Myrmex: A Comic Ant-thology

Science and education are at their core acts of storytelling. Nature tells her story to scientists and scientists in turn share Nature’s stories with the world."   -Andrew Collins

Science and art are our two most powerful tools for exploring our reality and communicating about it. Myrmex: A Comic Ant-thology is a perfect example of how to harness the potential of these tools for storytelling to effectively engage students in the practice of science. Flip through 60+ pages of artful panels to explore:

• A Day in the Life of an Ant
• When Ants Have Relationships
• Inside Look: An Ant Colony
• Fighting for Turf in the Ant World
• Scientists and Ant Discoveries

These comics were made made by science communicator/educator Andrew Collins and a team of very talented artists, scientists, and illustrators. As a project that fully resonates with HumanCoral's philosophy of interdisciplinary collaboration, we can't wait to see their future publications. Download their comics and inspire the next generation of scientists! 

United Classroom

Howard Zinn said 'The presence of another human being is a powerful fact'. Let us open the walls of the classroom and provide our students the powerful fact of their fellow global citizens." - Zak Ringelstein, Co-Founder of UClass

United Classrooms helps students around the world become critical thinkers with a global vision. The purpose is to provide a platform for students to bring themselves to the learning experience and interact with perspectives that are beyond the four walls of their classroom. Like 21st-cenury pen-pals!

When a teacher signs their class up, students can log in to a secure classroom profile page where they can share content with their own teachers, classmates and parents AS WELL AS collaborate with other classrooms across the globe. It unites students from diverse backgrounds in the creation of a safe and dynamic global community where knowledge, experience and relationship are shared beyond the classroom walls.

UClass is completely FREE to use and has already atracted over 5,500 users in 42 countries in less than one year since it started. If you are a teacher, you will appreciate this (and so will your students)!

Co-Founders Zak Ringelstein and Leah Schrader talk about UClass at TEDx Claremon Colleges

Millenium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB)

Foster, fuel and inspire a global dialogue on the interconnectedness of activities causing environmental degradation and social inequity;

Create and implement strategies for shifting human cultures and institutions towards sustainable practices and an equitable and satisfying future."

Stanford's MAHB is a nascent global network of social scientists, humanists, and scholars in related fields whose collective knowledge can be harnessed to support global civil society in shifting human cultures and institutions toward sustainable practices and an equitable and satisfying future.

In this site you will find a network of natural and social scientists ("associates") and institutions ("nodes") that collectively construct an inter-disciplinary vision of what sustainability might look like: economic systems that depend on agility and equity without depending on growth, social systems that recognize the limits of our ecosystems, energy and resource infrastructure, and governance: a world where most people can meet their basic needs while enjoying a high quality of life. 

This is also a platform where associates and nodes can share resources, connect with one another, post events and coordinate efforts.

Screenshot of MAHB library topics

Cosmovisión

Organización basada en Guatemala que crea obras originales de temas sociales y ambientales. La misión de Cosmovision es la comunicación social para transformar la realidad consolidando el respeto a los derechos de los pueblos y el respeto a la naturaleza. Para este proposito se utiliza educacion popular, entretenimiento, investigación social, y producción de materiales educativos con la participacion de los actores en el proceso de creación. 

Guatemalan organization that produces original works with environmental and social themes. Cosmovisión's mission is to transform reality through social communication, consolidating respect for nature and people's rights. To do this, they use popular education, entertainement, social investigation, and production of educational materials that have been created through participatory approaches. 

Defensa y conservación de los Manglares de Tulate, Retalhuleu Guatemala. Realizado por Sergio Lopez. 

The Internet Defense League

If you have a website and care about the future of the internet, then this is for you. The Internet Defense League (IDL) is a newly launched early warning system for any law that threatens the freedom of the internet to coordinate and call action to protect it. To quote the IDL website:

The Internet Defense League takes the tactic that killed SOPA & PIPA and turns it into a permanent force for defending the internet, and making it better. Think of it like the internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its bat signal!

The Problem

Internet freedom and individual power are changing the course of history. But entrenched institutions and monopolies want this to stop. Elected leaders often don't understand the internet, so they're easily confused or corrupted.

The plan

When the internet's in danger and we need millions of people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action.  (Say, a prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.)  With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization.

How it works

First, sign up.  If you have a website, they will send you sample alert code to get working in advance.  The next time there's an emergency, they will tell you and send new code.  Then it's your decision to pull the trigger.

AuthorAID

The mission — to reduce poverty and improve population health, and to build science and research capacity in developing countries where the problems reside — is likely to engage established scientists who want to help but lack simple means. - Phyllis Freeman and Anthony Robbins

Scientists from developing countries are currently underrepresented as authors in published scientific literature. AuthorAID aims to change that by helping researchers in developing countries write and publish their work. One way it does so is by helping early-career researchers find mentors who can help them with their writing and research and providing them with a user-friendly online space in which they can collaborate, completely free of charge. 

As Freeman and Robbins (2005) state in Closing the 'Publishing Gap' between rich and poor, "Authors needing help are not in short supply, nor are potential voluntary mentors. Experienced, often-published scientists at or near retirement appear especially eager to help." AuthorAID's dynamic online community of senior researchers could help thousands of authors around the world who do not have enough analytic and editorial support. To date, nearly 3700 researchers and others, from more than 150 countries, have registered with AuthorAID. Nearly 600 have registered as mentors. 

• Search by country, field of research, or keyword to find a researcher
• Sign up to be matched with a mentor or a mentee
• Browse their research communication resource library
• Training events, support to find funding, and more

  Find out what AuthorAID looks for in its mentors and mentees.  Available in English and Spanish.