Historic Maps In The K-12 Classroom

Developed by the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library, I encourage you to explore the maps and lesson plans available at Historic Maps in the K-12 Classroom.

At the moment there are 18 maps in 6 themes (such as Exploration and Encounter, or Migration and Settlement).

The maps are all viewable online and can also be downloaded in .pdf format. Built-in tools in the online maps allow one to zoom in or out and pan throughout all sections of the map. Lesson plans are offered within suggested grade-level categories.

Though 18 maps may not sound like a great deal, the amount of thought and care that's gone into this site is admirable and, I think, the resources here for using cartography and the study of history using geography are impressive.

Detroit Virtual Museum

Wayne State University has put together a site called WSU Virtual Motor City Collection. What they are doing:

The digitized images in the project represent a small subset of the Detroit News Collection, one of the premier photojournalistic resources freely available from a national-level newspaper and held at the Reuther Library.

In 1997, the Detroit News' outgoing editor and publisher Robert Giles conveyed the paper's original negatives and, significantly, copyright to the Reuther Library at WSU.

The full collection consists of more than 800,000 specially selected glass and nitrate, acetate and polyester film-based negatives. These date from the late 19th century, but the bulk fall between 1900 and 1980. They range in size from 8" x 10" to 35mm in both black and white, and color.

There are powerful search tools and the images are all fully documented. What a great record. Check out, for example, the Motown pictures in the collection. Great!

On This Day

Although maybe not something I think of everyday, I do sometimes wonder: What happened on this date last year....or 5 years ago.....or 50 years ago? The BBC has a site -- On This Day -- that can answer some of those questions, at least as viewed from that side of the Atlantic. One perhaps uncommon aspect of this site is that it includes historical information but also broadcasts, pictures, and other media as it tells the story of the day.

The following is their "About This Site" info to help explain its purpose and scope:

On This Day is a showcase of some of the most significant as well as some of the quirkier stories broadcast by BBC News since 1950 and now including a new World War II section.

We intend to continue adding stories over the coming years so you will always be able to find something fresh on the site.

You will probably enter the site via the front page. This will always be today’s date and will offer a choice of reports drawn from the years 1950-2002 and 1939-45.

Nearly all the stories contain video or audio and are written as if the event had only just occurred, drawing on archive media, old newspapers and historical reference books.

All news reports finish with an "In Context" box. This gives a brief rundown on what happened next and could also reveal details such as what became of personalities who featured in a story long before they became household names.

The timelines are intended to show you where you are within a long-running story and provide links to other related reports.

There are several ways to look round the site - you can search by date, as well as by theme and by correspondent. (Ever wondered what John Humphrys looked like before he began all those early shifts on Radio 4’s Today programme? Take a look at his timeline to find out.)

The Witness section of the site is where you come in! Maybe you can spot yourself in the crowd in one of the old videos featured in the site, or you were at an event featured in a news report. We would like to hear from you so please email us using the form in the Witness section.

While the BBC owns the copyright to nearly all the media on the site, some material has been licensed from other broadcasters as is normal in the world of TV news.

Ask Another Scientist

Back in March, I pointed you toward a site sponsored by Cornell that offers the opportunity to ask questions of science directly to scientists.

Well, I've found another which also looks both interesting and with a lot of potential. This one is courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara and the National Science Foundation.

Consider taking a look at the wide range of questions already asked and answered, or submit you own.

Check out the UCSB Science Line.

High School Journalism

As someone who works in a school, the importance of having a school newspaper is pretty self-evident. Where else will those kids who have an interest in writing and doing investigative reporting learn the important skills and tricks of the trade?

Go to HighSchoolJournalism.org to find online information, advice, and tips.

File Extensions Explained

Although perhaps a bit on the arcane side of things, working with electronic files can be made a bit more understandable if you know what their file extension is and what the (usually) three letter abbreviation after the "." at the end of the file name means. For example, the extension on this file name ("profoundutterance.doc") is ".doc" (in all cases leaving out the quote marks). It's pretty easy to guess that .doc might be an abbreviation for "document" which would suggest probably word processing which might lead you to guess .doc indicates a Word document. And, indeed, it does.

Another example is ".pdf". That combo doesn't really look like a clue for any pronounceable word. Some file extensions take the first letter from it's name and that's the case here. .pdf comes from "portable document format".

In case you don't know, there are many, many, many file extensions, some more obvious than others. Knowing how to translate an unfamiliar file extension can immediately tell you, for example, if you have the necessary software to access that file. The file extension can also immediately tell you what type of electronic information you're working with....word processing, presentation, image, audio, video, and so on.

Instead of looking for lists of file extensions to memorize, you should consider going to a site like FILExt -- The File Extension Source. It's fascinating in many ways, not the least of which is that some file extensions have multiple applications.

Google Maps

Google has started another service called Google Maps. Type in a street address, city, and state (and country), and you'll be able to switch between a map (geographical style) and photographic view of the entered address from space!

Amazing and kinda neat!

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian American Heritage Month and a website devoted to it is sponsored by Girl Power!

Here is the introductory paragraph from the website:

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of Asian American men and women who've made a difference. Many people think Asian Pacific Americans are one single group, but they are really made up of more than 24 ethnic groups, that speak different languages and have their own rich history. Some of these ethnic groups include the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Filipino people.

Here are some outstanding Asian Pacific American women who definitely have Girl Power!

A Hawaiian Tradition

The flower lei that everyone associates with visiting the Hawaiian Islands has an annual festival of its own. The City and County of Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation presents the 78th Annual Lei Day Celebration on May 1.

Their website has photo galleries, historical background, links to lei making workshops, and much more.

Although not nearly as nice as winging it to the islands in person, consider making a virtual visit!

Cool Cosmos

I've never quite understood all the various spectrums of light, including infrared. This latter is especially ironic since I, along with a lot of other folks, use infrared light nearly everyday of our lives. Most frequently, we are pointing handheld little plastic rectangles called "remote controls" at TVs, CD players, DVD players, and all sorts of gadgets and controlling them using infrared light.

It's been also amazing to see the incredible beauty of infrared out in space which the Hubble Telescope has shown us. The Cool Cosmos site has a tutorial about infrared astronomy which is both "educational" but beautiful, too. Take a look! Cool Cosmos is a great site and has much else to offer!

New York Times Learning Network

Although I've been an online subscriber to the New York Times for years and years, I just stumbled upon an educational resource for students and teachers called: The New York Times Learning Network.

A wealth of news-related and curricular resources are here.

Seminars In Science -- Online Museum

Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, Seminars In Science won the Museums of the Web 2005 competition in the "Best E-Services" category.

This is an online professional development site for teachers and has a number of courses it offers. The judges said:

The human touch in the interface gives nice feeling that the seminar is tutored ... by real humans and that the learner is interacting with real people.

The course service is well structured and the courses look interesting.

African Life Through Art -- Online Museum

Indianapolis Museum of Art's Cycles: African Life Through Art site won in the 2005 Museums of the Web 2005 competition for the "Best Online Exhibition" category.

Some of the judges' comments included:

The design of this online exhibit is a piece of art itself. Beautiful and fun to explore.

A highly visually appealing and thought provoking site which provides a rich user experience through interactivity, text and images. A particular highlight is the 'context' link that a user can click on when viewing an object. The graphic elements also nicely enhance the content and navigational options available to the user.

The design is sophisticated and the navigation surprisingly straightforward while being somewhat non-traditional. Good use of music throughout. Excellent use of zooming capabilities on enlarged images for a great amount of detail. More detail than almost any other website that I've seen.

By the way, there was a runner-up in this category: Raid On Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704. Sponsored by Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, the Raid on Deerfield site was acknowledged as a site that....

...raises the bar for historical interpretation online. The site models the value of the whole that derives from a consideration of multiple perspectives. The designers have cast a magical spell that draws the user into another place, another time, another world where one finds truth painted in many shades of grey.

While innovative in many way, the navigation for the site can be confusing with up to 4 different menu areas available, and very little site context given to the visitor. It gets easy to lose where you are in the site.

In case you, like me, are unsure what the story is about Deerfield and the year 1704, the following from the website may whet your interest:

In the pre-dawn hours of February 29, 1704, a force of about 300 French and Native allies launched a daring raid on the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, situated in the Pocumtuck homeland. 112 Deerfield men, women, and children were captured and taken on a 300-mile forced march to Canada in harsh winter conditions. Some of the captives were later redeemed and returned to Deerfield, but one-third chose to remain among their French and Native captors.

Was this dramatic pre-dawn assault in contested lands an unprovoked, brutal attack on an innocent village of English settlers? Was it a justified military action against a stockaded settlement in a Native homeland? Or was it something else?

Making The Modern World -- Online Museum

One of the winners in the 2005 Museums of the Web contest was Making the Modern World. This site won in the "best educational use " category. Their "about us" descriptive paragraph follows:

Making the Modern World brings you powerful stories about science and invention from the eighteenth century to today. It explains the development and the global spread of modern industrial society and its effects on all our lives. The site expands upon the permanent landmark gallery at the Science Museum, using the Web and dynamic multimedia techniques to go far beyond what a static exhibition can do.

As will be true for the majority of these "best" online museums, I will have only barely scratched the surface of what each collection offers. Even in my brief peek at Making the Modern World, I can see why it was judged as one of the best. The way the site is organized, designed, and the richness of the resources it offers is amazing.

Based in the UK, this site shows many of the changes and developments in industry, science, and technology that made tremendous changes in the world, particularly in what is often referred to as "western" culture and life. Absolutely worth exploring!

Top Notch Online Museum Sites

The site, Museums of the Web, has an annual contest to single out and acknowledge online museums of particular excellence.

I'm going to post some information and links to winners in the 2005 competition which were announced today.

You Know Someone Interested In Chemistry?

Well, if they're a kid -- or a kid at heart -- you might point them in the direction of an enlightening and well-presented site called Chem4Kids. Put together by Andrew Rader, this is definitely kid-oriented but the presentation and content is there and not put across in a talking-down or condescending way. You, too, can learn a lot!

A Class Divided

During a two-day workshop I attended, the presenters showed a video that was extremely interesting and memorable. Called "A Class Divided", it chronicled the story of a 3rd grade teacher, Jane Elliott at the Riceville, Iowa, Community Elementary School and what Ms. Elliott chose to do with her class of 3rd graders.

A day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ms. Elliott felt it important to teach her students what it meant to experience discrimination. She prepared a lesson that gave and denied privileges to the kids in her class based on their eye color. One day the children with blue eyes were always at the front of the line, were able to use playground equipment, and were called on in class and reminded how smart they were. The following day roles reversed and the kids with brown eyes were the ones given a leg up.

A documentary was filmed about Ms. Elliott's experiment and that is the program we saw in our training. It was mesmerizing to watch the transformation in these kids as they gained or lost privileges, as those in the "down" position were made to wear collars that identified them as a member of the disenfranchised group.

A follow-up program was filmed some years later to track how this experience affected the children who lived it at the time and in the years that followed.

PBS's Frontline series has a website -- A Class Divided -- that shows this program and has other background materials about it. I strongly encourage you to watch it. It's probably a good idea for all of us to watch this powerful program every once in a while so as not to lose sight of the power of discouragement and disenfranchisement.

Got Any Issues With Your "Best Friend"

As many of you are, I'm the owner of the animal that is occasionally referred to as "man's best friend." That would be, of course, the dog.

In my case, it's a pure-bred chocolate lab -- Chip......get it...chocolate chip? Anyway, he's mostly a great dog but, whether due to his "pure" genes or just the luck of the draw in terms of the personality of the dog you adopt, he is quite excitable. Though 6 years old or so, he shows few signs of slowing down. Meeting new people (or canines, for that matter) puts him into quite a state of happiness, energy, and less than -- shall we say -- much self-discipline. He is trainable and is fine in the house and on casual walks, but visitors are always greeted with his terrifically energetic greeting.

For advice on some of the more challenging bits, I'm going to check out a site that might offer some help.....DogProblems. Looks like a winner!

April Fool's Day

Naturally, there is a website (well, not just one but about a gazillion) devoted to our hallowed tradition of April Fool's Day.

Check out Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes Of All Time. What a blast to read!

Old News!

What could be more interesting than Dinosaur News? There is a lot to learn about those ancient (and mostly extinct) critters. This website fills in many of the missing links.