Scientific American: 60-Second Science

Science in a minute? Sure, why not! Scientific American is offering up these bite-sized offerings that give a brief intro to a range of science-related topics and investigations. New, minute-long offerings are added every weekday, and recent additions have included "Fly Cells Divide by the Clock," "Twitter Reveals Language Geographic Distribution," and "Bed Bugs Bollixed by Bean." Visitors can sign up to learn about new additions via their RSS feed or iTunes. These short audio blurbs could easily be used in any number of classrooms to keep students engaged. It's a great resource and one that can be used with a range of learners. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/podcasts.cfm?id=60-second-science
 
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Mapping for Results: The World Bank

The effective visual representation of key demographic data through the usof dynamic maps is a powerful tool for policymakers, journalists, and others. The World Bank developed such a program in 2010 as part of the Mapping for Results website. So far, their team has analyzed over 2,500 World Bank-financed projects and geo-coded more than 30,000 locations spanning 144 countries. Visitors can look over the featured articles on the homepage to get a flavor of the projects here, which include stories like "Mapping for Results Goes Local" and "Mapping the Financial Sector in Africa." Visitors can use the interactive map to view projects by country or indicator, which include population density, malnutrition, and infant mortality. Visitors can also learn about the Methodology deployed throughout the maps, which will be useful to those persons looking to understand the inner workings of this complex undertaking. Visitors can sign up to receive updates about the site via Twitter or RSS feed.

http://maps.worldbank.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Insects

Arctiid Moth

Anyone interested in entomology will find the images, descriptions, and activities here to be most edifying. Visitors can click on Class: Insecta for classroom activities that profile butterfly and moth wing patterns, and a delightful collection of insects as they appear on stamps from countries all over the world. The Entophiles area features over 150 images of insect macrophotography combined with detailed descriptions. The Ants, Bees & Wasps area is remarkable; visitors shouldn't miss the thread-waisted wasp or the formicid ants. The site also contains select issues of the Cultural Entomology digest, which includes articles like "The Insects of M.C. Escher" and "Butterflies of Ancient Mexico."

http://www.insects.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

15 Evolutionary Gems

Teachers and members of the general public will find this resource from Nature magazine quite wonderful. Crafted by Henry Gee, Rory Howlett, and Philip Campbell, this collection of 15 evolutionary gems brings together items "for those wishing to spread awareness of evidence for evolution by natural selection." The 16-page document explains key scientific discoveries under headings like "A case of co-evolution," "The origin of feathers," and "Darwin's Galapagos finches." Each of these sections features a narrative essay, along with references and links to additional resources for further exploration.

http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/evolutiongems.pdf

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Wallace Online

A searchable collection of the writings of British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which provides access to a collection of primary documents that will help raise awareness of Wallace's contributions to science, particularly in the fields of evolutionary biology and biogeography. Featuring scanned images of Wallace's 22 books/book chapters and more than 900 articles, the website allows researchers to view all of Wallace's original published works as well as transcripts of the texts.Images and specimens are also included.

http://wallace-online.org/

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center: Video Lab Manual

This website from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) brings together almost three dozen helpful instructional laboratory videos. The videos are contained in three sections, including Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each video has been recorded in a high-quality digital format and a number of them are available in Spanish as well. Some of the offerings here include "Preparation of Cholesterol Ester Liquid Crystals," "Synthesis of Nickel Nanowires: Beaker," and "Synthesis of a Superconductor." It should be noted that there is an important disclaimer at the bottom of the homepage that is worth reading before attempting any of these activities.

http://education.mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/http://education.mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/ 

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Chemical Education Digital Library

Benzene rings and other aspects of chemistry come alive with these "living textbooks." This collection of key chemistry documents and primers is made possible via the Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL) and its contains eight separate items. They are called "living" because they are updated by their owners and those responsible for their continued success. Users will find "Practice in Thinking: A Laboratory Course in Introductory Chemistry," "Chemistry Leaflets," and "Wiki: Quantum States of Atoms and Molecules" here for their consideration. The Chemistry Leaflets provide an interesting wrinkle as they were originally published between 1927 and the mid-1940s. Visitors shouldn't miss "Chemical Principles through Integrated Multiple Exemplars (ChemPRIME)" as it is designed so that general chemistry concepts can be presented in an order that reflects the conceptual structure of the discipline.

 http://www.chemeddl.org/collections/LivTexts/

 From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/