The Shape of the State

While I was enjoying my day off on Presidents' Day, a teacher and her class were hard at work. A teacher at W.H. Chapman Elementary School in Spartanburg emailed me three problems on StudySC that her students had found on the site, all on the content dealing with famous South Carolina African-Americans. The date of birth was wrong for Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, the date of death was missing for boxer Joe Frazier, and the date of birth was written as two different dates in the linked article for Chris Rock.

The technology blog Boing Boing has a wonderful article on the art show Face Jugs: Art and Ritual in 19th-Century South Carolina, which exhibits both original face jug art from 19th century Edgefield county and an enlarged 3D version made with 3D scanning and printing technology.

What does a Christmas plant, a pro-wrestler, the Great Awakening, Behaviorism, and poetry have in common? The people recently added to the South Carolina People section in StudySC! I have added 9 South Carolinians of note, including a poet, a legislator, a clergyman, and an explorer.

In 3 days DISCUS will be making changes to its current resources and adding a selection of new products. Due to these changes, some links in StudySC may be down temporarily as we update to these new products. I anticipate that we will be able to add even more direct links to great articles, maps, images, and other content in DISCUS to the pages in StudySC.

Forbes Magazine has a unique interactive map that shows migration from one United States county to another. Now you can explore the patterns of how people move from or to South Carolina. In 2010, 41 people moved from Queens County, NY to Richland County, SC and 38 people moved from Richland County, SC to Queens County. Why do you think people move from one county to another? It could be for family, work, or education.

I was honored to be asked to write the technology column for the 2011 SC Middle School Association Journal about online resources that educators can use to teach South Carolina-related standards. The column and entire journal issue is available online at the Association's website.

They're here! The SC Association of School Librarians announced the 2012-213 South Carolina Book Award nominees at their conference in March. Now StudySC features these award-winning books in the updated SC Book Award section.

Each book features a picture of the cover, description, and links to online resources such as:

• Book Reviews
• Author Website
• Author Biography
• Reader Guides
• and more!

I was at a conference last week in Washington, DC and much to my surprise there was not one but two South Carolina connections at the hotel and conference center. Here are pictures from the hotel of two famous South Carolinians. Be on the lookout as you travel and document your own SC findings!

The Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina has created SC DASH, a clearinghouse for economic data about South Carolina. Here you can easily search for statistics about a variety of topics such as agriculture, demographics, economy, forestry, economy, labor, public safety, and transportation.

Want an easy way to learn more about South Carolina? Check out our new South Carolina Fact of the Day twitter feed to get a fact about our state and a link to more information online. This would make a great class period introduction, school announcement feature, or writeup on the blackboard (or smartboard).

@scfactoftheday