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Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin
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This Week's Topics:
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| Minnesota's science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers now have a professional home to call their own! The Science Museum of Minnesota has launched the Science House: A Resource Center for Teachers. A grant from the 3M Foundation, helped make this resource possible. Science House is a place where teachers can come to check out hands-on materials for students, engage in informal consultation and professional development and learn from each other in a comfortable and creative environment. Ultimately, it is a way to get more students interested in math and science by bringing new, interesting resources into the classroom. Members of Science House can: * Talk with a geologist, biologist, chemist, engineer, or mathematician about concepts that are interesting or confusing. * Try out a telescope, and then check it out and bring it camping with students. * Learn about how Minnesota's Academic Standards in Science and Mathematics align with national documents by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and the National Research Council (NRC). * Meet a colleague from another school or district to review a lesson plan. * Consult with a professional development specialist about how to integrate more mathematics into an upcoming science unit. * Attend a workshop series on using science notebooks. * Post communication on our bulletin board for other educators. Triangle Coalition member, 3M, and the 3M Foundation are committed to supporting innovative and practical initiatives which enhance the quality of life in 3M communities around the world. With the goal of helping to develop productive, educated, and involved citizens, 3M targets programs that address related education, family, and community issues. Science and math education and youth development are top priorities. In addition to education, 3M also supports health and human services, the arts, and environmental efforts. Find out more online. . |
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The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law on January 8, 2002, authorizing a number of federal programs aiming to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary schools in a variety of ways. Congress is currently working on reauthorizing NCLB. Although the Senate, following the House's lead, recently released a partial reauthorization draft, passage of the divisive bill is looking less and less likely this calendar year. This means that Congress would have to attempt passage during a Presidential election year, a period when major bills such as this are often difficult to pass. . |
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| Congress should work with colleges, states, and other stakeholders to address rising college prices, expert witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee during a hearing in early November. The hearing, which examined factors contributing to tuition increases, as well as possible solutions to help make college more affordable, comes after a report on rising college prices was released by the College Board. According to the report, tuition and fees at four-year public colleges have increased by 31 percent in the last five years, after adjustment for inflation. The report also found that tuition prices were up at public and private colleges and at two-year and four-year colleges. U.S. Reps. George Miller (D-CA), the committee's chairman, and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), the committee's senior Republican, said that the committee would tackle the issue of college pricing in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which the committee intends to take up this month. At the early November hearing, witnesses explained some of the factors likely contributing to tuition increases. F. King Alexander, the President of California State University at Long Beach, testified that for public colleges "the most influential reason for increases…in costs is the drastic fluctuations of state appropriations. A 'maintenance of effort' federal/state partnership would make it more difficult for states to further reduce their fiscal responsibility to public colleges and universities by shifting the costs of higher education to students, and ultimately, federal tuition-based programs." Witnesses also testified about the non-educational expenses incurred by colleges that are a factor in pricing, such as housing, food, and health services for students. To address price increases, witnesses recommended increasing transparency and making a wide range of data available to families, including student debt information, tuition and fee increases, and information about how colleges and universities spend money. . |
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The U.S. Department of Education recently launched a new website to provide teachers, administrators and other educators with recommendations on effective teaching practices and examples of possible ways to implement those practices to help promote excellence in American education and improve student achievement. The new "Doing What Works" site, offers a user-friendly interface to quickly locate teaching practices that have been found effective by the department's research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, and similar organizations. In addition, it cites examples of possible ways this research may be used to help students reach their academic potential. Content on the site is organized into three areas: . |
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| The first national study of tenured and tenure track faculty at the top 100 university departments, in each of 15 science and engineering disciplines, finds that women and minorities continue to be underrepresented. Key science and engineering faculty positions in higher education remain the domain of white men. The 2007 study, conducted by Donna J. Nelson, University of Oklahoma, and funded by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, looked at faculty positions at the top 100 departments in each discipline and compared the results to a similar study done five years earlier. "In recent years, many more minorities and women have entered America's lecture halls as members of the undergraduate and graduate student body," said Dr. Donna J. Nelson, associate professor, Oklahoma University, and lead researcher. "The unfortunate reality, however, is that these students are not making it to the front of the lecture hall as professors, particularly in the science and engineering disciplines." Among the study's findings: * In the physical sciences and engineering disciplines, chemical engineering has the highest representation of minorities in full professorship positions, at just 4.9 percent. * Women from underrepresented groups are nearly nonexistent among faculty in the physical sciences and engineering departments at research universities. * No Native American faculty was found in the top 100 civil engineering departments. * Minorities comprised 7.9 percent of electrical engineering Ph.D. recipients from 1996 to 2005, yet only 4.0 percent of current assistant professors drawing on that hiring pool are minorities. * Minority students often can achieve a B.S. or Ph.D. without ever having been taught by an underrepresented minority faculty member in that discipline. * From 2000 to 2005, Blacks increased from 10.6% to 12.5 % of computer science B.S. recipients, but Black faculty in the "top 50" computer science departments, the students' role models and mentors, only increased from 0.3% in 2002 to 0.8% in 2007. . |
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| The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) utilizes the creative problem solving process in multiple components. FPSPI offers three competitive components: "Booklet Competition," "Community Problem Solving," and "Scenario Writing." The program features curricular and co-curricular competitive, as well as non-competitive, activities in creative problem solving, and stimulates critical and creative thinking skills. Community Problem Solving is an excellent match for service learning projects and provides a structured problem solving format for the students. The topics for the 2007-08 booklet competition and scenario submissions are Body Enhancement, Simulation Technology, Neurotechnology, Debt in Developing Countries, and Child Labor. While studying the issues, students gather information from a wide variety of information and media sources. With the help of a teacher/coach, they work on evaluating and analyzing that information, while encouraging diverse perspectives. The first two topics are typically covered between August and December and are practice problems which receive feedback so the students can increase their proficiency in the problem solving process. The third topic is covered in the qualifying competition where top ranking students receive an invitation to address the fourth topic during the affiliate competition. The winning teams and individuals are then invited to study the fifth topic, which is addressed during the International Conference, a competition for grades 4 - 12 that engages students in creative problem solving. The program can be integrated non-competitively into pre-college language arts, science, and social studies curricula. FPSPI involves over 250,000 students annually from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and the United States. Registration for the various components occurs through the established affiliate programs. Find out more at www.fpspi.org. . |
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| Like doctors in training, future math and science teachers in New York University's (NYU) Teaching and Learning Residency program get real-life exposure to the demands of their profession while learning their craft from a team of experts. Recruited from among undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors, the prospective teachers are placed in exemplary New York City math and science classrooms in high-needs secondary schools and also attend weekly seminars designed to introduce them to the content and pedagogy involved in teaching math and science. The NYU program is one of 16 projects funded in 2007 through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Robert Noyce Scholarship program. Successful completion of the residency make STEM majors eligible for a $10,000 undergraduate scholarship, plus a $15,000 scholarship for a fifth-year program leading to teacher certification and a master's degree in science or math education. The residency includes recommendations from the New York City teacher and the NYU teacher educator who mentored the student in the residency, and from an NYU STEM faculty member who agrees to provide continuing content mentoring to the student. "Through the Noyce program, math and science teachers are inducted into the profession early on," says NSF Program Manager Joan Prival. "They're put in touch with excellent teachers and given a real picture of some of the challenges they'll face." This approach recognizes that beyond the financial incentives, future teachers need to be part of a community that mentors and supports them. While the Noyce program requires that they teach for two years in a high-need school district for each year of financial support they receive, the goal is to develop excellent teachers who will make a career out of teaching math or science. With the Noyce Scholarship Program, grants are awarded to colleges and universities to offer scholarships to prospective science and mathematics teachers. The scholarship recipients are both undergraduates majoring in STEM disciplines who are preparing to become K-12 math and science teachers and STEM professionals who are making a career change to go into teaching. Recipients may receive scholarships or stipends of at least $10,000 annually, limited by the cost of attendance at their institution. To date, 91 awards to institutions in 32 states have been made under the Noyce Scholarships. More details are online. . |
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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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