum, a 2017 story from reporter Tony Bartelme and a team of photographers and web developers at the Pulitzer-Prize winning publication The Post and Courier. Scum explores "colonies of fast-growing algae and bacteria" that created a nation-wide crisis. The interactive module takes readers on a journey that pairs investigative and scientific reporting with mesmerizing images to paint a vivid picture of the devastating effects of catastrophic algae blooms on communities across the country. It also includes insightful explanations of the health, economic, ecological, and social impact of these blooms. Readers can click through the entire story, or use the upper bar to select which of the following subsections they'd like to read: "Running amuck," "Toxic algae blooms," "Lake Hartwell algae bloom," "Charleston's first line of defense," or "About Hollings Marine Lab." In addition to scrolling through the story itself, readers can explore the interactive map, which pinpoints where these blooms have occurred. Not only does the story reveal a "portrait of muck and disruption," but it demonstrates the ways that multi-media tools can allow readers to engage with stories in unconventional and exciting ways. [EMB]

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Need an expert source for a story, but not sure where to find them? A branch of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, SciLine provides "timely access to trustworthy, articulate experts...[on] science-related issues," by connecting journalists and field experts. Journalists can navigate to the online request form by selecting the "I Need an Expert" button in the For Journalists section (located mid-way down the page). Using this form, writers then detail the essentials they are looking for: the type of expertise needed, deadline, and a basic synopsis of the story they are writing. From there, SciLine's "matching experts" will connect journalists with credible scientists to assist their research. In addition to this tailored service, SciLine features a collection of Fact Sheets, "evidence-based, factual summaries of newsworthy scientific issues," on a range of topics, such as "Lead in U.S. Drinking Water," "Wildfire Trends in the United States," and "Gene Drives." These fact sheets provide condensed information, resource lists, and key definitions that may appeal to a wide variety of readers. Scientists interested in being a part of SciLine's expert database can also fill out a registration form under the For Scientists tab on the site. [EMB]

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Diverse Voices in Science Journalism, a collection by The Open Notebook (TON), explores questions too often unasked in science journalism, such as "What's it like to report on science in a language that doesn't have a word for science?" This resource is guided by the principle that "our personal experiences, backgrounds, and circumstances inevitably color the way we tell stories," and seeks to uplift work, explore experiences, and examine important topics that will address a lack of diversity in the field. Under Interviews & Articles, readers will find a wealth of content on topics including: addressing the disproportionate amount of harassment experienced by journalists of color, using meaningful inclusion of diverse sources, prioritizing culturally competent and sensitive reporting, and navigating the visa application process. The TON Collections section offers educational resources, some in Spanish, on topics such as environmental journalism and starting a career in science writing. Aspiring science writers may also want to explore the Pitch Database, where they can filter by type, publication, writer, and year of publication. Each entry contains a link to the published story and a copy of the pitch originally sent by its writer. Diverse Voices in Science Journalism is a partnership between Open Notebook (a non-profit resource hub for journalists in the field) and the National Association of Science Writers' Diversity Committee. [EMB]

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Csvkit is a toolbox of command-line utilities for manipulating data in CSV format, which the csvkit authors describe as "the king of tabular data." It includes tools to ingest data from a variety of sources in several formats and generate well-formatted CSVs, tools to filter and subset data stored in CSV files, tools to produce summary statistics of a CSV file, and tools to export CSV data into other common formats. In the Tutorial section of the csvkit site users will find a series of example analyses based on widely cited public datasets. Detailed usage documentation for each csvkit tool can be located in the Reference section of the site. Csvkit is free software, distributed under the MIT license, with source code available on GitHub. Csvkit is written in Python and runs on Windows, macOS, and UNIX-like systems. Users can install csvkit either using their OS package manager or using Python's pip. [CRH]

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Love is an engine for creating two dimensional video games using the Lua programming language. It is permissively licensed, meaning that it can be used free of charge for any purpose (including developing commercial applications). The Examples section on the front page of the website gives a flavor of Love development by presenting snippets to display text, show an image, and play a sound. On the Love Wiki, users can find comprehensive reference documentation and links to several tutorials that walk step-by-step through the process of creating a game. The Games section at the bottom of the project homepage links to several published games that were built with Love. Installers are available on the Love site for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. In addition to those platforms, games developed using Love can also run on Android and iOS devices as well. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 10-14-16 Scout Report, the Journal of Science Communication continues to provide a wealth of open-access, peer-reviewed journals that may be of interest to the science journalism community.

JCOM, the Journal of Science Communication, is an open-access journal dedicated to exploring the many sides of science communication. As the editors explain, they are interested in the "importance of communicative processes into science's development and the dynamics of contemporary knowledge societies." This includes issues examining how scientists - as well as journalists and government/NGO officials - communicate scientific developments to the public, exploring interdisciplinary work between scientists and experts of other disciplines, and examining how members of the general public engage with science. Published quarterly since 2002, each issue of the journal includes a number of articles relating to a particular theme accompanied by an editorial. JCOM content also includes Book Reviews, Essays, and shorter Comments. Recent issues have explored the theme of trust in science communication and the rising trend of citizen science projects, where members of the general public are invited to participate in research.

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