[Whiteboard-subscribers] Whiteboard Report #132, 3/5/08

[Brad Edmondson]

NSDL WHITEBOARD REPORT #132

March 5, 2008

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.

NEWS

NSDL on iTunes U: STEM Wherever You Are

http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/itunesu.html
After months of work behind the scenes, NSDL's site on iTunes U  
became available this week.  iTunes U is a free service that gives  
users of Apple's iTunes access to audio and video from leading  
educational institutions.  The Beyond Campus section of iTunes U  
includes museums, public radio and television stations, and other non- 
profit educational providers. The launch of NSDL on iTunes U Beyond  
Campus includes content from Pathways partners like AMSER, ChemEd DL,  
and the Exploratorium, plus material from the National Center for  
Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  Popular materials include ChemEd DL's  
popular Chemistry Comes Alive! videos; interviews with NCAR  
scientists on the causes and evidence for global climate change; and  
a series by Dr. Stephanie Chasteen of the Exploratorium's Teacher  
institute on the impact of nanotechnology on science, art, and  
commerce.   Content will be added on a regular basis, so NSDL  
projects and other providers who have multimedia material that may be  
appropriate for inclusion in the site are encouraged to contact Susan  
Van Gundy (vangundy AT ucar.edu).

Search Engine Optimization Strategies

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/techtalk
A new Expert Voices blog is capturing a lively discussion about  
strategies for search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re new to  
this subject, you can drop in to learn a few sure-fire tricks that  
make  any web page more visible to the bots that discover resources  
for Google and other search engines.  One strategy is making posts to  
a blog that includes links to those web pages. Another is using  
titles, tags, and descriptions in the web page’s HTML headers that  
specifically mention the key ideas in the page’s contents. Check out  
the new blog for these and more ideas on how to build web pages that  
have maximum impact.

Showtime for Penguins, Polar Bears

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/polar
http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org
The long-awaited first issue of the cyberzine Beyond Penguins and  
Polar Bears is now available. The project’s goal is to help  
elementary teachers learn about polar regions and integrate the best  
available resources on polar topics into their classrooms.  The first  
issue, A Sense of Place, describes the geography and characteristics  
of the Arctic and Antarctica. April’s issue will focus on the fossil  
record at the poles. An inter-disciplinary team based at Ohio State  
University and NSDL Core Integration will produce 20 issues of the  
magazine.  An Expert Voices blog on the project includes additional  
information and gives readers a place to add their comments.

NSDL Policies on Privacy, Terms of Use

http://nsdl.org/about/?pager=policies
http://nsdl.org/help/?pager=termsofuse
Two new documents describing important NSDL policies are complete and  
available to the public.  A Privacy Policy describes the data  
collected by NSDL.org and outlines NSDL’s efforts to balance the  
privacy of users with the library’s need for information necessary to  
provide high-quality services.  A Terms of Use statement describes  
the legal agreement between NSDL.org and its users. NSDL’s resources  
are freely available for all educational uses, but some other uses  
constitute copyright infringement and are prohibited. The Terms of  
Use Statement describes the boundaries.

Citizen Scientists Map Climate Change

http://www.budburst.org
Project BudBurst is looking for volunteers in the U.S. who will  
observe the time at which plant buds open and leaves become visible  
in their neighborhoods. One of the ways scientists measure climate  
change is by charting changes in the timing of phenophases, or stages  
in the life cycles of plants. These stages are affected by  
temperature, rainfall, and day length, so changes in their timing may  
indicate an effect climate change is having on nature. Each Budburst  
participant will check one or more plants beginning at least a week  
prior to the average date of budburst for their location. When they  
submit their records online, they can view maps of these phenological  
events across the United States.

MacFound’s First Digital Awards

http://www.dmlcompetition.net
A game that allows high school students in Los Angeles and Cairo to  
learn the real-time impact of air pollution in their neighborhoods is  
among the 17 winning projects in the first-ever Digital Media and  
Learning Competition.  The competition, sponsored by the MacArthur  
Foundation and administered by HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science  
and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), awarded grants of up to  
$238,000 to winners from a pool of over 1,000 applicants.  The  
winning projects either used digital media to create formal and  
informal learning environments, or they used digital media to spread  
new ideas related to the field of digital learning.  Fifty judges  
scored the applications, and the winners were celebrated at an event  
in Chicago on February 21.

BOOKMARKS

Visualization Challenge Accepting Entries

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis
An arresting visualization stops us in our tracks. A revealing  
visualization shows us more the more we look at it. But a winning  
visualization will help us learn something new as well. Create a  
science or engineering visualization that addresses all three of  
these elements and you could be one of this year's recipients of the  
International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge awards.  
The competition is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation  
(NSF) and the journal Science. Winning entries will be published in  
Science, Science Online, and on NSF's website.  The deadline for  
entries is May 31, 2008.

Getting Ready for the NSTA Conference

http://www.nsta.org/conferences/2008bos
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/webseminars.aspx
The upcoming Annual Meeting of the National Science Teachers  
Association, March 27-30 in Boston, offers another chance to meet  
representatives of NSDL and many of its Pathways partners. Look for  
NSDL’s booth at the Convention and Exhibition Center; representatives  
from Teachers’ Domain, ChemEdDL, Engineering Pathway, ComPADRE, and  
the Middle School Portal are also registered. If you’re new to NSTA,  
plan to attend a free web seminar on March 12 that will help you  
maximize the time you spend there.  Free pre-registration is required.

Web Seminar:  Using Microscopic Images

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL2/ 
webseminar9.aspx
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx
The next web seminar in the NSDL/NSTA series for Teachers in grades  
5-12 will happen on Tuesday, March 11 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, eastern  
time. “Under the Microscope: Using Images to Enhance Inquiry” will be  
lead by Drs. Kristina Yu and Karen Kalumuck of the Exploratorium, San  
Francisco’s noted science museum.  They will introduce participants  
to a variety of online tools and images from the NSDL, including  
those from the Exploratorium’s Imaging Station microscope exhibit.  
These lessons, images and videos will enhance classroom study of  
cells, genetics, and more. Free pre-registration is required.

INSPIRATION

The Gecko Bandage

http://nsf.gov/news/index.jsp
A February 18 release tells the story of a waterproof adhesive  
bandage inspired by gecko lizards that may soon join sutures and  
staples as a basic tool in operating rooms. Researchers from MIT and  
Harvard Medical School created a surface for the bandage that has the  
same nanoscale hills and valleys that allow geckos to cling to walls  
and ceilings.  Layered over this surface is a sugar-based glue that  
helps the bandage stick in wet places, such as tissue cavities. The  
bandage is also biodegradable, so it does not have to be removed. The  
National Institutes of Health and the Materials Science program of  
the National Science Foundation funded the research.

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 research news and notes of interest. Please limit  
these items to 200 words 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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