High Attendance at NSDL/NSTA Web Seminar on Plate Tectonics
On Nov. 30, 2006, 88 teachers participated in a web seminar with presenters Dr. Anthony Koppers and Dr. Chris Symons from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, making it one of the most highly attended seminars of the NSTA Web Seminar series this year. These interactive, small-group seminars allow teachers to ask questions and to absorb content presented by experts. Dr. Anthony Koppers, who participated from the San Diego Supercompter Center (SDSC), University of California at San Diego, met 20 teachers who had attended the seminar afterwards through the SDSC professional development program to answer additional questions. One of the teachers remarked, ” It was valuable to see resources I had not found on my own and to hear expert(s)…. I will be able to bring this back to my students and make their learning experiences more meaningful.”

A Digital Library of Printable Machines: Models for Collection Building and Educational Outreach
Is it possible to put actual objects from digital library collections into students’ hands? The “Digital Library of Printable Machines (DLPM): Models for Collection Building and Educational Outreach” research project funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in its Model Programs of Library-Museum Collaboration program believes that it is. The project is an activity of the Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) funded by the NSF NSDL program. DPLM is led by the Cornell University Library (CUL) in partnership with Cornell’s College of Engineering, and the Museum of Science (MOS) in Boston.

The purpose of the Digital Library of Printable Machines (DLPM) project is to: develop stereolithographic (“3D printing”) technology for delivering physical artifacts in a digital library environment; integrate a set of historical machine artifacts held by the Museum of Science into Cornell University Library’s Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL); advance knowledge about the description, storage, delivery, and preservation of 3D objects in digital libraries; develop and implement model instructional programs for learning about machine motion in the museum and in the middle school classroom, and; advance knowledge about pedagogical and usability issues surrounding use of “printed” artifacts in museum and classroom settings.

DLPM research activities address three questions:

1. What are the effects on learning of the integration of digital and physical experiences provided by historical mechanical artifacts, 3D printed machines, and computer simulations?
2. What different types of learning experiences do users have using printable machines in the museum and classroom settings? Are different types of learning better suited to one or the other of the two distinct contexts?
3. What terminology, descriptive protocols, and asset management practices will enable original artifacts, digital representations, and printable machines to be accurately and appropriately found, accessed, and utilized by users within a library environment?

To find out more please visit The Clark Collection at Boston’s Museum of Science’s set of working models of mechanical movements and combinations of drive mechanisms at . For additional project information contact KMODDL Principal Investigator John Saylor.

Combined NSDL Traffic Approaches 1/4 Million Visitors per Month
Visits to NSDL.org rose from 19,000 in October to 24,000 in November. A large part of this increase was due to the listing of nsdl.org as ‘Site of the Day’ at refdesk.com, which generated 3,327 visitors in one day.

Combined traffic across NSDL.org, the Pathways, and DLESE, is approaching 1/4 million visitors and 1 million page views a month with seasonal variations. These figures are approximate as some NSDL Pathways sites have yet to be included in the overall metrics.