Educational Travel Blog | From Sea to Shining Sea

Smithsonian Libraries Now on Your E-Reader

The day was probably inevitable: Last week Amazon announced that its e-books are outselling print books. For many, this news helps to bolster the importance of e-books in the the media landscape.

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries is now in the process of converting documents from the Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series to a format that can be easily accessed and read through e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. Last week the Smithsonian Libraries announced that these e-books will be made accessible at no cost.

Image from Genera of Bamboos Native to the New World, Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, (9): 1-148. The entire journal is available as a free e-book.

The benefits of this progressive move are many. The process frees up valuable physical space and removes the possibility that these documents may one day be out of print. The easy, accessible e-reader format also allows the materials to meet readers "where they are." Researchers no longer have to make a trip to where the physical book is kept. 

"The addition of these publications into e-books is a tremendous tool for scientists and the public who will benefit from mobile access to research,” said Smithsonian Librarian Erin Thomas, who is coordinating the project. “Access to this distinguished series has never been so simple.”

If you're ready to get reading, you can see a list of available titles at Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series publications.

Cover of First retrospective exhibition of American art : inaugurating the Junior Art Patrons of America, May 7 to 21, 1921, Fine Arts Building (1921). The entire program is available and thousands of other documents are available as digital files, thanks to the Smithsonian's efforts to digitize elements of its colllections.

In other efforts to grow the Libraries digital collections, new progress is underway in scanning pieces from the History, Art, and Culture collections. They scan about 150 pieces each month and the digital versions are available though the Smithsonian Collection Internet Archive. The collection is currently at nearly 4,000 items!

Meet tour consultant Luke Chow

We thought it might be nice to introduce some of the great people of Smithsonian Student Travel. I chatted with tour consultant Luke Chow, who was also kind enough to pose for a photo here at work.

 


Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Dixfield, Maine, a small mill town in the western part of the state. The area is rural and it is a very tight-knit community. Everyone knows everyone and we have one stop light at the center of town. I graduated from Dirigo High School. I absolutely love the area, but after college it was time to move out of my comfort zone and come to Boston, a city with a lot of opportunity.

Where did you go to college?
I went to college at the University of Maine and majored in business administration with a concentration in marketing.

Do you have a favorite teacher?
Mrs. Johnson, my high school science teacher who took me to Belize.     

What would you say is your favorite memory from school?
My favorite memory from school would be when I went to Europe with my high school classmates. This was the first time I had been out of the country with my friends and it was an amazing experience. The best part was my school used EF Tours for the trip so I was a traveler before I came to work here.

Do you have a favorite spot to visit in the U.S.?
New York City. As the largest city in the country, it's so big you can see something new every time you go. From the lights of Broadway to the moving sight of Ground Zero, New York is a city full of life, culture, and history. I recommend that everyone experience it for themselves.

How about a favorite book? Band? Movie?
Being an avid Yankees fan my favorite book would have to be the Yankee Years, which is about Joe Torre’s time as manager of the Yankees. As far as bands go I really do not have one favorite but I would say that I am a big fan of classic rock and country music. I love movies and if I had to have a favorite it would have to be any one of the Rocky movies.

Anything we might be surprised to learm about you? I have actually traveled across the country by car from Maine to California and back. Getting to experience and see all of what America has to offer and how different regions of our country are was amazing.

How would you describe what you do here at Smithsonian Student Travel? I reach out to teachers to see if they are a good fit for Smithsonian Student Travel and vice versa.

What do you think is the best thing about your job?
The best thing about working at Smithsonian Student Travel is definitely the people. Everyone that works here comes to work with a positive attitude and a team mentality that really makes it easy to come to work every day. This job is important to me because we get to help teachers take history and make it come to life, just like my teachers did for me.

Explore Museums with Google Art Project

This is an art enthusiast's fantasy—a chance to see masterworks from the world’s most renowned art museums. Launched in February 2011, Google Art Project brings more than 4,000 works of art with extraordinary detail and resolution to computer screens around the world. Google has cleverly integrated street view technology with Picasa and YouTube to give a comprehensive view of some of the world’s most priceless art objects.

                     View of Google Art Project virtual tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Artwork View allows the virtual visitors to see featured works in high resolution and zoom in for an up-close look that museum visitors can’t get. As wired.co.uk reported, “Zoom in close enough, and you can see individual brushstrokes, hairline cracks in the canvas and microscopic details that are almost invisible to the naked eye—like tiny Latin messages scrawled on Hans Holbein the Younger's 'The Merchant Georg Gisze.'” You can even learn more about each piece through accompanying YouTube videos. It’s an incredible way to see new art pieces and explore favorites.

 

 

Currently, this blend of technology and art, features 17 museums ranging from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and to the National Gallery in London and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

While the Art Project is an incredible way to learn about art, it certainly doesn’t replace the experience of visiting museums, seeing works of art in person and exploring entire collections.

Many great American art museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., are favorite spots on our tours. Check out our tours for the art-enthusiast traveler.

In the News: Teacher Appreciation Week Winner!

First, a Smithsonian Student Travel group was covered on a tour to Washington, D.C., and now the Fairfield Sun Times has featured the winner of our Teacher Appreciation Week Contest, Diane Otness. Diane won a free spot on an EF Professional Development Tour to China next summer.

Below is a repost of the original article.

Dutton Educator Earns China Trip

Levi Wahl smiles for the camera as Diane Otness, his teacher, reads along with him. Levi reads Braille type in the book. Sun Times photo by Darryl L. Flowers

Nominated For Recognition By Parents of Student

By Cindy Dauwalder and Darryl L. Flowers

Published: Friday, May 13, 2011 1:15 PM CDT

In the summer of 2012, Diane Otness, a special education teacher from Dutton/Brady schools will be taking the trip of a lifetime to China. On Friday, April 29, the school received a phone call informing Otness that she had won the trip on a Professional Development Tour sponsored by Smithsonian Student Travel.

The Wahl family of Dutton nominated her for being a wonderful teacher for their special needs son, Levi. According to Otness, she taught herself Braille and began working with Levi when he was just three, he is now four. He has limited eyesight and cannot speak.

When the Sun Times caught up to Otness and Levi to get their picture, Levi was confidently sauntering into the familiar classroom. His teacher asked him to put his white cane into a vase next to the door.  He then took his seat by slinging his leg over the chair leaning on the back. The classroom was dimly lit as Otness explained the light bothers him. She assured us that the flash of the camera would be okay. She then urged him to turn around and settle in to read. He waved his hand as he was introduced to the photographer and then went back to his reading. Otness read aloud, while Levi followed along, reading the raised “lettering” of Braille.

There was an unusual looking typewriter sitting on a table in the classroom. Otness learned how to use the Braille typewriter on her own time. It has eight keys with no lettering on them. She demonstrated some of the Braille, including the abbreviated name for Levi, LI.

Otness said, “I am still pretty shocked. It’s an honor to be nominated and chosen.” She went on to say that it probably won’t sink in until next spring as the time gets closer.

The trip will include several destinations, which are still in the planning stages. The first stop will be Beijing.  Over the course of the whole trip, her and other educators will tour several schools in the Country. Otness said, “I never dreamed of going to China. It will be the trip of a lifetime.”

Space Shuttle Endeavour Lifts Off For Final Mission

Shuttle Endeavour blasted off Monday from Kennedy Space Center for the final time, after a two-week delay.

Space Shuttle Endeavour  is one of two currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA.

The six-astronaut crew is led by three-time shuttle flyer Mark Kelly, whose wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, watched at Kennedy Space Center. 

 
Stefanie Gordon; @Stefmara: Here's another Photo of the shuttle from my plane.

And one traveler happened to be on a flight at just the right time to catch an extraordinary view of the shuttle launch from the air. Stefanie Gordon tweeted the photo and gained nearly instant fame as the shuttle photo went viral.

Along with Kelly, is pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists Greg Chamitoff, Drew Feustel, Mike Fincke and Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency on this 16-day trip to the International Space Station.

According to the Courier Journal, the crew plans to deliver spare parts and the station's most heralded science experiment yet: The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle physics detector, will sift through cosmic rays in search of dark matter and antimatter.

 

 

And as it embarks on its final mission, many remember how Endeavour got its name. In 1988, NASA staged a national competition among elementary and secondary school students to hang a name on the new shuttle. The kids had to choose a name based on a historic oceangoing research or exploration vessel. Endeavour was the flagship of English explorer James Cook. The name was chosen by President George H.W. Bush in 1989.

NASA is ending the 30-year-old shuttle program and focusing on developing vessels that can travel to asteroids, Mars and other destinations where the shuttles cannot go.

Though the space shuttles will soon be grounded, the vessels, their missions and their crews still capture the imagination. When the end of the shuttle program was annouced, Americans began wondering, "Where will retired NASA shuttles go?"

Numerous American museums vied to be the homes of the retiring shuttles. NASA announced its plans for the shuttles in April.  

• Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built, will move from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.
• Shuttle Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. 
• Shuttle Endeavour will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
• Shuttle Atlantis will go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex in Florida.

The Kennedy Space Center, California Science Center and the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum are favorite spots on Smithsonian Student Travel tours.

 

In the news: Golden Boarding Pass Winner's tour to Washington, D.C.

 Check out the press coverage of Golden Boarding Pass winner Jared Schweitzer and his students' recent trip to Washington, D.C.! Below is a repost of the original article appearing on The Press-Enterprise website.

Corona students' essays win capital trip

10:00 PM PDT on Friday, May 13, 2011

Submitted to The Press-Enterprise

Ten students at Letha Raney Intermediate School in Corona were able to spend spring break in the nation's capital thanks to one lucky teacher.

Out of all the participating teachers in the country, Raney Intermediate history teacher Jared Schweitzer won the grand prize drawing of 10 free student trips to Washington D.C. through Education First: Smithsonian Student Travel.

The prize was worth more than $15,000 and included airfare, tour director, tour bus, food and lodging for four days and nights.

Submitted to The Press-Enterprise

Letha Raney Intermediate School students and chaperones visit the White House. The Corona group spent spring break in Washington, D.C. after teacher Jared Schweitzer won a prize drawing of 10 free trips.

After learning he had won the drawing, Schweitzer held an in-class essay contest to determine which 10 of his 200 students would be Beltway-bound.

Each student had to write a persuasive essay on why he or she should be chosen to go to Washington D.C. After reading through 200 essays, a small committee narrowed it down to the 10 winning students.

During their spring break free trip, the students visited the Smithsonian Museums, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial , Korean War Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery , Iwo Jima Memorial, Mt. Vernon Estate, a Ghost Walk in Alexandria, Va., the White House, the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building, Library of Congress, WWII Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Smithsonian Zoo, the Holocaust Museum -- and they saw President Obama's motorcade stop all traffic in front of them and drive by.

Submitted by Corona-Norco Unified School District.

Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games"

Donkey Kong, Earthworm Jim, Okami. These names don’t ring a bell? Well, then it's time you brushed up your video games. You’ll want to be ready when the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens "The Art of Video Games" next spring. This video game exhibit will feature favorite video games from around the globe.

Kids enjoyed video games on Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 at the main branch of the New York Public Library. (Photo credit: Suzanne DeChillo, The New York Times)

Video game fans from around the world took the reigns for this exhibition. From an intense round of international voting held between Feb. 14 and April 17, an astounding 3.7 million votes were cast by 119,000 people in 175 countries.  Voters could select from 240 games selected by various industry and artistic mind and 80 video games came out on top. 

The exhibit will explore video games as an artistic medium from the evolution of video game development and the creativity involved in the process. Visitors will get a look at the technology behind the games, what influences game developers and how games influence our culture. The exhibit also touches on the relationships video games have to video art, film and television, educational practices, and professional skill training.

The Nintendo 3DS, which displays video games in 3-D without the need for glasses, arrived recently in the U.S. and is already a hit. (Photo credit: Anne Cusack, Los Angeles Times)

The show will feature early developers such as David Crane and Warren Robinett to contemporary designers like Kellee Santiago and David Jaffe. Chris Melissinos, founder of Past Pixels and collector of video games and gaming systems, is the curator of the gaming exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Students at Quest to Learn, a New York City public school, play a game they designed. Photo credit: Gillian Laub for The New York Times

And, of course, visitors will have a chance to put their skills to use at the exhibit. Five games will be available to play—for a "few minutes," the Smithsonian says—as examples of those that best demonstrate interactivity: "Pac-Man," "Super Mario Brothers," "The Secret of Monkey Island," "Myst" and...of course..."World of Warcraft."

Announcing our Golden Boarding Pass Winner!

At first, he felt a bit of disbelief, but it’s finally sunk in: Frank Drumwright is the Smithsonian Student Travel Golden Boarding Pass Grand Prize Winner!

That means Frank and 10 students will travel for free next year on any of our Smithsonian Student Travel tours.

Frank remembers seeing a few opportunities to enter, but doesn’t remember which one got him to put in his winning entry. And when he did, he was skeptical that he had the winning ticket, but he wanted to enter: “I wanted my students to have the chance to travel, and I wanted a chance to travel with them.”

“I try to expose my kids to the outside world in many ways because so many don’t have a lot of other chances.”

Now in his 23rd year of teaching, Frank, a biology teacher in Indiana, says it’s those "a-ha moments" that are always the greatest moments in teaching. “When those light bulbs go on and they really get it and they are motivated to learn more—that’s the best part of teaching for me.”

Frank does a lot to get those light bulbs switched on and staying bright in his biology classes. When I spoke with him, the students were studying a unit on heredity and genetics. They were playing the role of genetic lab technicians. The model involves using coin flips to help them build the genetic make-up of the fictional child they are examining. The following week the students solved the mystery of Captain Relish, who winds up dead at a dinner party. “It’s a soap-opera-type story, but we look at it through the lens of genetics and scientific evidence.”

While Frank’s classroom is a lively place, he also works to get the students learning outside of the classroom. He advises the school’s Sierra Club. He also helps with the nearby elementary school's greenhouse. (Below is a photo of Frank giving a tour.) He has taken students to the Team America Rocketry Challenge at Manassas near Washington, D.C., and to see the sandhill crane migration in northern Indiana. “You can watch that kind of stuff on the Discovery Channel, but when you see a field absolutely full of these birds—5,000, 20,000 of them—it’s a whole new experience.”

Frank gives a tour of the school greenhouse he oversees.

Frank’s desire and dedication to give his students new and innovative educational experiences comes from the people who did those things for him.

“Part of it is what people did for me—Mr. Mortensen taking us on trips in junior high and my parents making sure we saw the museums and exhibits in Chicago.” (Frank grew up in Elmhurst, one of the Chicago suburbs.)

“I have a memory of Mrs. Sears buying hot dogs for all of us in third grade after a visit to the aquarium. Those experiences left an impression on me.”

“The other part of it is, I’m just a sciencey kind of guy who wants to share that.”

Frank just found out about his grand prize a couple weeks ago, so he’s still in the planning phase. In fact he only told a few teachers and his wife about his big win. But I’m certain wherever Frank chooses to take his students, there will be plenty to learn and plenty of fun.

Congratulations and happy travels!

The Impact of Travel

 
This week, cities around the U.S. are celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week. Earlier this week more than 50 cities held rallies to promote and applaud the value and impact of travel for both travelers and those who work in the travel industry.

National Tourism Week began in 1984, with a joint resolution passed by Congress. President Reagan praised the numerous contributions travel and tourism played in the lives of Americans. Travelers gain the rich experience of being exposed to new places, people and culture while exploring America’s diverse heritage. And travel boosts the nation’s economy by creating jobs and encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit.

At Smithsonian Student Travel, we have a passion for travel and a conviction in the unique way travel can educate and transform people. Our mission to make student travel affordable and accessible to more young people is based on the particular impact of travel on students.

Here are a few statistics to get you thinking*:

• More than 88 percent of students who traveled before the age of 18 receive a college degree
• Slightly more than 8 in 10 had a GPA of 3.0 or higher
• More than 40 percent had GPAs greater than 3.6
• Half of the respondents reported a household income of more than $75,000 as adults

Traveling is rewarding, exciting and life-changing for students. And with Smithsonian Student Travel, quality tours are also affordable. From destinations like Washington, D.C., New York City, Hawaii and everywhere in between, browse educational tours.

 

*According to a recent survey endorsed by the Student Youth & Travel Association

Students Help Cars Get Better Gas Mileage

With gas prices hitting highs and showing few signs of dropping, everyone is concerned about how to get better gas mileage. In the second annual Shell Eco-Marathon, students from around the world set out to create fuel-efficient cars. They not only came up with innovative solutions, but put forth technology that could give the Hondas and the Fords a run for their money.

 

In this year’s competition, Laval University’s (Canda)prototype car really boosted fuel economy. The team’s car got 2,565 miles to the gallon. That’s like driving from New York City to Las Vegas on one tank!

The current record worldwide for fuel efficiency was set in 2010 by the team from Polytech Nantes (France) at 11,516.34 mpg. One tank in this car could take you from the North Cape in Norway down to the toe of the Italian peninsula.

A student from Granite Falls High School pilots one of the school's two cars. Photograph by Harley Soltes, National Geographic

And it’s not just university teams that are making some pretty creative and fuel-efficient cars. Check out the team page of Granite Falls High School Eco Team  in Granite Falls, Washington. They sent two teams to the Shell Eco-Marathon—the UrbanAutos and the ShopGirls (pictured below).

Photograph by Harley Soltes, National Geographic

Alternate fuel solutions like biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, solar power and—for the first time—plug-in battery technologies were used in the marathon. Some of the prototypes may look a little wacky, but the message is simple. No matter what powers the car—leftovers, hydrogen or solar energy, we’re finding ways to go farther for less.