University of Maryland: Astronomy Workshop
Professor Douglas P. Hamilton and his students at the University of Maryland created this website to provide individuals with astronomy tools and tutorials. At the Astronomy Classroom, students can create scaled models, find out how long it takes to get to interesting places in the Universe, and explore the history of the cosmos. The website offers solar system calculators, animations of solar objects' orbits, simulations of the seasons, and much more. Visitors can also check out the newest addi
Jefferson Lab: Science Education
Jefferson Lab carries out its long-term commitment to science education by providing a host of teacher resources, games, and science lessons. Students can find a periodic table offering physical characteristics and information on the history and uses of each element. The Student Zone contains a virtual lab tour, glossary of scientific terms, and materials on internships. Teachers can locate pdf downloads of many hands-on activities on many science subjects such as microscopes, magnets, and measu
MGNet
MGNet "is a repository for information related to multigrid, multilevel, multiscale, aggregation, defect correction, and domain decomposition methods." In short, the material offered on the site is mainly used to solve partial differential equations. There are many resources given on MGNet, including tutorials, a preprint archive, and information on upcoming conferences. Quite a few software packages can be downloaded from the site; however, they require a specific decompression utility. MGNet a
Ultrascale Simulation for Science
When Japan's Earth Simulator supercomputer eclipsed its US counterparts in terms of speed and processing power, America was faced with a challenge to regain its dominance of supercomputing capability. The Ultrascale Web site studies this challenge, and the implications it has on the nation's scientific objectives. Several short documents about the importance of and applications for ultrascale simulation are given on this page. Generally between one and two pages, the papers are mostly from the U
Adventure of Echo the Bat
NASA, the US Geological Survey, and the National Biological Information Infrastructure have partnered to create this interactive multimedia adventure to teach grade school children about remote sensing. The Adventure of Echo is an interactive story about a young bat that introduces students to the ideas of remote sensing, habitat, and biodiversity. Available both online and in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, the teacher's guide gives introductions and lesson plans under the headings of Understandin
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey "will map in detail one-quarter of the entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects" as well as "measure the distances to more than a million galaxies and quasars." The website details the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) mapmaking strategies, timelines, survey progress, and project goals. Visitors can view the many fantastic images collected at the Apache Point Observatory, the site of the SDSS tel
Geophysical Studies of the Las Vegas Urban Corridor
The Geophysical Studies of the Las Vegas Urban Corridor Area are part of an integrated effort to "geologically characterize the seismic hazards, water resources, and crustal structure of this rapidly growing urban corridor" by the USGS. The informational Web site contains a gravity map of the Las Vegas region, an aeromagnetic map, and a publications link with a list of over a dozen references. Seven of these publications are freely available for download with titles such as "Aeromagnetic Survey
Gflow 2000
Gflow 2000, which was developed by Haitjema Software, is described as a highly efficient stepwise groundwater flow modeling system. It is based on the analytic element method and models steady state flow in a single heterogeneous aquifer using the Dupuit-Forchheimer assumption, and is particularly suitable for modeling regional horizontal flow. The free educational version of the software is available for download from the site, as well as descriptions of the analytic method, stepwise modeling,
What's New at Sci4Kids
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the US Department of Agriculture offers its latest set of brief but engaging educational activities for kids in this Web site. The recently added feature, No Horsin' Around With These Tests!, introduces immunological concepts in the kid-friendly guise of a story about horses. Two older features are also available, one on using a biocontrol method to combat dry rot fungus in potatoes and another on mites. While these subjects may not at first appear to b
Astromaterials Curation
"The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at the Johnson Space Center is tasked to curate NASA's current and future collections of extraterrestrial samples." The website divides the collections into six categories: Rocks and Soils from the Moon, Meteorites from Antarctica, Stratospheric Dust, Solar Wind, Space-Exposed Hardware, and Stardust Mission Samples. Besides learning how to receive and return the samples, users can find newsletters and information on discoveries made using the s
ECOTOX Database System
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this database of chemical toxicity. Three individual EPA databases are combined to provide information on chemical-specific toxicity values for aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. Users can search for research reports by chemical name, species name, or environmental effect. The site has informative help files and browse features. This Web site is useful for evaluating industrial chemicals or for environmental assessment research.
Conservation International: Biodiversity Hotspots
From Conservation International, this Biodiversity Hotspots site (first reported on in the October 18, 2002 NSDL Scout Report for Life Sciences) "was re-launched in 2005 with completely updated information as presented in the new book _Hotspots Revisited_." The updated Hotspots website features profiles of more than 30 ecologically important areas of the world. Hotspots are categorized under five world regions including South America, Africa, North and Central America, Europe and Central Asia, a
Super Bowl Technology
One of the biggest technology stories surrounding Super Bowl XXXVII was the security measures used to spot disruptive activity and terrorists. The massive network of cameras that was used to monitor the entire stadium is described in this story (1). It also discusses police operations, face recognition systems, and entrance sensors. The Houston Texans were not in the Super Bowl for 2003, but their stadium is certainly classified as hi-tech. The Reliant Stadium (2) is the first in the NFL to have
Food Security Learning Center
From World Hunger Year (WHY), this online Food Security Learning Center was created to provide site visitors "with an in-depth look at common hunger and poverty issues facing many U.S. communities." The Food Security Learning Center contains subject categories regarding Rural Poverty, Domestic Hunger & Federal Food Programs, Family Farms, Migrant & Seasonal Farms Workers, and Nutrition. The site also contains a Community Food Security section with subcategories pertaining to Community Supported
African Elephant Specialist Group
The African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) operates under the auspices of the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The AfESG is composed "of technical experts focusing on the conservation and management of African elephants. The broad aim of the AfESG is to promote the long-term conservation of Africa's elephants and, where possible, the recovery of their population to viable levels." The AfESG website contains useful information for conservationists, wildlife m
MIT OpenCourseWare: Fields, Forces, and Flows in Biological Systems
Materials from this intriguingly titled Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) course about biological systems are freely available to students, educators, and others through MIT's OpenCourseWare. The course covers a variety of topics including "conduction, diffusion, convection in electrolytes; fields in heterogeneous media; electrical double layers; Maxwell stress tensor and electrical forces in physiological systems; and fluid and sold continua: equations of motion useful for porous, hyd
The Fields Institute: Lecture Audio and Slides
The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences aims to "enhance mathematical activity in Canada by bringing together mathematicians from Canada and abroad, and by promoting contact and collaboration between professional mathematicians and the increasing numbers of users of mathematics." They support research in pure and applied mathematics, statistics and computer science, as well as collaborative projects between mathematicians and those applying mathematics in areas such as enginee
MDAlink
Although US plans for missile defense have somewhat been taken out of the spotlight, the Missile Defense Agency homepage offers relatively current news and press releases. Perhaps the most interesting features of the Web site, from a scientific perspective, are the introduction and fact sheets that describe how missile defense works. Several documents are available for download, which address engineering and technical issues associated with the system's design. They discuss the basic operation a
EarthNet Activities
The Activities page of the EarthNet Web site is offered by the Canadian Geological Survey. Twelve earth science topics are presented, including fossils, oil and gas, landforms, and more -- each containing easy-to-do learning activities to be completed with the help of a teacher or parent. One such activity in the Landforms page teaches students how mountains are built by using different colored clays and two books. Each lesson gives directions and a What's Going On? Section that explains the sci
Toothbrush Beats out PC, Car, Cell Phone as the Invention Most Americans Say They Cannot Live Withou
The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index is "an annual survey of Americans' perceptions about inventing and innovating," and on January 21, 2003, the results for 2003 were released. According to this article, the one invention that respondents said they could not live without was the toothbrush, which was found to be more important than the PC, the automobile, the cellular phone, and the microwave oven. Specific results are reported in the press release. Also on this Web site are links to the previous s
