The transit of Venus is a rare astronomical event that has been well documented throughout history. The most recent transit occurred in June of 2004, and the one before that took place more than 100 years earlier in 1882. This site from the South African Astronomical Observatory provides information and first-hand observations of the 1882 event from Wellington, South Africa. Just prior to the event, an observatory was erected at the Huguenot Seminary for girls, and some of the historical observations made from that site in 1882 are provided here for your perusal.

A comprehensive resource on the commercial and recreational blue crab fishery in the Maryland and Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Explore regulation information for both states, as well as the different gear and methods for catching blue crabs. Though most information pertains to MD and VA, there is an abundance of links to additional information that is not area-specific.

Surface chemistry is an interdisciplinary science, with a strong emphasis on applied research. Chalmers University of Technology has a strong Applied Surface Chemistry department. Their research activities span a wide range of topics such as, surfactants and microemulsions, environmental catalysis, fuels engineering, and metal working chemistry. Students and teachers can access basic information on these research projects and learn more about surface chemistry and its benefits to society.

Comets have fascinated humans for hundreds of years, and most recently with the idea of creating a "deep impact" upon a comet in order to study the interior composition and makeup of these bodies. With this scientific mission in mind, a team of researchers (including participants from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Maryland) will send an impactor spacecraft into the Comet Tempel 1 on July 4th, 2005. The data collected from this fascinating experiment will help answer many questions about comets, and should be of interest to research scientists and the general public alike. The site itself contains quite a few helpful sections, including one dedicated to explaining the science behind studying comets. A technology section offers detailed explanations behind much of the flight system, the launch vehicle, and the various instruments on board. The gallery section has some nice animations that show how the mission will encounter and impact Comet Tempel 1. Overall, this is very engaging and well thought out site that explains this mission in jargon-free language.

This home page for the Dendrology program at Virginia Tech is a great resource for those interested in woody plants. In addition to the set of fact sheets on over 450 tree species and fall color photos for many species, the site hosts two useful identification keys. The Leaf Key and Twig Key allow users to identify a tree by viewing online photos and statements, and clicking on the choice that most resembles the tree to be identified. When the suspected genus or species is identified, more photos and descriptions are provided to help ensure that the identification is correct.

Even though EXPLO.TV sounds like an edgy punk website, it's actually the video component of the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco. This website has some excellent ways to learn about science--such as webcasts, podcasts, and video clips. At the top of the page visitors will find several ways to browse: "Presentation Type", "Program Type", or "Category". Within the categories section visitors will find: "Everyday Science", "History of Science", and "Popular Science in Action". "Upcoming Webcasts" is another feature on the homepage, and there are a number of fine webcasts here. Because the webcasts are produced in San Francisco, people who live in the area can go to the live audio or video broadcast. They just need to click on the link "Attend the Live Event" to learn how. Visitors can also subscribe to a monthly e-newsletter that keeps them updated on the happenings and special events at the Exploratorium.

EurekAlert! is an online, global news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The service's multimedia gallery is a collection of news items on general science, medicine, and technology from universities, medical centers, journals, government agencies, and other organizations. The collection is searchable by keyword or term, posting institution, region, and public release date. Each news item features an image, caption, contact information, credits, usage restrictions, and a link to a related news release. The web site also features information for organizations that wish to submit news releases and for journalists or others who would like to access embargoed information.

This site, from the Minnesota-based Friends of Bassett Creek, displays a pamphlet on rain gardens including a list of Native Plants for Rain Gardens, some of which link to photos. Rain gardens are an attractive way to improve local water quality. A step-by-step guide to planting this type of garden is provided here for visitors, along with a series of frequently asked questions about rain gardens. There is also a guide to choosing plants for sunny, shady, or wet areas. After perusing this site, visitors can click a link at the bottom of the bottom of the page to find more rain garden resources on the web.

Unusual for the philosophy of education, this paper takes Martin Heidegger's essay of 1954 The Question Concerning Technology as its starting point and applies it to a practical problem which is: Can interactive science and technology centers reveal the essence of technology to the lay visitor? At the outset this sounds like an unusually over-specific application of Heidegger's ideas to a single special case. But the notion that the interactive science and technology center (ISTC) does provide a valid and instructive vehicle for the discussion of Heidegger's ideas, particularly in their application to education, will be maintained throughout this article. There is also a sense in which Heidegger's essay has more relevance now in the present ecologically aware age than it did when it was written in the 1950s. In order to set this paper into context, a slight departure has been made from the path of philosophical analysis in order to identify what is meant by an ISTC and by the exhibits found therein. It is worth saying that considerable investment has been made around the world in these centers in both developed and developing nations and yet no detailed philosophical analysis has been made into their claims until relatively recently (Walton, 1998). The significance is that ISTCs bridge the many, often conflicting, domains which have been characterized as edutainment (Friedman, 1996, p. 16) and which make up the sector of activity where formal, informal, and non-formal education is found within the context of the leisure industry. So, despite its somewhat unusual theoretical perspective and apparently esoteric subject matter, this is essentially a paper dealing with the application of philosophical analysis to a practical situation. It also seems relevant as the breadth of the technology education community becomes broader. The recently released standards for the development of curriculum in the U. S. (International Technology Education Association, 2000) is an example of the expansion of the responsibility for technology education beyond the traditional walls.

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry documents describing the nomenclature of organic compounds.

The National Center for Voice and Speech developed this series of mini-courses and tutorials to assist people with difficult concepts in voice production. Intended for those who have taken a college level physics course, users can learn about many topics including frequencies, vocal fold oscillations, and pitch control. If it has been a few years since your last physics course, feel free to take a look at the "Acoustics Refresher" and "Glossary" before you move on to the other topics. These are great resources for students, teachers and anyone looking for information on biology, anatomy and the physics of sound.

This website has information for building a biodiesal processor. Building your own processor isn't difficult. You don't need any special skills or special tools. There are plans, designs and ideas here to help you. There's also good advice to be had from experienced users at the biofuel mailing list, and lots of good information in the searchable list archives. This can be a great class project or activity.

Released biennially by the United Nations Development Programme, the Human Development Report offers informed commentary and analysis of issues that affect humans across the world. In past years, the report has dealt with civil wars, starvation, economic growth, gender inequality, and a wide range of pressing matters. Released at the end of November 2007, this edition of the Human Development Report takes on the development impact of climate change "that could bring unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education." The 399-page report offers a portrait of the challenges presented by widespread climate changes by looking at growth in certain parts of the world, growing carbon footprints, and how developing and developed nations might mitigate some of these changes.

This site discusses the mission of ICESat, the benchmark Earth Observing System satellite intended to measure ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, topography, and vegetative cover. Questions of particular interest to the mission include: is sea level is rising?; are the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets growing or shrinking?; are ice sheets are capable of causing large, rapid changes in sea level?; and will the ice sheets melt or grow in a warmer climate? Datasets, imagery, and pictures of the launch are included.

Introduction to applied linear algebra and linear dynamical systems, with applications to circuits, signal processing, communications, and control systems.Topics include: Least-squares approximations of over-determined equations and least-norm solutions of underdetermined equations. Symmetric matrices, matrix norm and singular value decomposition. Eigenvalues, left and right eigenvectors, and dynamical interpretation. Matrix exponential, stability, and asymptotic behavior. Multi-input multi-output systems, impulse and step matrices; convolution and transfer matrix descriptions. Control, reachability, state transfer, and least-norm inputs. Observability and least-squares state estimation.Prerequisites: Exposure to linear algebra and matrices. You should have seen the following topics: matrices and vectors, (introductory) linear algebra; differential equations, Laplace transform, transfer functions. Exposure to topics such as control systems, circuits, signals and systems, or dynamics is not required, but can increase your appreciation.

This Smithsonian in Your Classroom is the third in a three-part series that brings together writing and other disciplines. In the lessons here, students exercise the observation skills that are essential to writing, visual art, and science. First, they try to use evocative language in describing pictures of birds from the Smithsonian˘ď‹ď_s National Zoo. They go on to record observations and to make hypotheses as they follow the behavior of animals on the National Zoo˘ď‹ď_s live webcams. They can watch the giant pandas, the tigers, the cheetahs, the gorillas, or any of a dozen other species.These classroom activities are intended as a preface or complement to a project increasingly popular in elementary and middle schools˘ď‹ďÓthe keeping of nature journals, whether on class outings or when the students are on their own. Included in the issue are words of advice for students from journal-keeping Smithsonian naturalists.The term nature journal seems to resist definition until we realize that the broadest definitions all apply. In Keeping a Nature Journal, the most popular recent book on the subject, Clare Walker Leslie puts it simply: ˘ď‹ďĐwhereas a diary or personal journal records your feelings toward yourself and others, a nature journal primarily records your responses to and reflections about the world of nature around you.˘ď‹ďWith a subject as great as all outdoors, nature journals lend themselves to a wide range of expression. Sketches are often the most immediate way to capture the way things look. Deeper, written observations can be the basis for all kinds of creative writing.

Iowa State's Deer Tick site is an excellent resource for anyone learning to identify deer tick specimens. The site provides links to size comparison images and movies for female, male, and larva deer ticks, as well as nymph images. Most tick images use a dime to provide a reference point, showing how small and easy to miss these creatures are. Movies are available in both MPEG and QuickTime format.

Maine Medical Center Research Institute's Lyme Disease Research Laboratory provides this website focusing on ticks and the control of tick-borne diseases. This site is divided into several sections. The first section "Tick Borne Diseases" contains resources on diseases caused by tick-borne pathogens, such as Lyme disease. "Prevention & Control" gives site visitors information on avoiding tick bites, and removal of ticks from the body. Links to other sites and key sources of information on ticks and Lyme disease can be found in the "Other Resources" section.

This site from the NOAA provides graphics for forecast models including: the ETA, the Global Forecast System (GFS), the Wave Watch III (WW3), the Nested Grid model (NGM), and the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC). Outputs are available for North America, North Pacific, Western North Atlantic, and the Polar Ice Drift. Users can find links to detailed descriptions of the inputs and history of each model.

The Museum of Science in Boston has an impressive array of podcasts, and visitors with a love of science will want to peruse this site closely. The podcasts feature weekly interviews with guest researchers and their own staff members. The series started in May 2009, and currently there are over 65 podcasts available here for the listening pleasure of interested parties. While the podcasts aren't arranged thematically, visitors can just scroll through the list here to look for particular items of interest. Some of the most recent entries include titles like "Energy Saving Technologies", "Wearable Electronic Fibers", and "Bonehenge: Assembling A Sperm Whale Skeleton". Visitors can also click on the "description" area next to each podcast title to learn about the guests on each program, and they can also use the social media buttons to share the podcast with others. Finally, visitors can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS feed or iTunes.