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Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin
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This Week's Topics:
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| On June 26, the House Education and Labor Committee approved legislation to improve the quality of state pre-school programs, which collectively serve over 1 million young children. The Committee passed the legislation, the "Providing Resources Early for Kids Act" (H.R. 3289), by a vote of 31 to 11. Research increasingly demonstrates that the first years of children's lives have a much greater and more lasting impact on their future growth and learning than was previously understood. New research shows that early childhood experiences influence the very architecture and chemistry of a developing brain. H.R. 3289 establishes a federal-state partnership to expand high-quality early childhood educational opportunities to more children. It provides incentives to states to ensure that their pre-K programs meet children's developmental and educational needs. Under the bill, states receive federal funding that they could use for a variety of program improvement purposes, including: increasing the number of early childhood educators with bachelor's degrees, reducing student-teacher ratios, implementing research-based curricula, and providing vital comprehensive services such as health screenings and nutritional assistance. More details are available online. . |
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| Learning.com will launch a new technology literacy assessment in fall 2008 that will align to the "refreshed" 2007 ISTE NETS-S standards, and will add a portfolio assessment capability. Additionally, it will provide states with a rapid path to an assessment specific to their unique technology proficiency standards. ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, developed the National Educational Technology Standards for Students in 1998, generally recognized as the roadmap for student technology proficiency. It undertook what it calls a "refresh" and updated those standards, unveiling them at the 2007 National Educational Computing Conference. Learning.com's new technology literacy assessment will roll out in a beta administration with a minimum of 5,000 students nationwide in fall 2008. Learning.com provides districts and states with a valid technology literacy assessment with TechLiteracy Assessment. Introduced in 2006, TechLiteracy Assessment measures and reports students' knowledge and skills for critical technology concepts and tools. These include spreadsheets, word processing, databases, multimedia, and presentation software. It also assesses students' understanding of systems and technology fundamentals, Internet use and tools, and critical social and ethical issues surrounding technology. A growing number of states are setting technology proficiency standards for their students, usually based on ISTE standards with additional state-specific standards that reflect their own individual state requirements. More details are at www.learning.com. . |
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U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced the award of $41,573,649 for 24 new grants under the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) to help more than 69,000 disadvantaged middle school students receive assistance to prepare for and pursue a college education. "The GEAR UP program partners with the community to reach students early through mentoring, tutoring, financial aid, and other supports," said Secretary Spellings. "This program aims to assure disadvantaged students that college is within their reach, and then provides them with all the help they need to get there." . |
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| The Boeing Company recently sent more than 90 teachers from around the world to the 17th Annual Boeing Educators to the Space Camp program at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. The Boeing Educators to Space Camp program uses space exploration initiatives to enhance teachers' skills in presenting math, science, and technology lessons that will inspire students and help ensure a skilled workforce for a globally competitive technology market. The teachers completed hands-on workshops that include simulated space missions, astronaut training, and presentations by rocketry and space exploration experts. The workshops helped bring the excitement of real-world engineering challenges to student levels for a better understanding of scientific and mathematic principles. The teachers also received resources to implement in the classroom to help their students meet national standards for science, math, and technology. Boeing worked with U.S. and international education institutions who selected more than 90 applicants from 12 countries for the week-long course -- the largest group of educators from the most countries to date. Since 1992, more than 600 teachers have participated in Boeing's annual program, reaching an estimated 30,000 students around the world. Boeing's support of Space Camp aligns with the company's community investment focus area in primary-secondary education, which promotes the professional development of teachers and provides them with the tools and resources they need to help improve student performance. "Space Camp provides a hands-on learning environment where the excitement of science, math, and technology are explored and practiced through the mysteries and wonders of space," said Katrine Balch, director of Education at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. "For educators, Space Camp provides a place to become a learner again and to join with other educators who share the same passions for teaching and learning." More details about Space Camp are available online. . |
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An international summer science camp for high-school students that centers on environmental education has been created by Bayer Corporation in partnership with RiverQuest and Creek Connections of Allegheny College. The Bayer Climate Fellows Sustainability Camp, based in Western Pennsylvania, is an innovative, two-week residential camp that is running from July 11 - 25 to provide students from Germany and the United States with hands-on group learning about environmental sustainability and global climate change through rural- and urban-river experiences that are fun, academically challenging, and physically engaging. The new camp -- funded by the Bayer USA Foundation and the Bayer Science and Education Foundation, two of Bayer's three global foundations -- is an outgrowth of the recently launched Bayer Climate Program. Dr. Attila Molnar, President and CEO of Bayer Corporation and President of the Bayer USA Foundation explains that "at Bayer, our commitment to sustainability, science education, and corporate social responsibility has us on a constant mission to not only reduce our own impact and greenhouse gas emissions, but also to create educational opportunities for today's students so they may grow into their roles as the environmental stewards of tomorrow." . |
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| More than thirty Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) website. The following are recent additions in the areas of science, mathematics, and technology: "Teaching with Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum" (National Science Foundation) provides modules that help students build spreadsheets to solve mathematical problems in the context of their courses. Topics include compound interest, chemical equilibrium, household budgets, medication dosages, mortgage payments, consumer price index, rock density, carbon sequestration in trees, accounting data, radioactive decay, earthquakes, modeling a healthier weight, and others. "Cleaning Water" (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a lesson in which students (Grades 3-5) create and test a system to filter "gray" water. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) recycle their water, including moisture from their sweat and exhalations and water from showering and shaving. These wastewaters are purified and then used as drinking water. "Engineering Design Challenges: Thermal Protection Systems" helps students in grades 6-9 learn how NASA engineers design thermal protection systems to protect spacecraft from the heat of atmospheric friction during launch and re-entry. "Nanotechnology: The Power of Small" (National Science Foundation) is the companion website for a public television series on nanotechnology and the environment, health, and privacy. "What Is A Planet?" (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a lesson in which students (Grades 9-12) compare characteristics of planets, comets, asteroids, and trans-Neptunian objects; create a definition for the term "planet;" and formulate an argument for or against the planet status of a hypothetical newly discovered object in our solar system. . |
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TCEB Sponsors
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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