Futurity

The Futurity website features "the latest discoveries by scientists at top research universities in the US, UK, Canada and Australia." Currently, some of the participating universities include Boston University, Duke University, McGill University, and the University of Sheffield. Visitors to the homepage will note that there are four areas on the site: Earth & Environment, Health & Medicine, Science & Technology, and Society & Culture. Recently profiled news items include a compelling new discovery from New York University about the reality of a tractor beam that can pull microscopic particles. The Society & Culture section is a real find, as it contains engaging pieces like "Is zero tolerance too hard on students?" and "Big banks loom over finance 'ecosystem'." Also, visitors can browse news items by school or by topic area. Finally, the Week's Most Discussed area is a great way to learn about compelling new stories from around the globe.

http://www.futurity.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012.  https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Learn Chemistry: Chemistry Resources for Teachers

The Royal Society of Chemistry has created this most useful website to help teachers and students of chemistry learn about the field via interactive experiments, diagrams, animations, and so on. The site includes over 3,300 resources for school and higher education classes. Visitors can get started by using the Resource Type tab. Here they can browse through ten different headings, including Worksheet, Quiz, Tutorial, and Podcast. The Experiments area is quite wonderful, as it includes over 340 different experiments that can be conducted in the classroom.

http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/listing?searchtext=&fcategory=all&filter=all&Audience=AUD00000001&displayname=teachers

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

BBC Science in Action: Podcasts & Downloads

The BBC has gone above and beyond the call of duty with these wonderful podcasts that deal with various new developments in science from around the world. The series is called "Science in Action" and a new podcast is added every week. Recent episodes have dealt with theories of supersymmetry, climate records, Mayan civilization, and how different meteorological events have influenced the course of history. Each podcast is a neat and tidy eighteen minutes long, and the online archive contains episodes from the past month. Also, visitors can view a set of related links, which include the complete listing of podcasts from the BBC World Service and a link to the Science in Action homepage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/scia

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Zooniverse

Are you bored over the holiday season and needing your science fix?  Do you want to help with research and have fun?  How about scratching that itch to sort things?

The Zooniverse is home to the internet's largest, most popular and most successful citizen science projects.  Current projects include helping to find planets around stars, classifying tropical cyclone data, sorting whale sounds, and more. If you're new to the Zooniverse, pick a project and dive in.  Some projects do require you to sign up for free, but the same account will get you into all of the projects, and you can keep track of what you've contributed by watching 'My Zooniverse'.
 https://www.zooniverse.org/

e! Science News

There is no human editor behind e! Science News; it is powered by the e! news engine, a fully automated artificial intelligence. e! Science News constantly surfs the web to gather, regroup, categorize, tag and rank science news from all major science news sources.
It computes relationships between science articles and news found on the web using a vector space model and hierarchical clustering. It then automatically determines in which category each news item belongs using a Naive Bayes classifier. Finally, it examines multiple parameters (such as timeliness, rate of appearance on the web, number of sources reporting the news, etc) for each news group. The result is an e! score which represents the relative importance of a news item.
http://esciencenews.com

Probability Resources

This collection from the MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library brings together probability resources from a wide range of sources. First-time visitors can look through topics such as basic probability, games of chance, various discrete and continuous distributions, and more. As they browse around, visitors will notice that each resource has a title, a format, a rating, and a link to more information. The formats are quite diverse, and include interactive graphics, instructional fact sheets, and so on. All told, there are several hundred resources here that could be used in high school and college mathematics classrooms. Perhaps the most interesting sections here are the Famous Problems, which include the celebrated Monty Hall problem and the "birds on a wire."

http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/61/?pa=newCollection&sa=viewCoursePage&courseId=9

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Berkeley Lab: Center for Science and Engineering Education

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the staff members are always looking for ways to create valuable, high-quality educational products for educators. This website provides interested parties with materials created by the lab's Center for Science and Engineering Education (CSEE). On the website, visitors can find sections that include High School Students, Teachers, and Undergraduates & Graduate Students/Faculty. In this last section, visitors can learn about undergraduate laboratory internships and researcher programs offered by the CSEE. The Programs link will take visitors to a listing of offerings by name (such as Science Bowl) and type. Visitors should't miss the Educational Resources area, which includes links to helpful handouts and activities, such as "Energized Learning" and "Hands-On Universe."

http://csee.lbl.gov/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Computer Science Unplugged

If you've ever dreamed of seeing computer science in an informal and "unplugged" setting, this website is for you. Computer Science Unplugged (CS Unplugged) is "a project that provides free games and activities to communicate Computer Science concepts to students of all ages." The site contains 50 different videos in a range of languages and topics like cryptography, binary numbers, and computer programming. Visitors can also look through the Featured Playlists area, which contains a variety of the CS Unplugged staff's favorite videos. One of the cool things about the site is how interactive the videos are, featuring young people learning about computer science through group activities, games, and treasure hunts.

http://www.youtube.com/csunplugged

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

American Society for Engineering Education: Blogs & Newsletters

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has an ambitious and dedicated public outreach program to extend their mission to both their members and those who might wish to learn more about their work. Here, interested parties can read a variety of publications, including the "ASEE Connections Newsletter," "First Bell Newsletter," "Capitol Shorts Newsletter," and "The Accelerator Newsletter." The "First Bell Newsletter" is a good place to start, as it contains news prepared "exclusively for the engineering and technology education community." Moving on, "The Accelerator" is a fine monthly e-newsletter that keeps "engineering students informed and helps them connect and succeed." It's full of the latest news affecting student life, engineering, and higher education, along with details on scholarships and tips on career planning. Finally, the "Capitol Shorts" contains information intended to keep deans and department chairs abreast of important developments in Congress and federal agencies affecting engineering education and research.

http://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/blogs-and-newsletters

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Transition Mathematics Project

The Transition Mathematics Project (TMP) was created in 2004 "to help students successfully progress from high school math to college-level math." Since its inception, TMP has worked with a range of partners including high school and college math educators. First-time visitors should check out the 'Curriculum and Instructional Materials' section and the Resources area, which includes a number of useful tools such as "Agile Mind" (a web-based platform for educators to develop contextually rich math curricula and instructional materials). The Communication area features a semi-annual newsletter and a compilation of current "Math in the News" articles and publications related to TMP.

http://www.transitionmathproject.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction to Electric Power Systems

This fine course is offered as a welcome addition to MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative. The materials from this version of "Introduction to Electric Power Systems" are from the iteration taught by Professor James Kirtley in Spring 2011. On the site, visitors can look over the syllabus, the course calendar, readings, assignments, and quizzes. The topics covered here include load flow, power electric motor drives, and polyphase networks. The site also includes a number of problem sets, along with their accompanying solutions. Visitors can look over the readings and provide feedback on the course to the site administrators.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-061-introduction-to-electric-power-systems-spring-2011/ 

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/