New Science Fun for Friday

Another eclectic bunch of resources for this Friday. In the mix, online textbooks, an ocean science journal, and more…

Ocean Sciences
Ocean Sciences is an open access journal, freely accessible on the web and covers the fields of: ocean physics, ocean chemistry, biological oceanography, air-sea interactions, ocean models, coastal/shelf-edge processes and paleooceanography.

Microbial Diversity from Blackwell Publishing
This site offers full-text access to sections of the Microbial Diversity textbook. It also includes a student resources section with many links and exercises to help students with the material.

Basic and Clinical Neurosciences
This site has a serious of lectures on different aspects of neuroscience. Also included on the site is an extensive list of links to neuroscience departments, institutes, programs and organizations.

BirdLife International
This site contains a report on the “state of the world’s birds.” Concerned about the loss of biodiversity, this site outlines what is happening, what pressures birds face and what can be done to prevent more loss of bird species. BirdLife International’s homepage can be accessed at www.birdlife.org.

Genetically Engineered Animals
And last, but not least, this site from the FDA on new regulations regarding genetically engineered animals. An interesting read with FAQ’s sections and it is a timely resource to use when talking about genetic engineering in biology courses.

Have a great weekend!

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Forces of Change and More…

Four resources to peruse this weekend:

CSUEB Library’s del.icio.us account
If you want to add another del.icio.us account to your friends network, I suggest csueblibrary. We (meaning some of the librarians) have tagged online resources and tools that we find helpful and want to share with you. And, if you missed the fantastic presentation on online resources for online learning at Back to the Bay, you can still see what we went over here.

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Animal Research
So, in my opinion, you’ve really not been living right if you’ve not been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Of course, I might be a little biased considering one of my very closest friends works there with the penguins and shorebirds. (By the way, if you are at the aquarium and see Monika, say hi and that you read Diana’s blog.) So, the Animal Research website is fantastic, of course. Lots of great information, links to more resources, pictures and webcasts. The penguin live webcast happens at 10:30 in the morning, just in case you are interested.

Forces of Change
Here is yet another great resource from the Smithsonian, this time from the Museum of Natural History. Different examples of climate and ecological change occurring now. Includes news articles, multimedia and some great articles.

The Paleontology Portal
It seems like a lot of paleontology resources have been surfacing in the last couple of weeks and most are great. This site is no exception. Great site, visual appealing homepage, lots of links to other resources, quality images and easy to follow articles. Great source of information for K-higher education levels.

Science Resources for Monday

I have three great resources for this Monday: The Internet Scout Report, The Biology Project and Profiles in Science.

Internet Scout Report
I am feeling pretty bad about not recommending this sooner, but better late than never. If you haven’t signed up for the Internet Scout Report, you really should! It is a fabulous resource. It is a weekly digest sent on Friday via email that talks about new resources found on the Internet. I use it as one of my resources for finding great resources to try out and then blog about here. Really terrific stuff, everything is vetted and it covers many different subject areas.

The Biology Project
Another great online repository of interactive modules for biology! This is out of the University of Arizona. A great way to supplement the textbook you assign for class or use some of the interactive activities as assignments or practice for tests. Again, why reinvent the wheel when you can get great online resources from another database?

Profiles in Science
This site is by the National Library of Medicine and includes biographies of many different scientists. What is especially great about this site is the fact that it links to primary source material from the archival collections. There are many digital versions of documents from the archival collections that can be accessed through this site. A great way of incorporating primary source documents from the archives into a course!

And, just an announcement, I am presenting at Back to the Bay on Thursday. Come and say hi. I’d love to meet you. I’m co-presenting Online @ Your Library: Digital Resources for Research and Teaching at 9am and Online Content for Online Learning at 4pm.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday. More science resources to come later this week.

Migration and New Media

Three new resources: two on migration and one on everyone’s favorite topic (or bane) Google!

Help Track Bird Migration
So this is not an advertisement for this charity site, only a guide to the many organizations that you and your students can volunteer with to track bird migration. I think tracking bird migration is a pretty cool task and considering we live in/near a major migration path for birds, it is definitely worth a look. Go fall migration! Can’t wait for the birding opportunities in the Central Valley, but that’s just me!

Monarch Butterfly Migration
Another timely resource from the Library of Congress. Great list of online resources to learn more about Monarchs and their long migration. This is the perfect time to learn more about the monarchs as they will be at Natural Bridges State Park soon and that sight is worth a trip to Santa Cruz to see. And, if you decide to go, this links to the Homepage of Natural Bridges State Park.

New Media World: Google, Links, and Popularity versus Authority by Seth Finkelstein
This is a chapter from the book The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age. New Media World’s books are available for free online and are available for purchase in paper version. This is a very relevant chapter to read, and perhaps have students read, as it dispels commonly held beliefs about Google, search engines in general and the democracy of the web. A very interesting look at the social and political ramifications of search engine results. Also underscores the need for everyone to be able to evaluate web content effectively and efficiently! Information literacy instruction, anyone?

Have a fabulous rest of your week. Again, comments welcome–especially sharing new resources!

Zombie Animals, Freshwater Ecosystems and more…

Zombie Animals and the parasites that control them
This is an interesting look at the effects of parasites on the mind of different organisms. This is by Discover Magazine. Many other science image galleries and information to look at as well. Judith, another amazing CSUEB librarian, alerted me to this resource. Thanks!

Freshwater Ecoregions of the World
A joint project by the World Wildlife Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, this site has an interactive map of freshwater regions throughout the world. Lots of information, graphs and references for finding further information. Also discusses threats to these ecoregions.

NOAA
Just highlighting one of those perennially great resources: NOAA’s Research website. Links to information about all of their research projects. Also has an RSS feed for NOAA podcasts.

Immunobiology Interactive
The company blink has made available a free version of their animated modules on immunobiology. One word of caution though, it does not appear that these modules are fully accessible so take care if you assign them for class. They will need to be close-captioned.

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online
This resource is not particularly new, but if you haven’t seen it you really should check it out. Scans of his actual manuscripts and other works. Works are also transcribed. Great, high quality images. A wonderful resource.