The Applied Math and Science Education Repository or AMSER is a portal of educational resources and services, free for anyone to use. The resources, at http://amser.org/SPT--BrowseResources.php, are classified under Agriculture, Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Ecology, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Health, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Meteorology, Oceanography, and Physics.
Under Agriculture the listed resources, among others, pertain to Agribusiness, Aquaculture, Biodiesel, Biotechnology, Conservation, Crops, Genetic Modification, Integrated Pest Management, Forestry, Gardening, Organic Agriculture, Farms and Farm Management, Food, Fisheries, Animal Science, Water Use, Wildlife, Zoology, Soils, and Sustainability.
The 500 plus resources listed under Astronomy include Astrophysics, Big Bang, Cosmology, Earth, Planets, Spectroscopy, Photometry, Relative Motion, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Electromagnetic Spectrum, Galaxies, Stars, Terrestrial Planets, and Stellar Evolution. Under Biology the resources listed, among others, relate to Bacteria, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Evolution, Genes, Genetics, Genetic Code, DNA, RNA, Viruses, Enzymes, and Heredity and Inheritance. The resources listed under Botany include Osmosis, Photosynthesis, Leaves, Pollination, Plant Identification, Flowers, and Fruits.
The AMSER list of resources related to Chemistry has almost 550 of them. Among them are Atomic Particles, Biochemistry, Chemical Reactions, Molecules, Molecular Structures, Bonding, Atomic Properties, Chemical Properties, Crystals and Crystallography, Compounds, Elements, Organic Chemistry, Periodic Table of Elements, Isotopes, Polymers, and Physical properties. Those interested in a career in the biological manufacturing field would find the AMSER-listed MIT’s introductory course to “natural product biosynthetic pathways”, which includes the study of complex polyketide, peptide, terpene and alkaloid structures. The course details can be browsed at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Chemistry/5-451Fall-2005/CourseHome/. The problems and lectures provided under this course are designed to give students an understanding of the biochemical processes.
There are more than 300 resources related to Computer Science on the AMSER list. These include Information Systems, Algorithms, Architecture, Data Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Networks and Network Administration, Graphics, Data Storage, Databases, Memory, Microchips, Operating Systems, Programming Languages, Security and Privacy, Systems, Robotics, Optimization, and Transistors and Integrated Circuits. Under Ecoology 688 resources have been listed. These include Biodiversity and Diversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Energy Transfer, Populations, Sustainability, Forests, Extinction, Habitats, Water Cycle, and Wetlands. Among the resources related to Economics are Commodity Prices, Distribution of Income and Wealth, Efficient Market Theory or Random Walk Theory, Development Economics, Inequality, Poverty, and Redistribution, Global Economics, Macroeconomics, Financial Markets, International Finance, International Trade, and Gross Domestic Product.
There are very few resources listed under Electrical Engineering. Those discussed are Electron Moving Through Lattice Animation presented by Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Electrical Engineering. Anyone interested in basic electronics would find the youtube video lecture on basic electronics at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Dq8blTmSA&feature=related. useful. This video lecture, presented by the India Institute of Technology, Madras is a part of a series on electronics by Prof TS Natarajan, Department of Physics, IIT Madras. This 56-minute video provides a brief history of electronics, basic usage of a digital multimeter, measurement of resistance, how to build circuits using a breadboard, and basic power supply concepts. It is designed to be part of a laboratory-based electronics class.
There are many AMSER listed resources related to Geography, Geology, Health, Mathematics, Mechanical engineering, Meteorology, Oceanography, and Physics. These would be presented in the next edition of the Web Watch column.
AMSER is funded by USA’s National Science Foundation ((http://nsdl.org ) which supports innovations in teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. You can have bulletins of interest mailed to you whenever AMSER adds new materials to its repository. To receive bulletins you need to register at http://amser.org/AMSER--Register.php.
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