Friday, May 20, 2016

Episode 317 (5-23-16): After Hurricane Alex’s Unusual January Appearance, Atlantic Tropical Storm Season 2016 Officially Begins June 1


CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:44)

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 5-20-16.


TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of May 23, 2016.

SOUND - ~ 3 sec


This week, we drop in on a crowd gathered for a yearly call-out of mysterious names—names that, we all hope, will NOT become infamously well-known during the summer and fall of 2016.  Have a listen for about 25 seconds, and see if you can guess who—or rather, what—is being named.

VOICES - ~25 seconds

If you guessed tropical storms or hurricanes, you’re right!  Those are the names planned for the 2016 Atlantic tropical storm season, covering the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.  The season runs officially from June 1 through November 30, and National Hurricane Preparedness week ran from May 15-21, 2016.  But tropical storms don’t always follow the official calendar; this year, for example, the Atlantic’s first named storm—Hurricane Alex—formed in mid-January, the earliest for an Atlantic hurricane to form since 1938.

Tropical storms and hurricanes are two categories of tropical cyclones—counter-clockwise-rotating storm systems that start in tropical or sub-tropical latitudes.  A tropical cyclone is called a tropical storm—and gets a name—when sustained wind speeds reach 39 miles per hour [SOUND – 2 sec - wind]; at 74 miles per hour, a tropical cyclone is considered a hurricane [SOUND – 3 sec- louder wind].  Tropical depressions—with wind speeds below 39 miles per hour—don’t get names, but they can still bring heavy rainfall and flooding.

Before a tropical system of any speed or name barges into the Old Dominion [SOUND – 3 sec – wind, rain, thunder], you can get ready by making an evacuation plan; assembling an emergency kit of food, water, and supplies; and establishing ways to stay informed, especially if the power goes out. Detailed instructions are available from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, online at readyvirginia.gov.

Thanks to 20 Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students for lending their voices to this episode.

SHIP'S BELL

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to several faculty, staff, and students in the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment who recorded tropical storm names for this episode on May 17, 2016.

Following are the planned names for storms in the 2016 Atlantic tropical storm season, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “Tropical Cyclone Names” Web page, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml: Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Ian, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tobias, Virginie, and Walter.

IMAGES
Names and tracks of Atlantic tropical storms in 2015, according to the National Hurricane Center, online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2015&basin=atl.
 
Hurricane Alex over the Azore Islands (in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Portugal) at 9:20 a.m. EST on January 15, 2016. Photo taken from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Web site, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/alex-atlantic-ocean, 5/20/16. Photo credits: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

SOURCES

Used in Audio

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “NASA Provides in-Depth Analysis of Unusual Tropical Storm Alex,” 1/15/16, online at http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/alex-atlantic-ocean.

National Hurricane Center, online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/; this site provides bulletins, maps, and other information on tropical storms as they are occurring. Data archives for past seasons are available at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/. Information on Hurricane Alex in January 2016 is available online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2016/ALEX.shtml?. Information provided for National Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 15-21 in 2016) is online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Tropical Cyclone Names,” online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml.

National Weather Service, “What is a Tropical Cyclone?” online at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/hurricane/resources/TropicalCyclones11.pdf.

Virginia Department of Emergency Management, “Hurricanes,” online at http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia/stayinformed/hurricanes. Details regarding Virginia’s Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday can be found at http://www.vaemergency.gov/readyvirginia/stay-informed/hurricanes/sales-tax-holiday.

For More Information on Tropical Storms and Emergency Preparedness

American Red Cross, “Hurricane Preparedness,” online at http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster/hurricane.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), “Hurricanes,” online at http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)/Climate Prediction Center, “Atlantic Hurricane Outlook and Summary Archive,” http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane-archive.shtml.

Virginia Department of Transportation, “VDOT and Emergency Response” (including hurricane evacuation information), online at http://www.virginiadot.org/about/emer_response.asp.

Virginia Water Central News Grouper posts on news, events, and information resources about hurricanes and other tropical storms, available online at https://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/?s=hurricane.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  For previous episodes on weather and storm preparedness, please see the “Weather” category.

Tropical-storm preparedness, specifically, was featured previously in the following episodes:
Episode 163 – 5/27/13 (annual season preview episode);
Episode 215 – 5/26/14 (annual season preview episode, with storm names for 2014);
Episode 226 - 8/11/14 (a mid-season update, featuring “Natural Disaster” by John McCutcheon);
Episode 266 - 5/18/15 (annual season preview episode, with storm names for 2015).

SOLS INFORMATION FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS

This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science Standards of Learning (SOLs):

Grades K-6 Earth/Space Interrelationships Theme
4.6 – weather conditions, phenomena, and measurements.
5.6 – characteristics of the ocean environment.

Grades K-6 Matter Theme
6.6 – Properties of air (including pressure, temperature, and humidity) and structure/dynamics of earth’s atmosphere.

Earth Science Course
ES.12 – energy, atmosphere, weather, and climate.

The episode may also help with the following Virginia 2008 Social Studies SOLs:

World Geography Course
WG.2 - how selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth’s surface.

Civics and Economics Course
CE.9 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.

Government Course
GOVT.9 – public policy at local, state, and national levels.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Episode 316 (5-16-16): Capturing Power from Water and Other Sources in Music for the Cello


CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (3:52)

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 5-12-16.


TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of May 16, 2016.

SOUND – ~4 sec

That’s the sound of water flowing over the Claytor Lake hydroelectric dam in Pulaski County, Va. What, do you imagine, might a musical interpretation of hydroelectric power sound like? Have a listen for about 35 seconds to how one composer has imagined that, performed here by a Virginia high school senior.

MUSIC - ~ 34 sec

You’ve been listening to part of Movement II of Erik Friedlander’s American Power suite for solo cello, performed by Henry Skutt of Blacksburg on May 1, 2016. Mr. Friedlander’s composition, written and first performed in 2011, includes six movements about different aspects of power and energy sources in the United States. Movement II was inspired by water power, while the other movements relate to electricity, solar power, oil, nuclear power, and the decisions people make in light of the benefits and costs of power sources. Mr. Friedlander composed American Power in response to a photography collection of the same name, published in 2009 by Mitch Epstein, who aimed to examine visually how energy in the United States is produced, is used, and influences people’s lives. In his musical response to those photographs, Mr. Friedlander has said he was “led to the source—the power itself: electrical power, hydraulic, solar, and nuclear power—the pace, the heat, [and] the flow,” as he imagined it. The result, he said, was “technically challenging music, [with] fast [timing] and tricky hand positions.” Challenging, fast-moving, tricky – those words describe not only the music of the American Power suite, but equally the complicated connections among power, people, and the planet.

Thanks to Henry Skutt for providing this week’s music, and we close with another short excerpt of the water movement from Erik Friedlander’s American Power.

MUSIC - ~ 15 sec

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The excerpt of Erik Friedlander’s American Power/Movement II heard in this episode was performed by Henry Skutt on May 1, 2016, in Blacksburg, Va. Thanks to Henry Skutt and Glenn Skutt for making the audio of that performance available for use in this episode.

A performance by Erik Friedlander of American Power/Movement II is available online at his Web site, at http://music.erikfriedlander.com/track/ii-flowing-grand-water (4 min./00 sec.). More information about Mr. Friedlander is available online http://music.erikfriedlander.com/.

PHOTOS 

Side view of the Claytor Lake hydroelectric dam, Pulaski County, Virginia, July 13, 2013.

Turbine at Smith Mountain Lake Hydroelectric Facility, Pittsylvania/Bedford County border, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Appalachian Power Company, provided July 26, 2013.

Some of the images in Mitch Epstein’s American Power photo collection can be viewed online at http://mitchepstein.net/american-power-intro.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NOT IN AUDIO

The “American Power” album was released January 23, 2012, Produced by Mitch Epstein & Erik Friedlander. The movement titles, according to Friedlander on this site, are as follows:

I. With speed [electricity];
II. Flowing, grand [water];
III. Freely, with forward motion [solar];
IV. Steady, solemn [crude];
V. Lurching, unstable [fission];
VI. elegy [decision].

Source: Erik Friedlander, “American Power,” online at http://music.erikfriedlander.com/album/american-power.

SOURCES

Used in Audio

Philip Bither (curator for performing arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn.), December 2013 interview with Erik Friedlander and Mitch Epstein about American Power, available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MAc_eYls1M (1 hour/2 min/54 sec).

Lydia Broshnahan, “The Music of American Power: A Conversation with Erik Friedlander,” Oct. 30, 2013, “The Green Room” blog of the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minn.), online at http://blogs.walkerart.org/performingarts/2013/10/30/the-music-of-american-power-a-conversation-with-erik-friedlander/.

Mitch Epstein, “American Power,” online at http://mitchepstein.net/american-power-intro.

Erik Friedlander, “American Power,” online at http://music.erikfriedlander.com/album/american-power. [Quotations in the audio from Mr. Friedlander were taken from this source.]

New Music USA, “American Power: Mitch Epstein & Erik Friedlander Commission/World Premiere,” Feb. 23, 2013, online at https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/american-power-mitch-epstein-erik-friedlander-commissionworld-premiere/.

Paul Schmelzer, “Visualizing American Power: Mitch Epstein and Paul Shambroom in Conversation,” Oct. 16, 2013, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minn.), online at http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/mitch-epstein-paul-shambroom-american-power.

For More Information about Hydropower and Other Sources of Energy and Electrical Power

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), “Hydropower,” online at https://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower.asp.

U.S. Energy Information Administration, online at http://www.eia.gov/. [Power sources listed include (in alphabetical order) coal, natural gas, petroleum and other liquids, nuclear/uranium, renewables/alternative fuels.]

U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Virginia State Profile and Energy Estimates” (as of June 18, 2015), online at http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=VA.

Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, “Virginia Energy Patterns and Trends,” online at https://www.energy.vt.edu/vept/index.asp.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).

A previous episode on hydropower is Episode 170 (7-15-13).

For other previous episodes on connections between water and energy, please see the “Energy” category at the Index link above.

SOLS INFORMATION FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS

This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science Standards of Learning (SOLs):

Grades K-6 Force, Motion, and Energy Theme
6.2 – energy sources, transformations, and uses.

Life Science Course
LS.11 - relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.

Physical Science Course
PS.6 – energy forms, transfer, and transformations.

Earth Science Course
ES.6 – renewable vs. non-renewable resources (including energy resources).

Physics Course
PH.7 – energy transfer, transformations, and capacity to do work.

The episode may also help with the following Virginia 2008 Social Studies SOLs:

World Geography Course
WG.2 - how selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth’s surface, including how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it.
WG.7 - types and significance of natural, human, and capital resources.

The episode may also help with the Virginia 2013 Music SOL at various grade levels that calls for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Episode 315 (5-9-16): Sandpipers Fit the Title Bill of "Flying Cloud Reel/Rusty Piper" by No Strings Attached


CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:12)

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 5-6-16.


TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of May 9, 2016.

Sound – ~ 6 sec

That’s a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recording of shorebirds.  The broad term “shorebirds” refers to a large, diverse group of wading and swimming birds, including seven different bird families in North America.  One of those is the family of sandpipers, with about 50 species observed within North America and about 30 species observed within Virginia.  Sandpipers breed typically in areas north of Virginia, but many species are winter residents along Virginia’s coastlines or can be seen migrating through parts of the Commonwealth.  Besides many species actually called sandpipers, the family includes groups with a variety of other common names, including curlews, godwits, phalaropes, and turnstones.  Although many sandpipers are coastal shorebirds, some in the family spend time around inland waters.

Small sandpipers are often called “peeps,” and both that name and the “piper” name fit the kinds of sounds many sandpipers make.  Have a listen for about 25 seconds to a sample; you’ll hear a Sanderling, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Short-billed Dowitcher, courtesy of Lang Elliott and the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.

SOUNDS - ~25 sec

Another characteristic of various shoreline sandpipers is the habit of flying in large, coordinated flocks, referred to sometimes as a flying cloud.   For example, an October 2014 article by the Audubon Society and BirdNote® asked, “What is that cloud low in the autumn sky, shape-shifting as you watch from a beach or mudflat...? It's a cloud of small sandpipers called Dunlins.”

Finally, a notable visual feature of various sandpiper species is breeding feathers colored with some combination of red and brown—one might say “rusty”—such as in the Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, and Red Phalarope.

Flying clouds, rusty colors, and piping – by a strange coincidence, these three sandpiper features just happen to be captured in the title of a medley by the Blacksburg and Roanoke-based band No Strings Attached! S o with thanks to Lang Elliott for the sandpiper sounds, and to No Strings Attached, we close with part of “Flying Cloud Reel” and “Rusty Piper.”

MUSIC – ~ 15 sec

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.   Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show.   In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The sounds of shorebirds were taken from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Digital Library, online http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/ (“Shorebirds Close” audio clip, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/audio/id/66/rec/68).

The sounds of Sanderling, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Short-billed Dowitcher were taken from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.

“Flying Cloud Reel/Rusty Piper,” by No Strings Attached, is from the 1999 album “In the Vinyl Tradition—Volume I,” from Enessay Music, used with permission. More information about No Strings Attached is available online at http://www.enessay.com/.

Thanks to Shannon Ritter of the Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, and to Randy Marchany of No Strings Attached, for their help with this episode.

PHOTOS

Solitary Sandpiper (front) and Spotted Sandpiper (back) along the New River in Radford, Va., April 29, 2015.  Photo by Robert Abraham of Christiansburg, Va., used with permission.

Flock of Short-billed Dowitchers in Alaska. Photo by Dave Menke, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 5-6-16.   Direct link for photograph: http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/1552/rec/6.

EXTRA FACTS ABOUT SANDPIPERS
Scientists group sandpipers in the taxonomic family Scolopacidae, which includes birds with the common names of sandpipers, curlews, dowitchers, phalaropes, woodcock, snipe, and others.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries “Fish and Wildlife Information Service/Species Information” Web site, online at http://vafwis.org/fwis/?Menu=Home, lists the following species in the sandpiper family (Scolopacidae) as having been observed in Virginia (some only as transients and some only occasionally).

Curlew, Long-billed
Dowitcher (Long-billed)
Dowitcher (Short-billed)
Dunlin
Godwit, Marbled
Phalarope, Red
Phalarope, Red-necked
Phalarope, Wilson’s
Red Knot
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Sandpiper, Curlew
Sandpiper, Least
Sandpiper, Pectoral
Sandpiper, Purple
Sandpiper, Semipalmated
Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed
Sandpiper, Solitary
Sandpiper, Spotted
Sandpiper, Stilt
Sandpiper, Upland
Sandpiper, Western
Sandpiper, White-rumped
Snipe, Common (now Wilson’s)
Temmnick’s Stint
Whimbrel (a type of curlew)
Willet
Woodcock, American
Yellowlegs, Greater
Yellowlegs, Lesser

SOURCES

Used in Audio

Audubon Society and BirdNote®, “Chorus Line in the Sky—Learn how Dunlins avoid in-flight collisions,” Oct. 22, 2014, online at http://www.audubon.org/news/chorus-line-sky.

Ken Duckert, “Flying Cloud of Sandpipers” photo, Apr. 16, 2010, online at http://www.pbase.com/ken_duckert/image/123930877.

Russ Kerr, Newport Bay [California] Conservancy Web site, http://newportbay.org/wildlife/birds/migration/.

Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, “All About Birds,” online at http://www.allaboutbirds.org. [Links to birds featured in this episode: Sanderling; Dunlin; Least Sandpiper ; Ruddy Turnstone; Short-billed Dowitcher.]

Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and American Ornithologists’ Union, “Birds of North America Online,” online at http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna (subscription required). [Link to bird featured in this episode: Ruddy Turnstone.]

Alice Jane Lippson and Robert L. Lippson, Life in the Chesapeake Bay, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md. (2006). [From p. 89: “As the tide ebbs and the flats emerge from the sea awash with seaweeds and alive with prowling crabs and hopping amphipods, clouds of small sandpipers arrive on the flats and being feeding. ...tiny brown sandpipers known as ‘peeps.’”]

Chandler S. Robbins et al., A Guide to Field Identification of Birds of North America, St. Martin’s Press, New York, N.Y. (2001).

Bob Sundstrom, “Singing Sandpipers,” BirdNote®, 5/4/16, online at http://birdnote.org/show/singing-sandpipers.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Fish and Wildlife Information Service/Species Information,” online at http://vafwis.org/fwis/?Menu=Home.

For More Information about Sandpipers

Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society, E-bird Web site at http://ebird.org/content/ebird/.  Here you can find locations of species observations made by contributors, and you can sign up to contribute your own observations.

Virginia Society of Ornithology: online at www.virginiabirds.net.  The Society is non-profit organization dedicated to the study, conservation, and enjoyment of birds in the Commonwealth.

Xeno-canto Foundation Web site at http://www.xeno-canto.org/.  The site provides bird songs from around the world.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html); see particularly the “Birds” subject category.

For a previous episode on other sandpiper species (Solitary Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper), see Episode 264, 5/4/15.

For a previous episode on another kind of small shorebird (Piping Plover), see Episode 79, 9/12/11.

SOLS INFORMATION FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS

This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science Standards of Learning (SOLs):

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
4.9 - Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and organisms.

Grades K-6 Life Processes Theme
1.5 - animals’ basic needs and distinguishing characteristics.

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
2.5 - living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.6 - ecosystems, communities, populations, shared resources.
6.7 - natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; and water monitoring.

Life Science Course
LS. 4 - organisms’ classification based on features.
LS.8 - community and population interactions, including food webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.9 - adaptations for particular ecosystems’ biotic and abiotic factors, including characteristics of land, marine, and freshwater environments.

Biology Course
BIO.8 - dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities, and ecosystems; including nutrient cycling, succession, effects of natural events and human activities, and analysis of the flora, fauna, and microorganisms of Virginia ecosystems.

The episode may also help with the following Virginia 2008 Social Studies SOL:

World Geography Course
WG.7 - types and significance of natural, human, and capital resources.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.