Posted on 30th July 2008 by Judy Breck in animals | literature
aesop, animals, fables, hare, podcast, tortoise
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s podcast program, this learn node begins with a link to an RSS distributed podcast of a classic fable recorded for a family audience. The story on the podcast is The Lion and the Mouse, which can also be found in the Aesop’s Fables collection at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Amherst collection has been built by students since 1994 and now includes some of the famed fables told with animations and interactivity. The Prelinger Archives offers a 1947 state-of-the-then art version (a frame captured above) of Aesop’s fable of The Hare and the Tortoise.
Posted on 25th July 2008 by Judy Breck in astronomy | general science | physics
apod, astronomy, day, learn, node, picture
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) began on June 16, 1995 with the computer generated image shown here of Earth as a hypothetical neutron star. Each day since, the two astronomers who create APOD have devised a learn node: a webpage that focuses on a small subject interfaced by an image, and that links out into the Internet to related topics. Pushing, as learnodes.com does, for something called “learn nodes” is not an effort to invent something new. A learn node captures content for learning by exploiting the natural powers of the open Internet. The robust, 13-year history of APOD illustrates the validity and educational power of basing learning content in nodes.
Using the network node is the first key to the effectiveness in creating superior knowledge content in the open Internet. The second key is the creation of the nodes by people who are experts in their subject. The About page of APOD explains:
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is originated, written, coordinated, and edited since 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell. The APOD archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the internet.
In real life, Bob and Jerry are two professional astronomers who spend most of their time researching the universe. Bob is a professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, USA, while Jerry is a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland USA.
Posted on 21st July 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | ecology | health
biodiversity, birds, dilution, transmission, virus, west_nile
The illustration for this learn node is from a Tufts University on “Emerging Infections and Agents of Biological Warfare.” The West Nile Virus transmission cycle is also illustrated in a chart at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An interesting angle on the transmission is that protecting biodiversity of birds slows it down, as described in a Public Library of Science article:
We found there is lower incidence of human WNV in eastern US counties that have greater avian (viral host) diversity. This pattern exists when examining diversity-disease relationships both before WNV reached the US (in 1998) and once the epidemic was underway (in 2002). The robust disease-diversity relationships confirm that the dilution effect can be observed in another emerging infectious disease and illustrate an important ecosystem service provided by biodiversity, further supporting the growing view that protecting biodiversity should be considered in public health and safety plans.
Posted on 5th July 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | health | sciences
anti-aging, grain, grains, nutrition, supplements, whole
This learn node points you to definitions by the Whole Grain Council, Mayo Clinic explanations of natural whole grain nutrition, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health lectures on Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements. For learning the role of whole grains in healthy, nutrition, and anti-aging, these three excellent, authoritative sources bring together nutrition facts for natural whole grain and studies of nutrition supplements.
The image with this post is Bob’s Red Mill’s drawing of the basic whole grain anatomy: bran, endosperm, and germ, plus a slide from Lecture 6 of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health course on Critical Analysis of Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements.
