Research and Education
http://www.skylight.science.ubc.ca/
Established in 2001 at the University of British Columbia, the Science Centre for Learning and Teaching was created in order to create "an environment that supports reflective science teaching and learning practices." While Skylight's work is primarily focused on working on improving these efforts at the University of British Columbia, they have also created a number of online resources designed for science teachers everywhere. Perhaps one of the best resources on the entire site is the "Teaching Large Classes" area. Within this section, visitors can find highlights from the research literature on teaching, descriptions of practical strategies to enhance learning outcomes, video clip demonstrations, and a selection of links to other relevant resources. There are even other features worth perusing, such as the document "Why Calculus Workshops Really Work" and an interactive presentation on how to create a highly interactive classroom. [KMG]
http://www.swtc.edu:8082/mscenter/
Developed by Peter C. Esser and John W. Pluemer of the Math and Science Center at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, this site brings together a veritable cornucopia of resources related to learning about applied math, occupational math, elementary algebra, technical science, and the fundamentals of chemistry. First-time visitors will want to start by looking at the "Resources" section. Here they will find online tables and scientific calculators, sets of tips such as "Fractions: The Basics" and "Using the Place Value System", and some rather fine tutorials that cover health occupations and culinary mathematics. Moving on, the "Topics" area provides access to the various resources on the site organized into subtopics such as "Finance", "Geometry", and "Statistics". [KMG]
http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/3/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=623
Introducing students to different software packages and applications for use in biology and math courses can be quite a challenge. With that in mind, teachers in these areas will definitely appreciate this rather helpful site from the people at the Mathematical Sciences Digital Library. These particular simulations and tools draw heavily on Microsoft Excel, so users will need to make sure that they also have this program installed. Visitors can click on the "Resources By Category" to access modules that deal with chemical equations in biochemistry, protein analysis, biodiversity, and island biogeography. It is worth noting that other subjects are covered here, including genetics, epidemiology, and ecology. [KMG]
http://www.archaeological.org/pdfs/archaeologywatch/figandspade.pdf
Certain salvage groups and treasure hunting corporations have presented themselves with a certain veneer of heroism and righteousness that seems a bit unseemly and at times duplicitous to certain persons. This is the subject of the very well written piece offered by Professor Jerome Lynne Hall, who teaches anthropology at the University of San Diego and was a past president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. The piece first appeared in the AIA Archaeology Watch from August 15, 2007, and it takes on the eight deceptions that are often skillfully deployed by those private individuals who have designs on various underwater archaeological sites. Professor Hall closes the piece with a section titled "What May Be Done?" which offers a few policy prescriptions, including the suggestion that is important to "redress the deceptive prattle of treasure hunters within the popular media." [KMG]
http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt07int.pdf
The "Inside Politics" website is maintained by Professor Darrell West of Brown University, and visitors to the site will find some of his publications, lectures, and related materials. One of his recent additions to the site is this paper on the state of global e-government from August 2007. This is actually the seventh annual update on the state of global e-government from Professor West, and within its 25-pages, there is a wealth of valuable information. For this work, Professor West analyzed 1,687 national government websites for 198 nations around the world. Some of his findings include the observation that 96 percent of these websites provide access to publications and 80 percent have links to databases. The report includes a number of tables, graphs, charts, and several useful appendices. Given the scope of this work, it will be very illuminating to persons with an interest in political science, information science, and governance studies. [KMG]
http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Equally%20Spaced.pdf
Urbanologists and other types have been interested in the interactions between different groups of people in cities for hundreds of years. There is quite a broad literature on studying different types of communities and public spaces, and this recent paper from the Demos group in the United Kingdom adds to that body of work. This 40-page report was first published in July 2007, and it was authored by Hannah Lownsbrough and Joost Beunderman. As the report's subtitle suggests, it is primarily concerned with presenting a dynamic look at how public places can effectively encourage interaction between diverse communities in urban areas. For this work, the researchers looked at three separate locations in Britain, and this report presents some of their findings on what works well (and not so well) in terms of creating and maintaining high-quality public places. The report is both thoughtful and thorough, and persons with an interest in urban planning, sociology, and related fields will find it quite compelling. [KMG]
http://www.bioedonline.org/lessons/chromosomes.cfm
BioEd Online has providing helpful resources for biology teachers for years, and they have recently placed this "ready-to-go" lesson online for use by educators. The basic objective of this particular resource is to have students learn to describe the functional differences of X and Y-chromosomes. To make this possible, the lesson includes four articles, worksheets, and several discussion questions. Instructors can also download a complete lesson plan, along with extensive notes. Finally, the site also includes information about the National Science Standards covered within this unit, along with an estimate of how long this unit will take to complete. [KMG]
eHistory has been around in one form or another since 1995, when it was created by the budding historian Scott Laidig. These days, eHistory is operated and maintained by The Ohio State University’s history department. Dedicated to all things historical, the site contains primary sources and documents, original book reviews, digitized books, maps, and multimedia features. These multimedia features are uniformly quite good, and they cover topics such as the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during World War II and responses to immigration over the past 125 years. Historians will want to look through the "Primary Sources" area at length, as it contains letters and diaries from the Civil War, along with the oft-cited "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" in all of its 128-volume glory. [KMG]
