Saturday, August 25, 2012

MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering

The MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering "is devoted to the design, creation, and fundamental understanding of materials that are capable of enhancing the human experience." Visitors to this site can peruse the eight primary sections here, which include Facilities, Research, Highlights, and Connecting to Industry. In the Research area, visitors can learn about the Center's ongoing research projects, including work on the design of nanomaterials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Journalists and others may find the Highlights area quite useful, as it contains updates on the Center's research accomplishments, such as the development of fibers that can detect and produce sound. The site is rounded out by a collection of related links which lead to other relevant research centers at MIT and the Lincoln Laboratory.
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Practical Physics

This website, created by the Nuffield Foundation, contains practical activities designed for use in the classroom with students in high school and college. The activities here are arranged into a dozen topics, including Astronomy, Atoms and nuclei, and Physics applications. The activities here include "Hearing a laser beam," "What's the frequency?," and 75 others that use video clips, interactive graphics, and other visual materials to make these concepts and principles come alive. The Forces and Motion area is one of the best, as it is host to activities that really delve into the concepts of speed, velocity, and acceleration. Visitors can also use the search engine to look for specific items of interest.
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012.http://scout.wisc.edu/

Monday, August 13, 2012

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) is a peer-reviewed web-based collection of ecological educational materials. It is "a resource for busy ecology faculty who are looking for new ways to reach their students, or who perhaps want to learn more about teaching and learning." Each of the volumes here contains Experiments, Issues, and Teaching. In the Experiments area, visitors can find resources for laboratory settings, while the Issues section features classroom exercises and web-based materials. On the site's homepage, visitors will find the All Volumes link, which will allow them to look over all the resources dating back to 2004. The field experiments area includes resources such as "Using Steam Leaf Packs to Explore Community Assembly" and "Biodiversity Responses Across a Gradient of Human Influence."
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/