Published by the

Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education

This Week's Topics:

1. TEACHERS HONORED FOR SPONSORING WINNERS OF THE DUPONT CHALLENGE SCIENCE ESSAY COMPETITION
2. "MATHEMATICS AND VOTING" IS THEME FOR MATHEMATICS AWARENESS MONTH, APRIL 2008
3. NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD NAMES 2008 PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD WINNERS
4. NASA LAUNCHES NEW SCIENCE WEB SITE
5. SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW WINS MAJOR INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AWARD
6. EXXONMOBIL AND THE MICKELSON EXXONMOBIL TEACHERS ACADEMY EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHERS TO ATTEND 2009 PROGRAM
7. NEW SCIENCE RESOURCES AT FREE WEBSITE
8. PREVIOUS ISSUES

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Jennifer Seavey, a teacher of integrated biology, English, and technology at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, and Brenda From, chair of the science department at the Manhattan High School for Girls in New York City, NY were recently honored by DuPont at a National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) awards ceremony. DuPont also sponsored teachers from Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, Ohio, Delaware, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania at this year's NSTA convention. The Challenge Essay students, Masooma Raza (a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology) and Yocheved Kramer (a senior at Manhattan High School for Girls), each won a $3,000 prize in the junior and senior divisions respectively. Raza, Kramer, and their teachers also had the opportunity to go to Walt Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center last April to celebrate their success. In addition to the trip to NASA and Disney World, each sponsoring teacher received a crystal replica of NASA’s Space Shuttle in recognition of their work with the students.

"I sincerely thank DuPont for sponsoring this science essay competition," said Seavey. "The Challenge provides my students with an opportunity to explore topics in the world of science about which they could get truly excited." "DuPont has supported education for more than 200 years," said Phyllis Buchanan, manager, DuPont Office of Education. "We know that education begins with the teacher and that support of the teacher is the most critical component of the education process. The DuPont Challenge National Science Essay Competition received more than 10,000 entries in 2007. It is one of the foremost student science and technology prize programs in the country. It is sponsored by DuPont in cooperation with NSTA, Disney World, and NASA. For more information about the 2008 competition, visit the DuPont Challenge website at www.thechallenge.dupont.com. The 2008 DuPont Challenge winners will be announced later this year.  

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The National Science Board (NSB) has announced its 2008 Public Service Award Winners: the Bayer Corporation and SAE International. The NSB is paying tribute to Bayer for its long-standing and exemplary commitment to science public outreach, science education, and science policy -- for fostering public science literacy and contributing to the development of a diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics pipeline of students and future innovators. "Making Science Make Sense," established in 1995, is Bayer's company-wide initiative that advances science literacy across the United States through hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, employee volunteerism, and public education. It is one of more than 300 corporate social responsibility programs that Bayer supports around the world. The NSB is recognizing SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers), for its longstanding and superior commitment to student and professional engineers, and math and science education. It was especially impressed with SAE International's A World in Motion and its Collegiate Design Series.

The Public Service Award was established in 1996 to recognize individuals and organizations which have significantly contributed to increasing public understanding of science and engineering. These individuals and organizations have contributed to scientific discovery and its communication to the public, promoted the engagement of scientists and engineers in public outreach and scientific literacy, aided in the development of broad science and engineering policy, influenced and encouraged the next generation of scientists and engineers, and fostered awareness of science and engineering among broad segments of the population. More details are online.

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Senior Research Fellow Arthur J. Nozik of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has won the 2008 Eni Award, a prestigious international honor that has several Nobel Prize winners among its recipients. Nozik received the award in the science and technology category. It honors his revolutionary work leading a large NREL team that is exploring future generation concepts for solar conversion. His team discovered and verified multiple exciton generation (MEG) in semiconductor nanocrystals, also called quantum dots, and recently found efficient MEG in silicon quantum dots. The ultimate goal is to make the cost of solar power equivalent to the cost of coal so that countries, particularly developing ones, will be able and motivated to use clean and carbon-free solar power rather than fossil fuels. He shares the award with Stefan W. Glunz of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.

MEG produces more than one electron-hole pair from a single absorbed photon, potentially resulting in more efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity. When today's photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, about 50 percent of it is lost as heat. MEG provides a way to convert some of that energy lost as heat into additional electricity. Until Nozik's work leading the NREL team, the generation of multiple electron-hole pairs per absorbed photon was only found to occur in semiconductor materials that aren’t presently used in commercial solar cells and frequently contain environmentally harmful materials such as lead, or they are in a range of photon energies not useful for solar cells. Finding MEG in silicon is significant because it is a raw material abundant in the Earth’s crust and has no harmful environmental effects. Triangle Coalition member, NREL, is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle. The work honored by the Eni Award was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences. 

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