Research and Education
From reactions to the world of acids and bases, the study of chemistry can present certain unique challenges to all types of students. Fortunately, there are helpful sites like ChemTutor. As their site mentions, ChemTutor "begins with the fundamentals and gives expert help with the most difficult phases of understanding your first course in chemistry." The site's layout is quite straightforward, as users can just click on any of the topics offered on the homepage. These topics include reactions, atomic structure, elements, and solutions. Within each topic, visitors can take advantage of sample problems, look over helpful diagrams, and so on. [KMG]
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org
Over the past several decades, C-SPAN has brought many hours of fascinating programming to the generally curious. Many teachers have used their programming to edify their students about various aspects of US government, and now C-SPAN has created this very nice site to complement those informal activities. The formal mission of the C-SPAN Classroom site is "to enhance the teaching of Civics & U.S. Government through C-SPAN's primary source programming." Visitors can start their journey by viewing the "Clip of the Week", and then looking through the other thematic sections on the site, which include "Principles of Government", "Legislative Branch", and "Political Participation". Along with each clip, users can also view a short clip description, and take advantage of the discussion questions as well. Visitors will need to complete a short free registration form to access all of the clips, and this only takes a few minutes. This site is quite a delight, and for anyone who teaches civics and related fields, it will most likely become an essential online resource. [KMG]
Professional psychologists and students of psychology have many places to look for information about their field, but the American Psychological Association's "Monitor on Psychology" magazine is certainly one that should be perused on a regular basis. This happens to be the magazine's site, and visitors can look at full-length articles from the monthly publication, along with letters to the editor, the president's column, and news from the Association. To give potential parties a sense of the contents of this fine publication, recent articles have looked at opportunities for psychologists to become part of the "group doctoring" movement and in-depth investigations into the role that psychologists play during wartime. Visitors may also wish to look through the online archive, which stretches back to February 1999. [KMG]
http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/
Some math teachers find themselves confronted by students who ask, "Why do we have to learn this?" or "When am I going to use it?" These are vexing questions for sure, and one suggestion might be to incorporate the history and development of the field of mathematics into the formal study of the subject. That is exactly what a dedicated team of individuals at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics decided to do when they created the online magazine, Convergence. The magazine contains a wide range of materials for educators, including animated mathematical demonstrations that can be downloaded for classroom use and discussions of particular problems from an historical context. On the magazine's homepage, visitors can view featured articles, take a look over the "Critic's Corner", and use the "Show Me" search engine to look for new and compelling additions. [KMG]
http://www.bioedonline.org/presentations/
The resources for biology teachers offered by BioEd Online are uniformly excellent, and this particular section of their website is no exception to that trend. Designed specifically for teachers, this site contains dozens of presentations that can be adopted for use in a variety of classroom settings. Users of the site can explore a list of topics and featured presentation materials, which include "The Cell: Cloning", "Diversity of Life: Introduction to Human Behavior", and "The Human Organism: Influenza Vaccination". That's far from all however, as the site also has interactive lesson demonstrations, lab techniques, and teaching strategies. Equally important for instructors is the "Seeking a Teaching Position", which includes presentations like "So You Want to Teach?" and "High Stakes Communication: Interviewing for a Teaching Position". [KMG]
http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=MEMOIRS_A
The National Academy of Sciences has had many distinguished members, and since 1877 they have published brief biographical sketches of their members who have passed away. During the past year, the Academy has begun to digitize these sketches in order to place them online on this site. Previously only those sketches published since 1995 were available on the site, so this initiative will offer access to an additional 900 works. First-time visitors to the site can browse through an alphabetical list of these profiles, and they may also sign up to receive email updates when new profiles are added to the archive. These profiles include insightful and well-written pieces on John Dewey, Margaret Mead, Thomas Edison, and Louis Agassiz. [KMG]
http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/digital/digitalumass.htm
Over the past several years, the Digital UMass initiative at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has created a number of compelling collections for the web-browsing public and scholars alike. Along with collections that feature the work and correspondence of W.E.B. DuBois, staff members have created this useful online collection of university records and publications. Visitors to the site can view the institution's annual reports from 1864 to 1933, peruse copies of the student newspaper from 1887 to 1889, and read oral histories which document the experiences of women at the school. Overall, it is an interesting way to learn about one of New England's largest state universities, and for persons studying the history of higher education it will be extremely helpful. [KMG]
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/plantgrowth/home/index.html
Growing plants on Earth can be hard enough, but what about growing plants in outer space? NASA takes on that very subject in this site designed to help educators address the rather intriguing subject of lunar plant growth. This particular resource is part of the NASA Engineering Design Challenge for students in grades K-12, and visitors can register to take part online at this site. Teachers can elect to participate in a variety of ways, and they will find complete guides that detail how to design, build, and evaluate a lunar plant growth chamber. While space may in fact be the final frontier in many regards, the sustained cultivation of various crops to give astronauts sustenance while they are out on their mission may be the extension of that frontier. The materials presented here are more than a bit fun, and they may get students thinking about a future career in engineering or the space sciences. [KMG]
