[Whiteboard-subscribers] Whiteboard Report #127, 12/12/07

[Brad Edmondson]

NSDL WHITEBOARD REPORT #127

December 12, 2007

Whiteboard Report news is on the Web at http://NSDL.org and http:// 
expertvoices.nsdl.org/whiteboardtalkback. Back issues are available  
at http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue--Archive.php.  Whiteboard Report  
will not be published on December 26. The next issue will go out on  
January 9, 2008. Happy holidays!

NEWS

New Collections Development Policy

http://onramp.nsdl.org/eserv.php?pid=onramp; 
42*dsID=NSDL_Collection_Development_Policy.pdf


NSDL’s Policy Committee has approved a new organizational document on  
collections development.  The document describes NSDL’s mission; the  
communities it serves; resource ownership, management, and  
description; the scope of collections; quality guidelines;  
responsibility for selection, accessioning and de-accessioning  
collections; and terms of participation. The new policy and the  
Contribute Resources and Collections information on nsdl.org are  
especially helpful for resource and collection developers, providing  
official answers to many basic “what” and “how” questions about NSDL  
and contribution to the library: see http://nsdl.org/collection/ 
index.php.


eLucy’s Guide to Human Origins

http://www.elucy.org
The team that made the popular site Eskeletons.org has launched a new  
project to support the American tour of Lucy, a partial skeleton of a  
3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis.  Lucy almost  
certainly walked upright and had many other human characteristics,  
and her bones are among the most important clues to the origins of  
the human race.   The six-year tour has been controversial because  
the bones are extremely fragile. But the exhibit’s opening at the  
Houston Museum of Natural Science in September drew huge crowds, and  
its six-year tour of the U.S. is an important opportunity for  
teachers of comparative anatomy.  Using the format of Eskeletons,  
eLucy.org lets visitors compare the bones of Australopithecus with  
those of a chimpanzee and a modern human.  Several activities for  
students and teachers are also available, and more are planned.

Teachers & Students: Speak Up!

www.tomorrow.org/speakup
Speak Up is a national online survey where students, parents,  
teachers and school leaders participate in a dialog about key  
educational topics. Participating schools and districts will receive  
free online access to their results in January 2008. Since its  
inception five year ago, the project has collected the viewpoints of  
over 850,000 K-12 students, teachers, and parents from all 50  
states.  If you want to join the conversation, don’t wait: this  
year’s comment period closes on December 21st.

Dr. Biology’s NSDL Podcast

http://askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/index.html#NSDL
Dr. Charles Kazilek, aka “Dr. Biology,” has been explaining life  
sciences to the general public for the last decade.  He has also been  
making podcasts of half-hour interviews with scientists for the last  
several years.  The 25th in the series describes NSDL, featuring  
interviews conducted at the Annual Conference with Kaye Howe and  
Carol Minton Morris from Core Integration; Lee Zia, lead program  
officer for NSDL at the National Science Foundation; and Samantha  
Katz, director of education and outreach at the American Academy of  
Biological Sciences and a staffer for the BioSciEdNet (BEN)  
Pathway .  The podcast offers a lively introduction to NSDL, which  
Dr. Biology says is “as close to one-stop shopping for learning  
materials and activities as one can find on the Web today.”

Blog Posts and Dirty Water

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jure/blogs
http://videolectures.net/solomon_leskovec_ceod
A trio of computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University has  
designed an algorithm with an unusual dual purpose. It can identify  
how news spreads through the Internet, or how toxins spread through a  
water system. The Cascades Project is the creation of CMU professor  
Carlos Guestrin and graduate students Andreas Krause and Jure  
Leskovec.  It uses the property of submodularity to analyze posts in  
45.000 blogs, with the time stamps on each blog post determining  
where news items originated.  It also determined the optimal number  
and placement of sensors for detecting the introduction and spread of  
contaminants in a municipal water supply.  A video lecture (above)  
explains the process.  The team is now focusing on detecting  
pollution in lakes and rivers, and the optimal placement for stations  
in citywide wi-fi networks.

NSDL/NSTA Web Seminar 6: Microbial Worlds

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL2/ 
webseminar6.aspx
Bacteria are more than just "germs" or disease agents. The  
evolutionary, ecological, and economic importance of these microbes  
is not well known among the general public. Join our presenters Sarah  
Bordenstein and Dr. Seth Bordenstein from the Marine Biological  
Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts as we explore the world of  
microbes and bring current study and research in biodiversity,  
molecular biology methods, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution  
concepts into your classrooms. The seminar will be held on Tuesday,  
January 8th  from 6:30 to 8:00 pm Eastern time, and is designed for  
teachers of grades 9 to12. Free pre-registration is required: http:// 
learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx

BOOKMARKS

How Green Was My Campus?

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200711/coolschools
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7541688419
Many colleges and university Presidents have pledged to make their  
campuses “carbon neutral.” Which ones are doing more than just  
talking about it? Sierra magazine recently highlighted ten schools  
that have taken significant actions.  At the number one spot, Oberlin  
College, one-third of the food served in dining halls is produced  
locally, student activity fees subsidize public transportation, and  
half of the electricity comes from green sources. The Sierra Club  
also sponsors a page on Facebook where you can trade ideas on how to  
make campuses greener.

Call For Papers: Distance Learning

www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Proposals are being solicited for The Annual Conference on Distance  
Teaching & Learning, which will take place August 5-8, 2008 in  
Madison, Wisconsin. Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison  
School of Education, the conference gathers approximately 1,000  
educators, trainers, managers, and designers from throughout the  
world who are involved in distance teaching and training.  Online  
submissions will be accepted until January 15, 2008 at the link  
above.  For more information, contact Kimary Peterson, distel2 AT  
education.wisc.edu.

Grants for Library-Museum Collaborations

http://www.imls.gov/news/2007/112807.shtm
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting  
grant applications for the National Leadership Grant (NLG) program  
until February 1, 2008.  This year’s guidelines encourage projects  
that create partnerships between libraries and museums, integrate new  
technologies, and highlight the agency’s focus on conservation and  
preservation. The five funding categories include Advancing Digital  
Resources, Library and Museum Collaboration, Collaboration Planning  
Grants, Research Projects and Demonstration Projects. Requests may  
range from $50,000 to $1,000,000, and planning grants of $40,000 are  
also available for projects involving more than one institution.

Woods Hole Workshop for High School Teachers

http://jbpc.mbl.edu/~sbordenstein/workshop.html
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), with support from the Howard  
Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is offering a professional  
development workshop in science education for
high school teachers. Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia  
Project will take place April 11-13, 2008 at the Woods Hole  
Institute, one of the nation’s prominent biology institutions in Cape  
Cod, Massachusetts. The workshop will show teachers how to integrate  
inquiry, discovery, and contemporary research in biology into  
classroom labs and lesson plans. The deadline for applications is  
January 15th.  For more information, contact Dr. Seth Bordenstein at  
sbordenstein AT mbl.edu, or go to  their website.

Annual Meeting Survey closes December 20th

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=DB6FO6c50hl_2f13ldP0urWQ_3d_3d
Give your feedback on this year’s Advancing NSDL Network Annual  
Meeting.  Your responses will help shape next year’s meeting.

INSPIRATION

Give the $100 Laptop

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php
Forty years ago, Seymour Papert and others began dreaming about  
small, easy-to-use computers that would bring worlds of knowledge to  
children.  The dream device became the XO Laptop – it is powerful,  
durable, built for kids, priced at about $100, and in mass production  
starting last month. Nicholas Negroponte, who heads a not-for-profit  
group One Laptop Per Child, says that the group’s aim is to give  
underprivileged children around the world a new way to pursue  
knowledge.  Until December 31, a partially tax-deductible donation of  
$399 will buy you two XO laptops: one will be sent to empower a child  
in a developing nation, and one will be sent to the child in your  
life. Both the computers and the children are adorable.

NSDL Whiteboard Report describes research, news, and notes from the  
National Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Education Digital  
Library (http://NSDL.org), which is funded by the National Science  
Foundation. Whiteboard is published bi-weekly and includes  
information from NSDL projects and programs nationwide. Please  
redistribute. To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://nsdl.org/ 
publications/?pager=signup.

Whiteboard Report is edited by Brad Edmondson (gbe2 at cornell.edu).  
Project leaders and participants from the NSDL community are  
encouraged to send the editor research news and notes of interest.  
Please limit these items to 200 words or less and provide web links  
to additional information.

The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is the nation's online  
library of resources for science, technology, engineering, and  
mathematics education and research.
NSDL would like to thank the National Science Foundation for its  
generous support and advocacy of NSDL as the NSF digital library of  
science education. This material is based upon work supported by the  
National Science Foundation under Grants No. 0227648, 0424671, and  
0227888. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations  
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not  
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.



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