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STEM Education News

April 28, 2011

Vol. 17, No. 16

This Week’s Topics:

 

– TEACHERS SELECTED FOR PRESTIGIOUS KENAN FELLOWSHIPS

Triangle Coalition member, the Kenan Fellows Program for Curriculum and Leadership Development, has selected 47 teachers to join the Class of 2012. Kenan Fellows is an innovative model to promote teacher leadership; address teacher retention; and advance K-12 science, technology, and mathematics education. Kenan Fellows are public school teachers in North Carolina who are selected through a competitive process to participate in a prestigious fellowship – all while remaining active in the classroom. The Class of 2012 is the largest class of Fellows brought into the program in a single year. Public school teachers in every North Carolina school district were eligible to apply, and teachers from all eight education regions were accepted into the program. These new Fellows represent schools from Buncombe County in the west to Craven County in the east and are from 27 school districts. To date, the Kenan Fellows Program has served 175 outstanding K-12 public school teachers from across content areas.

Kenan Fellows spend five weeks in the summer with mentors from universities, innovative industries and professional educators and two weeks in a Summer Institute. Fellows work in labs, develop new research skills, engage in leadership workshops, and build professional relationships with colleagues. As their research progresses, they use the summer experience to create lessons that are adapted to the subjects they teach. Kenan Fellows bring this new, relevant information into classrooms at a level that is appropriate for their students. They continue developing their projects in the fall and present their lessons at professional conferences throughout the next year to help improve teacher instruction and student learning in classrooms across the state. The new class of Fellows will guide a wide range of projects that are representative of scientific research currently going on in North Carolina. Project titles include “Aviation Safety,” “Biotechnology in North Carolina,” “Green Our Schools,” “Math and the Amazing Race,” “Solar Energy for Space Travel,” and “Teachers Training Teachers.” The Kenan Fellows Program is an initiative of the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science at North Carolina State University. For more information, visit www.kenanfellows.org.

– NATIONAL GRID GRANT TO MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, BOSTON SUPPORTS STEM

National Grid has formed a new partnership with the Museum of Science, Boston to improve education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) through support for the development of middle school engineering curricula by the National Center for Technological Literacy. The grant will also support bringing the Museum’s innovative Traveling Programs to more people. Specifically, National Grid’s two-year grant will help underwrite development of “Engineering Now” curricular units and bring Traveling Programs to selected underserved communities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. Traveling Programs exemplify the Museum’s effort to connect with the broadest, most diverse audiences, bridging geographic and socioeconomic barriers to bring science presentations to over 90,000 people in schools, community centers, and public libraries throughout New England.

One of the exciting ways the Museum is introducing engineering into schools nationwide involves collaborating with WGBH to develop “Engineering Now,” a series of classroom units that link learning about engineering to science and math, in conjunction with the popular television series “Design Squad Nation.” The program aims to increase students’ understanding of the technological world in which we live, deepen their understanding of the engineering design process, improve their ability to design innovative solutions to real problems, and increase their interest in pursuing STEM studies at the high school level. Triangle Coalition member, the National Center for Technological Literacy, has been helping to educate children and adults in a variety of educational settings since 2004. NCTL’s goal is to integrate engineering as a new discipline in schools nationwide and to inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators. NCTL fosters learning about how technologies are created and used. It offers educational products and programs for pre-K-12 students and teachers, creates curricula, supports an online resource center, and engages in partnership and outreach with other institutions. NCTL works with state departments of education and teacher organizations to facilitate the re-engineering of curricula and learning standards.

– SCIENCE TEACHERS NAMED REGIONAL WINNERS IN NSTA’S SHELL SCIENCE LAB CHALLENGE

Seventeen middle and secondary school science teachers have been named regional winners in the inaugural year of NSTA’s Shell Science Lab Challenge. The competition encouraged teachers (grades 6-12) in the U.S. and Canada, who have found innovative ways to deliver quality lab experiences with limited school and laboratory resources, to share their approaches for a chance to win a school science lab makeover valued at $20,000. From the 17 regional winners named, five national winners will be chosen, and from the national winners a grand prize winner will be selected. “It’s truly inspiring to see teachers with such little resources coming up with innovative ways to provide high-quality lab experiences for their students,” said Dr. Francis Eberle, Executive Director, NSTA.

Recognizing that the laboratory experience is integral to science education and that many schools, especially schools in urban and rural areas, do not have the resources to invest in quality lab equipment, NSTA and Shell partnered on NSTA’s Shell Science Lab Challenge to bring much needed lab materials and resources to school districts nationwide and in Canada. To enter NSTA’s Shell Science Lab Challenge, science teachers of grades 6-12 in the U.S. and Canada were asked to describe their school’s current laboratory resources, explain why the school’s laboratory facilities might be classified as “limited” resources, and describe their approach to science education instruction utilizing their school’s current lab facilities. A panel of science educators then reviewed and selected the top entries. As a regional winner, each teacher and their school will receive donated science lab equipment or gift certificates, a grant to purchase additional science lab tools and resources, and a $300 gift certificate to the NSTA Bookstore. The school will also receive memberships to the NSTA and the NSTA Learning Center and paid registration for two teachers at the school to attend a NSTA conference. NSTA’s Shell Science Lab Challenge is part of a larger grant to the John Glenn Center for Science Education and the establishment of the Shell Leadership Institute. The Institute will work to further initiatives that promote diversity and research-based practices and will focus on national solutions to improve science education at the state, federal, and local levels. The Shell Leadership Institute will offer workshops, seminars (both face-to-face and online), and other highly visible initiatives.

– IEEE SPONSORS PRE-UNIVERSITY LESSON PLAN COMPETITION

Students and recent graduates who want to help foster awareness of computing, can win $1000 by entering a contest to create a lesson plan that will captivate pre-university student interest in the field of computing. The lesson-planning competition is open to IEEE Student Members and IEEE member graduates of the last decade. Submitted lesson plans should help students aged 8-18 understand the essential facts, concepts, principles, and theories relating to computer science and software applications. Among potential topics are networks, information organization, modeling and abstraction, and algorithmic thinking and programming. Successful entrants will receive an award of US $1,000, a congratulatory letter, and their plan included on the TryComputing.org website. To enter the contest, submit a one-page outline of the lesson plan by May 15. Finalists will be selected from the submissions, and invited to submit a full lesson plan by the end of August. Selected lesson plans will be posted on TryComputing.org when the site launches in 2012. Full details are available online.

The lesson-plan contest is part of IEEE TryComputing.org, a new online resource the IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Educational Activities Board are developing to offer global computing education resources for pre-university teachers, school counselors, parents, and students. The IEEE TryComputing.org site is intended to build upon the successes of its counterpart, TryEngineering.org, to raise awareness of and interest in computing and associated careers. TryEngineering.org is designed to educate teachers, school counselors, parents and students about the different engineering disciplines and the impact engineers have on society. Triangle Coalition member, IEEE, and the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) are committed to providing quality educational resources for educators, parents, students, IEEE volunteers, and the public. Find out more about other educational resources online.

– WINNER OF SAE INTERNATIONAL’S JETTOY OLYMPICS ANNOUNCED

More than 500 elementary students recently competed for gold at the JetToy Olympics, held April 13 during the SAE 2011 World Congress in Detroit, MI. Supported by the SAE Foundation through sponsorships by Johnson Controls, Inc. and TRW, the JetToy Olympics brought together students who have participated in SAE International’s hands-on, classroom-based, A World In Motion (AWIM) program. During the competition, teams of four students worked together and used their knowledge from classroom experience to construct balloon-powered JetToys, competing for various distance and accuracy awards. The grand champion of the JetToy Olympics was team 23 from St. John the Evangelist School of Fenton, MI.

AWIM is a teacher-administered, industry volunteer-assisted program that brings science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to life in the classroom for students in Kindergarten through Grade 12. Benchmarked to the national standards, AWIM incorporates the laws of physics, motion, flight, and electronics into age-appropriate hands on activities that reinforce classroom STEM curriculum. SAE International is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive, and commercial-vehicle industries. More details are at www.sae.org.

– NGA CENTER RELEASES STRATEGIES TO FIX FAILING SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS

At least 5,000 public schools, serving more than 3 million children, are considered failing in the United States because they have failed to meet their academic achievement targets for at least five consecutive years. An issue brief released by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) offers states ideas to fix failing schools and districts. “State Strategies for Fixing Failing Schools and Districts“ looks at ways to cope with the underlying causes of failing schools including weak leadership, inadequate skill levels among teachers, and an insufficient amount of high-quality teaching materials. “The underlying causes of school failure are similar, regardless of whether the schools are located in urban, rural or suburban communities,” said John Thomasian, director of the NGA Center. “In a time when states and localities must maximize their investments, this brief describes what states can do to move these schools quickly and permanently out of the failing category.”

In 2009, the NGA Center awarded competitive grants to four states to participate in the State Strategies to Improve Chronically Low-Performing Schools project. The project provided Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Mississippi with grant funds and consulting services to develop policies and plans that create the conditions to turn around chronically low-performing schools and districts. It yielded valuable lessons and suggested strategies that states and territories can use to fix failing schools and districts. According to the brief, states can use the lessons learned from the NGA Center’s project, along with new federal funding, to step up their efforts to fix failing schools and districts in these ways:

* Build state capacity to support the turnaround of failing schools and districts;

* Engage external partners to manage school and district turnarounds;

* Set ambitious but realistic goals for school improvement that incorporate multiple measures;

* Develop a human capital strategy to improve the quality of leadership and teaching; and

* Increase state authority to intervene in failing schools and districts, if other approaches prove insufficient.

– MCGRAW-HILL PARTNERS WITH TERC TO DELIVER EMPOWER MATH MATERIALS

McGraw-Hill Education has announced an exclusive agreement with Triangle Coalition member, TERC, to distribute the EMPower Math line of products to a rapidly growing adult and workforce education markets. That market growth is driven in large part by the increased need to provide new or advanced skills and re-training for workers adversely affected by current economic conditions. TERC, a nonprofit education research and development organization, designed EMPower Math to help first-time and nontraditional adult learners study the core math skills they need to succeed in their personal and professional lives. The materials are ideal for learners in many different educational settings, such as adult education, alternative high schools or community colleges, where students prepare for GED tests or simply want to enhance their math skills. Developed through a National Science Foundation grant, EMPower Math is unlike traditional math books that require memorization, formulas and drills, and instead focuses on developing conceptual understanding of math and applicable skills through engaging exercises that are relevant to real-life situations.

For more than forty years, TERC has been introducing millions of students throughout the United States to the exciting and rewarding worlds of math and science learning. Led by a group of experienced, forward-thinking math and science professionals, TERC is an independent, research-based organization dedicated to engaging and inspiring all students through stimulating curricula and programs designed to develop the knowledge and skills they need to ask questions, solve problems, and expand their opportunities.  More details are at www.terc.edu.

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