Posted on 31st January 2008 by Judy Breck in biography | history
biography, history, penn, pennsylvania, william
A biography learn node of William Penn with the story of his role in the history of Pennsylvania is a large topic. The Internet has many excellent nodes of materials on the subject. This blog post is a small learnode combining a sampling of William Penn webpages:
The image that illustrates this post is from an excellent introduction to Penn at HippoCampus.org. To see the image in the introductory presentation click on “Pennsylvania and Delaware” on HIppoCampus’s page: Browse US History, English Colonies.
Long, official and authoritative Penn biographies are woven into the online exhibits of two official institutions of the State of Pennsylvania and one from the university of the state to the south of Penn’s former colony, at the University of Virginia:
- Pennsylvania General Assembly of history: The Quaker Province: 1681-1776
- Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
- Extensive account of the life of William Penn at the University of Virginia
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 25th January 2008 by Judy Breck in physics | sciences
Chandra, cycle, MIT, neutron, physics, pulser, reactor, star, vela, x-ray
In a learn node here featuring the MIT Open Courseware on Neutron Science and Reactor Physics this chart of the Neutron Life Cycle is found in Lecture 7. The introduction to the lecture explains that:
A major objective of this course is to determine the neutron flux as a function of both position within a reactor core and the neutron energy. Neutron life cycle analysis is the first method that we will examine for this purpose. It was the principal means of design for nuclear reactors in the 1950s, before the advent of significant computational power. It remains an important tool for qualitative understanding and, in some cases, for quantitative analysis of criticality.
Cosmic perspective on neutrons, is found at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory webpages on Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries. The image is the Vela Pulser.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 24th January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | botany
, flora, galilaea, image, orchid, orchidaceae, orchis, oregon, project
This learn node image is a portion of a terrestrial orchid, the Orchis galilaea, captured in a photo from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. It is part of the Botany Photo of the Day for January 24, 2008. The photographer Jackie Chambers’ description explains: The most striking feature of the Galilee orchid is the tiny human form created by the lobes of the lower petal. Each flower is only 10-12 mm, but there are usually 15-90 per stalk. . . . The Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden of Vancouver, Canada. Each day’s photo become a learnode of knowledge about the species of plant shown in the photo.
On the other side of the world from the orchids that bloom in Galilee, in Hawaii where orchids abound, provides this description of Orchidaceae as part of the University of Hawaii Botany Department’s Vascular Plant Family Access Page. And a click from there is a hop to the Oregon Flora Image Project.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 23rd January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
biological, bioterrorism, botulism, courseware, microbes, open, toxins, weapons
A learn node of up-to-date knowledge of what homeland security is up against in the area of manipulating naturally occurring deadly materials is provided in the OpenCourseware at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a course called Biological Agents of Water and Foodbourne Bioterrorism. The Notes to first lecture include this alarming overview:
- The microorganisms and toxins that could act as biological weapons are naturally occurring.
- The agents that could potentially be used as biological weapons are diverse and widely distributed in nature and include −
–viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa −
–the toxins produced by many microbes
-These microbes are found naturally in soils, waters, plants, and animals.
The Bioterrorism section of the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a cluster of the latest expert material for the topic, including specific bioterrorism agents. The sections about agents are superb learnodes for their topics. For example the botulism information is broad and deep concerning the disease, its prevention and treatment.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 21st January 2008 by Judy Breck in history
blog, congress, content, crowd, flickr, inaugual, library, lincoln, open, photograph
The online original of the image illustrating this learn node is can be seen in much larger format at the Library of Congress website. The title of the image is Washington, District of Columbia. Crowd at President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration and the page where it is found connects to a network of Lincoln era photographs, drawings and beyond, into the sumptuous virtual treasures of this national knowledge institution. The image of the second inauguration is one of three that have recently come to light, as the Library of Congress Blog explains: “after a Library of Congress patron alerted [a curator] to the fact that these visually similar photos had radically different identifications in the Library’s online Civil War photographic negative collection.”
On the Library of Congress Blog this week is this enthusiastic comment by Matt Raymond, the Library’s director of communications who writes the blog, about the power of opening content online:
A user of our Prints and Photographs Online Catalog raised questions about the images, which sent Library of Congress curator Carol Marie Johnson sleuthing. Careful comparisons to the only other two known images from that event and meticulous combing through records led her to this discovery.
My point is that if we can uncover those kinds of treasures, thanks in part to our discerning Web users, imagine what might happen after setting loose hoards of eager photo fans at Flickr.
I’ve heard reports that the story for a good portion of Wednesday was the most-clicked on CNN.com. It was written about by the L.A. Times and was also mentioned on NBC’s “Today Show,” among others.
Even David Letterman made a reference to it on last night’s “Late Show.” That definitely ranks closely in pop-culture significance to the moment when our staff burst into applause when the Library of Congress was first mentioned on-screen in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”!
The Flickr project referred to is The Commons, and the response from the public to this project announced this month has “been nothing short of astounding.” It is the wisdom of the crowd that is captured in these new methods that are only made possible by opening content online. As Flickr says: Many hands make light work.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 19th January 2008 by Judy Breck in animals | biology
cameroon, collar, elephant, location, medicine, radio, ungulate, veterinary, wildlife
Illustrating this learn node is the beautiful elephant named Oldiri, who wears a tracking collar that lets scientists know his locations as they study him and his herd. The Current Elephant Locations page of the Elephants of Cameroon project describes the work. Under the umbrella of Field Trip Earth, Elephants of Cameroon for several years has been one of the finest online environments for learning about wildlife. The monitoring of elephant locations is explained in detail and includes many accounts of the adventures of the actual teams doing the collaring and monitoring. Work going back several years is available. The Cameroon Field Diary: Winter 2008 is currently unfolding online, as it is written by Dr. Mike Loomis, Chief Veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoological Park who left the United States on January 6th to begin the 2008 collaring season.
Good things can have a long life on the Internet as the following review of Elephants of Cameroon shows. It was written in April 2000 for HomeworkCentral.com’s Top Eight newsletter:
Dr. Mike’s departure for Cameroon on April 12, 2000 begins an expedition whose purpose is to save Africa’s vanishing giants, and that can be followed as it unfolds through the Internet in these pages. Supported by the North Carolina Zoological Park and other wildlife organizations, the Web project is a big one, like it’s subjects. There are sections describing Cameroon and elephants in general, and another on the place of the elephant in the culture and oral tradition in Northern Cameroon Dr. Mike’s diary provides updates and questions can be emailed to him. Current sightings of individual elephants are given, along with listings of previous sightings accompanied by maps. These and other pages make this a Web site rich in learning opportunities for a wide range of students, and for anyone interested in elephants.
For a different view of elephant study, the Tufts University Veterinary Medicine Open Courseware provides a detailed lecture outline on Ungulate Medicine. The lecture includes a focus on elephants.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 19th January 2008 by Judy Breck in reading
animation, letter, rat, reading, zac
This learn node points to an animated Zac the Rat tutorial with audio that teaches the look and sound of the letter “a” demonstrating the short “a” sound in “rat.” Click the “X” in the upper right corner of the lesson for a list of more “It’s Fun to Read” tutorials from Starfall.
The learning point here for the colorful reading tutorials is simple: Placing a computer with Zac the Rat on it before a nonliterate person, and handing that person the computer’s mouse, can introduce that person a key to reading. Zac the Rat could also be used to teach a child or adult the short letter “a” sound from his or her mobile phone.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 18th January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | paleontology
burgess, cambrian, evolution, gould, jay, laurentia, shale, stephen
The map illustrating this learn node, from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, shows the Cambrian Period 500 million years ago and explains: “The location of the Burgess fauna is indicated by a star on the continent of Laurentia (western North America). Notice that Canada is located just south of the equator!” A Smithsonian web exhibit called Strange Creatures: A Burgess Shale Fossil Sampler begins: “more than half a billion years old, the fossils of the Burgess Shale preserves an intriguing glimpse of early life on Earth.” Britain’s Open University includes the Burgess Shale in a Science and Nature course on the Cambrian explosion.
The Burgess Shale became well known to the public through the late Stephen Jay Gould’s 1990 best selling book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. The fossils in the Burgess Shale have evoked awe and controversy over the century since they were first discovered. 
Called “Showdown on the Burgess Shale,” two lectures in The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gold Archive provide a framework for learning some of the basic ideas and issues for the evolution of life. The first lecture is “The Challenge” by Simon Conway Morris which is followed by Gould’s “The Reply.” In the latter, Gould writes:
The Burgess Shale, in the Canadian Rockies, contains the world’s most important fossil fauna—a detailed and exquisite record (with rarely preserved soft parts included) of marine life about 520 million years ago, just following the Cambrian explosion and therefore permitting us to census the results of this seminal episode in the history of animal life on earth.
More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 18th January 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | brain
brain, butterflies, butterfly, chrysalis, compass, journey, migration, monarch, rna, sun, sun_compass, video
In this learn node illustration you are seeing structure inside a Monarch butterfly brain. It is from a research article in PLOS Biology on what may underlie sun compass navigation, shown on this page in Figure S10. CRY2 RNA Distribution in Monarch Brain. If the circadian clock mechanism of butterfly brains seems too detailed for what you want to learn or teach now, you could find less specialized material in the latest news on Monarch Butterfly migration and Journey North. Each of these butterfly sources provides links to other good materials about these beautiful insects. So does this Wikipedia Monarch butterfly article, which includes a reference to the video below of a Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. Within the brain of the emergent baby butterfly is the RNA that science is learning will inform his flight north, guided by the sun. All of these materials are open, free, richly connected nodes in the global learning commons.
l67SLCOYoHA&rel=1 More learn nodes at: learnodes.com
Posted on 17th January 2008 by Judy Breck in business
central_bank, federal, inflation, learn, money, reserve, system, tutorial
An online tutorial called FED 101 at the website of the Federal Reserve System of the United States includes a section called “How does the Fed create money?” The illustration here is from an animation of the some effects of interest rates. It links to a full page that explains and illustrates inflation. There are several other explanations of the fundamental elements of the workings of the Federal Reserve System in the FED 101 material.
There is a concise definition of the Federal Reserve System on the website of its bank in San Francisco. The theme of the definition: “The Nation’s Central Bank.” Topics include “Why We Need a Central Bank” and “The Fed is First and Foremost the Nation’s Money Manager.”
Both of these websites contain many informational sections and links out to other excellent open, public access sources on the Fed, an institution at the center of the United States economy and of enormous influence on money across the world.
