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Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin
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This Week's Topics:
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| Early Bird Registration for Triangle Coalition's Annual Conference on STEM Education Policy closes February 1. This year's conference will be held February 25-26, in Alexandria, VA, and will focus on key issues confronting education leaders at all levels. Among the topics at this year's conference will be the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and the continuing discussion concerning the need for strong STEM education programs to ensure American competitiveness. Speakers and panels will focus on such topics as diversity in the STEM fields, and how to encourage more teachers to enter these critical areas of education. Discussion will also address activities occurring at the state level through the National Governors Association and other groups, as well as the proposed FY 2009 budget and its potential impact on STEM education. You will want to have your voice heard as Congress takes up these key issues that will have far reaching impacts on our schools. The 2008 Triangle Coalition Conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel in the heart of Old Town Alexandria, VA, directly adjacent to the Metro's Blue and Yellow Lines. Click here for more information about the conference and for agenda and speaker updates. . |
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Seventh- and eighth-graders in the annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition normally create cities with utopia in mind. This year, they're also confronting the world's worst urban disasters and there's no mistaking them for utopia. From a small Kansas town destroyed last year by a tornado, to the war ravaged Gaza Strip, to Linfen, China, one of the most polluted cities on earth, Future City students across the country are dealing with real problems, determined to prevent them and build a better tomorrow. Future City, in its 16th year, asks middle school students to create a city, first on computer and then in a large tabletop model. Students present and defend their designs before volunteer engineer judges from the community at regional competitions in January. More than 30,000 students from 1,111 schools -- a record number of registered schools -- in 40 regions are participating this year. . |
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| Sally Ride Science is part of a new NASA mission that will peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history -- and share its findings with students. The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or Grail, mission is a part of NASA's Discovery Program. Sally Ride Science, founded by Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, will lead the mission's education efforts. Grail will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. Scientists will use the information from the two satellites to study the moon from crust to core to reveal its subsurface structures and, indirectly, its thermal history. The mission will answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon and provide scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. Cameras aboard each spacecraft will be dedicated to education, allowing students to photograph the moon from lunar orbit. According to Ride, Grail will leverage the EarthKAM control center at the University of California, San Diego, where undergraduates will develop the software and procedures to run cameras on the Grail spacecraft. The cameras will be used by middle school students to study the moon from their classrooms. In addition, as part of the education program, Sally Ride Science will develop workshops about the moon to feature at its science festivals for fifth through eighth grade students. Sally Ride Science will also develop Educator Institutes to train teachers in science activities related to the moon and gravity. On the Grail mission, Ride will be part of a team of expert scientists and engineers led by Dr. Maria Zuber, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who will serve as Grail's principal investigator. The Grail proposal was selected from 24 submissions in response to a 2006 Announcement of Opportunity for NASA's Discovery Program. The Grail mission will cost $375 million and is scheduled to launch in 2011. Sally Ride Science is dedicated to fueling girls' and boys' interests in science, math, and technology. . |
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Each year, the President of the United States recognizes outstanding kindergarten-6th grade or 7th-12th grade mathematics and science teachers by bestowing upon them the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). The PAEMST program is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House. In 2008 the PAEMST program will receive applications from kindergarten through 6th grade mathematics and science teachers. In 2009 the PAEMST program will receive applications from 7th through 12th grade mathematics and science teachers. PAEMST winners are honored the year following receipt of the application. Each awardee will receive a $10,000 award from NSF and gifts from a broad range of donors. Awardees and their guests are honored during events that take place in Washington, DC, over the course of a week-long celebration. Since this is the first year that the nomination and application will be completed online, the nomination deadline has been extended to March 1; applications are due May 1. . |
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| A new publication from the National Center for Education Statistics provides projections for key education statistics. "Projections of Education Statistics to 2016" includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers; and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools and enrollment, earned degrees conferred, and current-fund expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2016. For the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2016. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections. The report is available online.
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| In a new book, "Science, Evolution, and Creationism," a group of experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine explain the fundamental methods of science, document the overwhelming evidence in support of biological evolution, and evaluate the alternative perspectives offered by advocates of various kinds of creationism, including "intelligent design." The book explores the many fascinating inquiries being pursued that put the science of evolution to work in preventing and treating human disease, developing new agricultural products, and fostering industrial innovations. The book also presents the scientific and legal reasons for not teaching creationist ideas in public school science classes. Mindful of school board battles and recent court decisions, "Science, Evolution, and Creationism" shows that science and religion should be viewed as different ways of understanding the world rather than as frameworks that are in conflict with each other and that the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. For educators, students, teachers, community leaders, legislators, policy makers, and parents who seek to understand the basis of evolutionary science, this publication will be an essential resource. The publication is available online. . |
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| To help overhaul teacher education and encourage some of the nation's most talented college graduates to seek long-term teaching careers in high-need classrooms, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has launched a teaching fellowship program at the state and national levels funded initially at $17 million by leading philanthropies. The Foundation's 50-state fellowship strategy will begin in Indiana, where Fellows will receive a $30,000 stipend to complete a year-long master's program and must teach math and science in high-need schools in Indiana for three years. Lilly Endowment Inc. is providing $10 million to launch the program. Ohio and other states are expected to launch Woodrow Wilson programs beginning next year. Initially the Indiana fellowship program will prepare 80 new math and science teachers for the state each year -- roughly one-quarter of the total number of Indiana teachers now being prepared in those fields -- with aspirations to scale up to 400 per year. In addition to the state-based model being started in Indiana, Woodrow Wilson also announced the creation of a national "Rhodes Scholarship" for teaching. The new Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship, funded by the Annenberg Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, will provide a $30,000 stipend and one year of graduate education at four of the nation's top teacher-education programs to candidates who agree to teach for three years in low-income schools. The participating education programs are based at Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and University of Washington. More details are online. . |
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| Several DVDs that profile women scientists are available for free upon request from the National Institutes of Health. "Women Are Scientists" presentations showcase successful female scientists in their respective specialties, and inform students about educational requirements, rewards, and challenges of careers in the biomedical sciences. Each presentation gives a detailed view of three women scientists, from various backgrounds, as role models for their particular career. This series is designed to motivate students to take more challenging advanced science and math courses and to enable them to successfully direct their own career paths. The latest illustrates exciting career possibilities in dental research by following three amazing women at work in their laboratories. Click here for more information or to request the series.
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TCEB Sponsors
This issue of the TCEB is made possible by grants from: To find out how your organization can sponsor the TCEB or support the Triangle Coalition in other ways, visit www.trianglecoalition.org/support.htm __________________________________________________________________________ |
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