What is a Seed Site? It's a web site that seems to be bursting with potential. A site that contains information that you've never had easy access to, and which inspires you to create great new lessons. There's something surprising and maybe a little offbeat about seed sites. They buzz around in your head for awhile and the next thing you know, you're drafting a unit you've never done before. That's a fuzzy definition, I know. The best way to look at some examples:
Grassroots.com, Inc., a private nonpartisan company, provides Internet-based communications tools and services that foster political action while empowering individuals and organizations to effect positive, democratic change.
Between 1941 and 1943, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper _PM_ (1940-1948), penning over 400 editorial cartoons that commented first on American neutrality and then involvement in the Second World War. This amazing collection has now been placed online and is browseable by year, month, and day. The cartoons comment on a wide variety of topics, including war preparedness, domestic politics, and isolationism, with particular criticism for the US Congress and Americans not prepared to sacrifice for the war effort.
Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency
Hosted by the United States Civil War Center at Louisiana State University, this new exhibit explores "the relationship between art and politics in the Civil War era" with over 100 digital images of Confederate notes. The images, browseable by state or activity (field scenes, individuals with cotton, sugar plantations, etc.), are accompanied by an overview of the Civil War and brief essays on the Antebellum economy and paper money in the mid-nineteenth century. A bibliography and collection of related links are also provided. [MD]
This Web site is a public service created by Environmental Defense, a leading "green" nonprofit organization that's grown to over 300,000 members in the last 30 years. Scorecard lets you quickly access local environmental information. It brings over 300 scientific and government databases into one easy-to-use interface. Explore interactive maps that track various pollution sources, and see how your city compares to the rest of the nation. Scorecard also profiles a staggering 6,800 chemicals, making it easy to find out where they are used and how hazardous they are. From air pollution to pesticides to lead paint, from industrial facilities to farming operations to apartment buildings, it's all here.
Big government. Small brains. Dumb laws. That just about sums up this site. Andy Powell and Jeff Koon have spent untold hours collecting existing laws that range from useless to downright unexplainable. Their archive covers the United States, sorted by states. For example, in the progressive state of California, it is a misdemeanor to shoot at any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale. In Alabama, it is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.
The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University.
America at Work | America at Leisure
Work, school, and leisure activities in the United States from 1894 to 1915 are featured in this presentation of 150 motion pictures, 88 of which are digitized for the first time (62 are also available in other American Memory presentations). Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, calisthenic and gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events. In this first release, 111 films are included.
This is a compilation of data transmitted from buoys moored off the coast. They report on wind direction and speed, air and water temperature and other variables.
deBarcode(tm) is an Internet directory service specialized in bar codes and universal resource identification. Given the bar code of a product, deBarcode will locate its maker's web site(s).
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In Chat of September 14, 2000.
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Last updated on September 14, 2000. Please send suggestions for additional seed sites to bdodge@mail.sdsu.edu.