Research and Education
http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/
Merging onto any highway can be a real challenge, but getting onto the New Jersey Digital Highway is a snap. Billed as the place "Where History, Culture, and Learning Merge", this digital archive brings together history and culture from the Garden State’s museums, libraries, archives, and historical societies. First-time visitors may want to perform a quick search via their search engine, or they can also browse the collections by time period or county. Visitors should definitely look at the collection titled "The Changing Face of New Jersey-The Immigration Experience From Earliest Times to the Present". Here, they can look through materials dating back to 1741 that include oral histories, photographs, diaries, and sheepskin deeds. [KMG]
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/135bethune/135bethune.htm
During her long life, Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, social activist, and prominent leader in the women's rights movement. This latest installment in the National Park Service's "Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans" centers on her council House in Washington, D.C., and is a fine resource for history teachers and those with a general interest in American history. The Council House happens to be where the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was located for over twenty years, and a number of important discussions regarding the integration of the military took place here. Visitors to the site will want to take a look at the historical essay on the house before getting started, and then they will want to look at the readings on Bethune and the NCNW. The lesson also includes a host of visual images along with some fine classroom activities and discussion questions. [KMG]
The National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) was created through a cooperative agreement between Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Its primary function is to provide "objective, science-based information about pesticides and pesticide-related topics to enable people to make informed decisions about pesticides and their use." The site contains seven primary sections, including "General Information", "Technical Information", "Pest Control", and "Emergency". Most casual visitors to the site should click on over to the "General Information" area. In this section, they will find fact sheets and posters on pesticide safety, storage and disposal, and case studies. Of course, they shouldn't forget about the other areas of the site, particularly if they are interested in regulatory issues involving pesticides and emergency resources. Finally, the site also contains a search engine for those who know exactly what they need to find. [KMG]
More and more research institutes are interested in examining how the Internet has reshaped human interaction, governance, and industry, and the Oxford Internet Institute is certainly one that people will enjoy learning about. The Institute offers several academic degrees, and their site offers up their latest research findings for consideration by the press, scholars, and members of the general public. In the "Research" section, visitors can learn about their various research initiatives and also take in some of their recent publications, such as "The Internet in Britain" and "Reconfiguring Government-Public Engagements: Enhancing the Communicative Power of Citizens". They also have a delightful selection of webcasts from the past several years, including programs on how e-research enables new form of collaboration across the sciences and the humanities. The site is rounded out by their very own extensive blogosphere, which is well developed and definitely worth a look. [KMG]
http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/
For law students, learning about the world of legal citations is key. For many years, the standard reference work on legal citation was a manual known as "The Bluebook". This work has been revised numerous times over the years, and this online version appeared in May 2007. It is offered here as a public service, by the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University's Law School, and it will be helpful for those looking for a quick online reference work. It is worth noting that this particular introduction is focused on the forms of citation used in processional practice rather that those used in journal publication. Visitors can search through the contents at their leisure, and they can also jump around to sections that cover the use of underlining, italics, and citation principles. [KMG]
http://digitaldurham.duke.edu/
Durham, North Carolina has been the subject of many scholarly works, and its particular location and context makes it a compelling place for persons interested in examining urbanization, immigration, industrialization, and emancipation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Created by Duke University and the North Carolina State Library, this digital archive presents a cornucopia of primary sources, including personal letters, entries from a prominent general store in the region, maps, and census data. Visitors should feel free to browse through these documents, or they can also perform a detailed search. Other features of the site include a brief geographic overview of the Piedmont region and a glossary of terms used in the 1880 census. Educators will enjoy looking over the "Teachers’ Corner", which includes lesson plans that utilize some of the primary documents in the archive. [KMG]
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health04/activities/3765.html
Bringing together the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the lithosphere can be a formidable challenge. This classroom activity created by H. Catherine W. Skinner of Yale University manages to do that quite elegantly, and it is one that geology teachers will want to try out in their own classrooms. In this activity, students will be presented with the opportunity to explore the natural processes that influence the geological distribution of materials, study elemental cycles, and also examine how they can affect human health. On this site, visitors can read about the pedagogical approach of this activity, download instructor notes, as well as the specific goals of the assignment. [KMG]
http://www.bioedonline.org/resources/micromatters.cfm
The BioEd Online Project at Baylor University's College of Medicine continues to release new educational resources for persons in the fields of health science, medicine, and biology. Their MicroMatters project creates "teaching materials and online resources in microbiology and infectious diseases," and is a welcome addition to BioEd's existing materials. MicroMatters is a short magazine designed to teach students about communicable diseases, how microbes are spread, various epidemics throughout history, and the immune system and vaccines. Educators may want to use this magazine in conjunction with other classroom activities, or they could also recommend it to other educators who are looking to address similar topics in their own classrooms. [KMG]
