Posted on 26th October 2008 by Judy Breck in archeaology | geography | history | literature
greek, homer, iliad, the_iliad, trojan, trojan_war, troy
This learn node points to the archeology of Troy, the Trojan War memorialized in Homer’s epics, and the century-long story of the rediscovery of the famed ancient city. Troy has not only emerged from thousands of years of burial in the dirt of Anatolia. Troy has come alive out of older printed sources, leaving dusty book shelves to become a shining city in the new virtual world online.
At an educational website sponsored by the Troia Project and the University of Cincinnati, follow an animated timeline, investigate 3-D reconstructions, and explore legends and facts. A Dartmouth University classics lesson provides Troy facts and theories concerning the historicity of the Trojan War. You can visit a work in progress by scholars cataloging Greek, Roman and Byzantine Pottery at Ilion (Troia). The Homer’s Trojan Theater project, hosted at the University of Virginia, provides a look into the mind’s eye of the great classic bard Homer, with battlefield animations in a timeline of The Iliad.
Each of these online projects use digitally-based methods to move far beyond what can be conveyed in print. They are all available globally. The future of learning is emerging through learn nodes like these.
Posted on 21st October 2008 by Judy Breck in history | literature
anglo_saxon, ashmolean, bede, ezra_pound, history, literature, northumbria
From this learn node link out to visit virtually the Anglo-Saxon times of Old England. The Ashmolean Museum offers a web-based learning resource aimed at schools and anyone interested in the Anglo-Saxons. It is based on the archive and artefacts held in the Ashmolean Museum. The venerable Bede, great figure of the Anglo-Saxon era, can be studied at Bede’s World — a permanent online exhibition of the Museum of Early Medieval Northumbria at Jarrow that includes topics such as the Anglo-Saxon monastery of St Paul’s, Jarrow, founded in 681/2 AD and St Paul’s Church dedicated in 685 AD. Nearby are Bedes Farm podcasts with audio for guided tours of the online exhibits, source of this post’s farm image.
For a node to learn about the Anglo-Saxon impact that remains up to our times turn to a Modern Poetry lecture from Open Yale courses. These people of long ago echo to us in Ezra Pound: Here is an expatriate poet writing in the voice of the Anglo-Saxon wanderer, a figure deprived of his kinsmen, who is out in the elements, far from land, far from his nation and home.
For much more from the Anglo-Saxons, browse at Georgetown the Labyrinth Old English resources. Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute has an excellent introduction to The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language and a page at the University of Pittsburgh diagrams Anglo-Saxon church structures.
Posted on 14th October 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | general science | sciences
aquaculture, fish, fish_muscles, learn_node, muscle, muscles, twitching
How fish muscles work from the molecular to the whole organ level is a lecture from the University of Southern Maine that gives focus to this learn node. A basic concept for the subject is that:
Two contrasting behaviors: The first is steady swimming at slow and intermediate speeds using low amplitude axial undulations (i.e. the side to side displacement of the body is small). The second is burst swimming and escape responses using high amplitude axial undulation. In the escape response, a fish bends into a C-like posture then whips its tail in the opposite direction, accelerating a mass of water behind the fish, which causes the fish to accelerate forward. The key is that body bending is small in steady swimming and large in bursts and escapes. Also, the escape response can be very fast, that is less than 1/10th of a second.
The toadfish is an important fish muscle specimen because it has been found that its swim bladder muscles are the fastest twitching muscles in the vertebrate world. The image by Robert Golder shown here is from an article at the Marine Biological Laboratory on this talented but ugly fish. Several articles at the St. Andrews University website of its Fish Muscle Research Group provide the latest ideas and theories in this important subject for mechanics, anatomy, genetics, and aquaculture.
Posted on 7th October 2008 by Judy Breck in biology | sciences
aerosteon, bird, cranial, Cretaceous, dinosaur, postcranial, riocoloradensis, sinus
Comparing the sinuses in some newly studied dinosaur bones from Argentina with bird anatomy, this learn node from the Public Library of Science lets students go online to peer over the shoulders of working scientists. The drawing is from Figure 1 in the article. In their recent work concerning the the anatomical relationships of dinosaurs and birds, the scientists here tell us:
In this paper, we describe a new large-bodied theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina, Aerosteon riocoloradensis gen. et sp. nov., characterized by cranial and postcranial bones that are exceptionally pneumatic. Some of its postcranial bones show pneumatic hollowing that can be linked to intrathoracic air sacs that are directly involved in lung ventilation. As a result of an extraordinary level of pneumatization, as well as the excellent state of preservation of much of the axial column and girdles, Aerosteon helps to constrain hypotheses for the evolution of avian-style respiration.
For background on the general subject, the University of California Museum of Paleontology has an overview article: Are Birds Really Dinosaurs?
Posted on 7th October 2008 by Judy Breck in biography | general science | sciences
galileo, mechanical_devices, motion, pendulum, spacecraft, telescope
galileo spacecraft
Galileo and the Pendulum is a node for learning that is part of a rich cluster and course, The Galileo Project at Connexions. Other sections of the Galileo Project are his biography, family life, the Inquisition, and descriptions of his work on motion, mechanical devices, and the telescope.
Surely the great Galileo Galilei of 14th century Italy would gaze in pride on the achievements of his namesake, the Galileo spacecraft that explored the solar system from 1989-2003.
