The Scout Report -- Volume 27, Number 44

Open Educational Resources (OER) are invaluable assets for teachers and researchers alike. These no-cost, open access resources allow educators and students to find information, but navigating the wealth of OER on the web or creating new resources can be intimidating for newcomers. This course, created by Carrie Gits of Austin Community College Library Services, provides 10 modules on OER that will be invaluable for librarians, instructors, and researchers. Each module can be accessed from a menu on the left hand side of the webpage (viewable as a hamburger icon on tablet and mobile devices). Modules provide videos, text, resources for further learning, and a knowledge checklist, and cover topics that range from accessibility issues to Creative Commons licensing. By the end of this course, individuals will be able to create OER of their own and understand the intricacies of such resources. Participants can also earn professional development credit for completing the whole course and final assessment. Additionally, there is an optional supplementary activity workbook linked at the bottom of the page. [JMW]

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Cinephiles, casual movie-goers, and anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes of film-making should check out the Internet Movie Script Database. This website compiles digital copies of scripts (in draft and final form) for famous films, from the 1978 science fiction horror flick Alien to the more recent 2017 Pixar hit Coco. An invaluable resource for aspiring screenwriters, users can search the database by keyword or browse scripts by title or genre using the links on the left side of the page linked above. All scripts are formatted for HTML so they can be read directly in the browser window. Readers can also explore some television transcripts and French movie scripts, or engage in comment forums with other users. Further, users can submit transcripts of films that are not yet included in the database by clicking "Submit" at the bottom of the page. [JMW]

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Developed by Associate Professor of History David Trowbridge of Marshall University, Clio is a non-profit website and mobile app that guides users through historical and cultural sites across the U.S. Professional and amateur historians will take great interest in this open digital environment, which encourages collaboration between scholars and the community to document information and reach broader audiences than traditional publishing allows. Clio uses the location feature on a user's smartphone or browser to display information about sites and related historical events in the immediate area. Clio also allows users to browse nearly 5,000 entries by state, city, address, title, category, or tag. The platform features walking and driving tours that include audio, video or image slideshows to guide users through historical and cultural sites. Each entry features links to related entries and tours and information on topics of further interest. In the menu (which displays as a hamburger icon), visitors can also find reference materials for using the platform, tutorials on how to create entries and tours, links to grant resources, information on internships, details about supporters and how to contribute, and more. Clio is available for free on browsers or as an app for iPhone and Android. [RMP]

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The natural world contains a variety of plants, animals, fungi, and more, but it can be difficult for non-experts to identify or access information on many species. The online community of iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, enables users to explore and share observations of the natural world. Through the iNaturalist app (available on desktop, tablets, or mobile devices), professional and amateur naturalists can record observations, share them with fellow naturalists, discuss findings, and make identifications. Readers can use the app to identify new species encountered on hikes, daily walks, or in their backyard. The app also allows users to become citizen scientists, as findings that are verified are shared with scientific data repositories and can help scientists conduct research. On the page linked above, visitors can navigate the menu at the top of the page to see observations ("Explore"), engage in discussions ("Community"), or find tutorials, taxonomy materials, and guides ("More"). The app, which is available in the Apple App Store or Google Play, allows users to connect with an international community and contribute to this crowdsourced initiative. Visitors can also check out the related, kid-friendly app Seek (featured in the 11-20-2020 Scout Report). [JMW]

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The Slave Wrecks Project is an international network that utilizes maritime archaeology - a relatively new field - to discover and research sunken slave ships in order to further study and document the transatlantic slave trade. The project is hosted by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (previously featured in the 07-31-2020 Scout Report), which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Working around the world, especially in North and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa, the project features studies of the journeys of specific ships, where and how they wrecked, and their lasting effects on communities, cultures, and nations. The Slave Wrecks Project is guided by the belief that the transatlantic slave trade is a part of history often told on too immense a scale to fully comprehend, and therefore seeks to bring this story down to a human scale, ensuring that these "long-neglected histories are recovered, restored, remembered, protected and shared." On the website, visitors will find details about discoveries from the project, as well as additional initiatives and resources from the museum. [RMP]

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This informative and often amusing blog is the brainchild of Michelle Wong, a chemist and science educator from Sydney, Australia. Using a mix of text, photos, videos, and even the occasional slideshow, Wong explains the science behind cosmetics and sorts fact from fiction. With a variety of topics covered, from sunscreen and vitamin C, to misinformation and marketing, viewers will be sure to find great content to enjoy. Blog posts on the site are organized by keyword, with some posts more heavily science-focused, while others are sorted according to specific cosmetics brands. Visitors can see the most recent posts on the page linked above or click "Browse" to access the full archive. Wong is a qualified cosmetic chemist with a PhD in organic medicinal chemistry and ample experience in science education and communication. This site would be helpful in a number of settings, offering a particularly good way to help students see the direct link between science and the products that many use on a daily basis. Wong cites and links to relevant scientific literature in her posts, encouraging users to take a deeper dive. [REB]

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LearnDerm offers free educational resources to supplement medical school curricula in dermatology. The LearnDerm Tutorial consists of a set of five lessons, covering skin examination, lesion identification, body location and distribution, configurations, and variations in morphology. From the page linked above, visitors can click "Get Started" to dive into the tutorial or use the "Lessons" drop-down menu to navigate to any of the five lessons or the follow-up quizzes. Each lesson provides an overview of the contents, definitions of key terms and techniques, and visual reference materials to aid learning. Lesson contents can be navigated using forward and back arrows. For example, the Skin Exam lesson explains how to perform a complete skin exam, including preparation of the exam space, areas of the body to examine, palpation of the skin, diascopy, and examination of the texture and size of skin features. The full tutorial should take 60-90 minutes to complete. The LearnDerm visualizations were developed by VisualDX and produced under the supervision of an editorial team of doctors from the University of North Carolina, University of Rochester, and University of California Los Angeles, including Lowell A. Goldsmith, Art Papier, and Noah Craft. [MJZ]

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What is the largest organ in the human body? Hint: it is not in the body, but covers it completely. When most think of an organ, skin does not first come to mind, but it is indeed an organ, and like all organs, its health is crucial to our overall well-being. However, skin health is easy to overlook because this complex part of the body has unique structures, functions, and needs. Medical professionals and general audiences may enjoy this free dermatology course, available from Novosibirsk State University through the Coursera platform. Taught by dermatologist Irina Sergeeva, this free five-week course will introduce users to skin health. The material covered in the course includes topics such as skin structures and functions, the environment's effects on skin, skin at different ages, inflammatory skin diseases, and skin infections. The course, which is appropriate for experts and beginners alike, allows learners to "take a trip to the skin," and explore the field of dermatology. On the page linked above, visitors may review the "Syllabus," find "Reviews" of the course, explore "Enrollment Options," and read an "FAQ" before enrolling. [JMW]

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Skin health is important to overall well-being and self-confidence. On the page linked above, health educators will find more than 30 lesson plans designed to teach students ages 8-13 about healthy skin, hair, and nails. The lessons are part of the Good Skin Knowledge education campaign, which seeks to "teach young people the facts about common skin, hair, and nail conditions," and reduce the teasing, bullying, and anxiety that young children face as a result of misunderstandings about conditions such as acne, dandruff, eczema, and warts. The lessons are divided into 3 categories - acne, skin health, and sun protection - and the materials are distinct for each age group (Ages 8-10 and Ages 11-13). For instance, the lesson "Skin: Daily Habits" for the younger age group is a 30-minute lesson that covers the importance of showering and face washing. The lesson plan features introductory materials, interactive elements, and independent practice, including a worksheet that is available to download. The materials in these lessons were developed by the American Academy of Dermatology, an association of more than 20,000 physicians founded in 1938. [MJZ]

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According to the creators of the INCI Beauty App, there are "almost 15,000 different chemicals" used in the manufacture of cosmetics, but consumers are often unaware of which ones may be harmful to the environment or human health. Cosmetics users and professionals alike may find answers to their questions with this French app (which is also available in German, Spanish, Italian, and English), which allows users to scan product barcodes or search cosmetic products by name or ingredient. Since 2017, INCI Beauty has used a scientific approach, through a partnership with the Clermont-Ferrand Sigma School of Chemistry, to enable users to analyze cosmetic products, inform themselves about common ingredients, share opinions about different beauty products, and make informed decisions about which products to buy. INCI Beauty is not funded by the beauty industry and donates 1% of its revenue to environmental organizations. The application's web page includes a Trends section that lists the most recently discussed products. Readers can follow INCI Beauty on Instagram (@inci.beauty), Twitter (@INCIBeauty), or Facebook (@incibeautyfr). [JMW]

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Write Freely is an open-source, distraction-free blogging environment. It produces minimalist blogs with "no news feed, notifications, or unnecessary likes or claps to take you away from your train of thought." Users compose posts in a simple, auto-saving editor using either Markdown or HTML formatting. Posts on Write Freely-driven sites can be federated to any other site or service that supports the ActivityPub standard (such as Mastodon or Pleroma). The "Writer Guide" in the "Documentation" (found in the Resources drop-down menu) details the software's publication workflow and describes how users can customize the display of their content. Users can click "Install" in the menu at the top of the page to download the software and learn how to self-host their own Write Freely instances. Write Freely is written in Go, and the project provides executables for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. The documentation notes that the software is sufficiently lightweight that moderate-traffic blogs can be hosted on low-end cloud servers "or even a Raspberry Pi." Alternatively, the "Hosting" section (also found in the Resources drop-down) describes several services that provide Write Freely blogs for a monthly fee. [CRH]

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Rich is a Python library that supports rich text formatting, colorized output, structured layout, multilingual text, and emojis in the output of command-line applications. It can also display a number of TUI widgets including progress bars, tree viewers (e.g., for recursive lists of folder contents), and task status spinners. Rich provides methods to display code with syntax highlighting, to render Markdown, and to provide extended formatting of errors. When used inside interactive Python sessions, it can provide pretty printing of data structures and an inspect() function that produces a summary of methods and members for any Python class, instance, or builtin. The "Quick Start" section of the documentation (found by clicking "Rich API") provides a whip-pan across the main features of the library. The remainder of the documentation provides a detailed API reference with usage examples. Rich runs anywhere Python does and can be installed either via an OS package management system or with Python's pip. [CRH]

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Last featured in the 03-29-2000 issue of the Scout Report, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology continues to be one of the most impactful sources of peer-reviewed basic, translational, and clinical dermatological research. While some articles continue to operate on the subscription model, the journal is supportive of open access research. Its efforts include an open archive and many freely available articles in each issue.

Clinicians, medical students, and public health researchers interested in dermatology, skin conditions, and scientific discovery will want to check out the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (JID), a publisher of "high impact reports describing original research related to all aspects of cutaneous biology and skin disease." Published through Elsevier, in partnership with the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) and the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR), the journal's editorial board includes clinicians and researchers from around the U.S. and across the globe. Some of the most read articles from recent issues have covered topics such as COVID-19 ("From Your Nose to Your Toes: A Review of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Pandemic-Associated Pernio") and cystic fibrosis ("Cystic Fibrosis Transport Regulator and its mRNA are Expressed in Human Epidermis"). Interested readers can follow the journal on Twitter (@JIDJournals) for updates. [DJS] [MJZ]

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