The prestigious journal Nature has commissioned a series of articles in which experts speculate on important developments in the next few years in their fields. One of the first is “Chemistry for Everyone“, which describes an ‘open’ approach to chemistry. In this approach, chemists format data to help computers access the scientific literature in order to make scientific information freely available and accessible. This will facilitate better sharing of ideas between professional chemists as well as teachers, students, and anyone interested. For example, CrystalEye is a free web application that gathers open-access crystallographic data and allows it to be searched and manipulated. This article is an exciting look at the future:

“As new ideas and technologies arise, the blogosphere spreads them almost instantaneously. And the message from the blogosphere is clear: the next generation of chemists needs open, integrated, semantic systems.”

Read some of the Chemistry blogs on Chemistry Blogspace.

And if you are looking for service learning ideas in Chemistry, check out the blog Chemists without borders.

A post about open source Chemistry requires mentioning my favorite open source Chemistry project by Jean Claude Bradley. Read about his open notebook laboratory, and get more information about this project here. He makes the process of science totally transparent, shares all lab results (positive and negative), and finds great new collaborators.

Share This

To incorporate real-world, current issues in your course, consider using resources recently made available about the human impact on the oceans. There are engaging photos, interactive graphics and accessible articles, which could complement courses on public policy, the environment, biology, chemistry, writing and social sciences, as well as others.

The New York Times has a series of thought-provoking articles and resources about human impact on the seas:

* “Human Shadows on the Seas” reports on the first worldwide portrait of human impacts on the oceans, revealing a planet-spanning mix of depleted resources, degraded ecosystems and disruptive biological blending as species are moved around the globe by accident and intent.

* Pictures of reefs and the scientists working at them are in a slide show “Before they vanish“.

* An interactive map, “Mapping the Other 70 Percent”, allows you to display data on the human impact, shipping, invasive species, temperature, ultraviolet light and acidification.

* An article “Coral Reefs and What Ruins Them” describes recently published research results (listed below) . Comparing the popular press version with essays written by the authors and the scientific research report could be a useful educational opportunity.

PLOS Biology has an open access essay on “Shifting Baselines, Local Impacts, and Global Change on Coral Reefs” to accompany two research reports published in PLoS ONE. These research reports, “Baselines and Degradation of Coral Reefs in the Northern Line Islands” and “Microbial Ecology of Four Coral Atolls in the Northern Line Islands”, are open for online discussion and annotation. Currently, readers can access the Editor’s comments and comments by the Faculty of 1000. Discussing research papers online provides a window into the process of scientific research and showcases critical thinking.

For more information about Coral Reefs, engaging photos and other multimedia, see the Coral Reef Alliance. The resource library section has extensive links to visualizations about changing climate, videos, photographs and other educational organizations.

Share This

EveryBlock is a new website that aims to collate localized information for major cities and urban areas. The site, which now includes information on New York, San Francisco, and Chicago brings together publicly available mapped information, such as Flickr photo feeds and restaurant inspections, with local news and other information from providers such as CraigsList entries.

Mapping is a larger trend on the Internet, with services such as GoogleMaps proving to be popular among users. EveryBlock, as it expands listings for other cities, could prove to be a useful resources for visualizing a wide range of information about cities for discussions and class activities.

http://www.everyblock.com/

Share This

Would you like to have your students work together to build an annotated map? Google Maps has just added a collaboration feature. When you are creating a personalized, annotated map using the “My Maps” feature of Google Maps, there is a new button entitled “collaborate“. This feature allows you to email an invitation to others to allow them to help annotate the map. For example, a group of students could create a map based on a course reading, annotating placemarks with insightful interpretations. Alternatively, students could map geological features, watersheds or species distributions. Students involved in community projects could place their own pictures together on a map.

Next to the collaborate button on Google Maps is another feature for sharing information. If you’ve found or created a wonderful KML/ KMZ file using Google Earth, and want to share it with someone who does not have access, click the “import” button to upload the file from the web or your computer. You can then send Aunt Mary the link to see your vacation trip, or share the link with your students via Blackboard. Your students or Aunt Mary do not need to have or use Google Earth to see your map.

Share This

This is a recently posted video that examines the way information organization is changing with digital media. It compares physical media, which requires a physical location, with digital media, which requires perhaps no more than tags. According to its creator, this video “was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.” See the video on You Tube.

Share This

Slate has an online feature as part of their election coverage that allows you to trace the activities of the various Presidential candidates.  Using Google Maps, the page lets you view a timeline of their campaign stops, select candidates to follow and get more information including news and video feeds from YouTube.

The page could be used as a discussion starter for classes, but is also another good example of how Google Maps and other location-based applications are creating new ways to visualize information.

article at Slate.com

Share This

DabbleDB is a free online database tool that allows you to easily create a simple relational database and share it with others on the web.  If you wish to share the data publicly, an account is free; a subscription fee is required for sharing and collaborating on private databases in small groups.

The site also includes a seven minute video showing features of the software:
http://www.dabbledb.com/explore/7minutedemo/

Share This

The outreach showcase describes a wide variety of projects   that use Google Earth to bring geographic context to their stories. The resulting visualizations may complement course content or spur ideas for your own projects. Examples of projects:

• Visualization of South American trade - each country is mapped to show exports to all other countries with lines, and the dollar amount is mapped the size of the circles at the end of the line.

• 
• The life and work of Henri Rousseau, the French artist.

• A guide to global environmental issues, created by Popular Science.

• A Malaria Atlas Project with over 20 years of data.

Share This

Swivel is an online tool to upload, share and explore data sets. After setting up a free login, you can browse existing data sets or upload your own to share with a group or with the Swivel membership at large. A set of data analysis tools allows you to manipulate the display of data using different types of templates and formats. In many cases, data sets can be downloaded for further use in Excel or statistical programs. Users can also create their own tags to categorize data or use community tags, making Swivel another addition to the Web 2.0 toolkit.

Swivel’s Official Source program allows researchers and research organizations to make selected data sets available for use by members; current participants include the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, and UNESCO.

Share This