Best of Scout: Teaching History with 100 Objects,Pick Your Poison, Open Culture Sources, Roman Empire Maps

Best of Scout: Teaching History with 100 Objects, Pick Your Poison, Open Culture Sources, Roman Empire Maps and the Lesser Prairie Chicken

Over a century ago, it was not uncommon to find cocaine in treatments for asthma, cannabis offered up as a cure for colds, and other contentious substances offered as medical prescriptions. This engaging collection from the US National Library of Medicine brings together sections on tobacco, alcohol, opium, and marijuana. Visitors can learn about how these substances were marketed and also view a selection of digitized items culled from its voluminous holdings, including advertisements, doctor's prescriptions, and early government documents. In the Education section, educators can look over lesson plans, check out online activities, and explore online resources from the National Institutes of Health, such as, "A Guide to Safe Use of Pain Medicine" and "College Drinking: Changing the Culture.”

Interactives: Oceanus Magazine
http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/

Many scientists consider the Earth’s oceans to hold some of the last real mysteries on the planet, with new species still being discovered every year and the depths of the deepest seas yet unexplored. These engaging interactives from the Woods Hole Oceanagraphic Institution were a clear reader favorite, bringing blue water and sundry sea life onto our monitors and into our conversations. Of course, educators will find plenty of resources for their classroom use; but the lifelong learners among us will be just as excited to discover the high-tech dive suits, arctic explorations, and other wonders in store on this excellent site.

These educational interactives from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution provide excellent supports for dozens of ocean-related classroom activities. From the effects of Fukushima's Fallout on Marine Life to Measuring River Chemistry, a variety of well designed, instructional tools are offered here. The visual and audio materials (slideshows, multi-step presentations, whale calls, etc.) are quite detailed and a number of them also link to the articles from Oceanus Magazine in which they were first featured. If these articles pique your interest, hundreds more can be found in the Archives as well as a select number of Digital Editions in the Print Issues section.

The Upshot
http://www.nytimes.com/upshot/?_r=2

Since The Upshot opened its virtual doors on April 22, 2014, it has published over 1,500 articles, charts, tables, interactive calculators, maps, and photo essays. Since we covered the site in September, the Upshot has celebrated its first anniversary. In commemoration, it published a must-read list of its most popular pieces, including a map of migration in the US, a photo essay of what 2,000 calories looks like, and many other unusually alluring tidbits. The material here provides an innovative platform for staying abreast of the most interesting, and sometimes unusual, current events circulating the Internet.

Launched this past spring, The Upshot is an analytical blog from The New York Times that focuses on politics, policy, and economics. The brain child of Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator David Leonhardt, the site is awash with interactive graphics and gripping narrative. The blog is continually updated, so you can start anywhere and find clear-headed, hard-hitting analysis on everything from the hardest places to live in the U.S. to the history of baseball. This first item can be found amongst the site’s "best and most popular interactive work," located in the middle of the page. Just make sure you set aside a few hours, because one amazing interactive leads to another fascinating graph, which leads to a colorful thought experiment, and... well, you'll see.

Open Culture
http://www.openculture.com

(Editor's Note: Including Stephen Colbert reading Flannery O'Connor)

Readers raved when we published our coverage of Open Culture, the artsy information hub that features "the best free cultural & educational media on the web." The website contains reviews and links to hundreds of open educational resources. Whether readers are interested in learning Arabic, would like to hear Patti Smith read Virginia Woolf, or are eager to explore a collection of Gabriel Garcia Marquez stories, Open Culture truly has something for everyone. Including ebooks, movies, audio books, online courses, language classes, and textbooks, the fact that Open Culture is accessible across multiple devices doesn’t hurt, either.

Perhaps the best way to describe Open Culture is to list what's available: 1,100 free online courses, 700 free movies, 550 free audio books, 700 free eBooks, 1,000 free MOOCs, free educational material for 46 languages, and 200 free educational resources for kids. Founded in 2006 by Stanford University's Dan Colman, the site also contains great lectures by Toni Morrison and Bertrand Russell (among others) and great readings by notables such as T.S. Eliot and Anne Sexton. If readers are looking for art and images, the Met, the Getty, the British Library, and other museums and galleries are featured here. In essence, Open Culture gathers together all of the wonderful, disparate content from around the web, curates it, and presents it in an easily navigable and enchanting format.

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Best of Scout: Teaching History with 100 Objects, Pick Your Poison, Open Culture Sources, Roman Empire Maps and the Lesser Prairie Chicken

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