APRIL 2005
In This Issue
NASSMC Programs and Services
Linking Leaders Solicitation 2005
Linking Leaders for Systemic Improvement (Linking Leaders) is a three-year program co-sponsored by NASSMC and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Initiated in 1996 to support NASA's Implementation Plan for Education and to promote coalition-building work in the states, the program's primary goals are [a] to provide resources and opportunities for state-level leadership groups to collaborate with NASA and its affiliates to align NASA resources with the state's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education agenda and to build stronger links between NASA and the state's business, education and public policy communities; and [b] to build the commitment to establish and strengthen a broad-based coalition to address the state's STEM education needs over the long-term.
To participate in Linking Leaders, state representatives submit an application and, upon acceptance, attend the Workshops of states currently in the program. In-state meetings are held during Year Two, culminating with a Linking Leaders Workshop to develop a preliminary state Action Plan. The Linking Leaders Workshop is a central element of the program and provides the team the opportunity to review the condition of STEM education in its state, propose a long-term strategy to advance the state's agenda for improving STEM education, and identify specific actions to implement that strategy. In Year Two of the project, participants will have the opportunity to submit a proposal for an Action Plan Implementation Award of up to $7,000. Throughout Year Three of Linking Leaders, NASSMC will continue to offer assistance as state leaders work to meet their implementation goals, paying specific attention to the state's success in developing an independent statewide coalition.
The solicitation period closed April 15, 2005. The 2006 solicitation period will open on March 15.
Contact: Deborah Jones, dtjones@nassmc.org, 703-516-5971
Linking Leaders: www.nassmc.org/linkingleaders.html
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NASA Explorer Schools Partnerships for Sustainability
Proposals are currently being solicited for the NASA Explorer Schools (NES) Partnerships for Sustainability Program, designed to support the formation and operation of partnerships between NASA Explorer Schools and state coalitions comprised of business, education and public policy leadership. The partnership is responsible for developing and executing an action plan to strengthen and sustain the NES beyond their initial three (3)-year NASA funding. These one-time grants are available for a maximum amount of $20,000 per award.
Coalitions interested in establishing a partnership with NASA Explorer Schools in your state are required to contact NES coordinators at the NASA Field Center serving your state prior to initiating any contact with the schools.
Be advised that the deadlines for this solicitation have been extended. Materials are now due:
Letters of Intent: Thursday, April 21, 2005
Full Proposals: Thursday, May 19, 2005
Contact: Jessica Venable, jvenable@nassmc.org, 703-516-5974
NES Parterships for Sustainability: www.nassmc.org/pfsproject.html
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NASSMC Briefing Service
The NASSMC Briefing Service is an Internet-based information resource that provides brief, timely, crisply formatted summaries of important science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) issues addressed in the national press. Through the NASSMC Briefing Service (NBS) you can receive daily in your email concise summaries of major news stories related to mathematics and science education.
A Living Archive has been created to let you sample briefs or find ones you may have missed. Several databases are available. Each Briefing Service entry is categorized using one of twelve keywords/phrases that best indicates the general thrust of the item.
- Assessment and Accountability
- Business Role in Education
- Content Standards
- Curriculum Materials
- Education Policy
- Opinion/Editorial
- Postsecondary Education
- Professional Development
- Public Understanding and Engagement
- School Staffing and Governance
- Studies and Reports
- Teacher Preparation (including recruitment and mentoring)
Although the service draws upon several national newspapers (e.g., Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post ) and popular periodicals (e.g., Chronicle of Higher Education, Education Week, Life, Newsweek, and Time), the service is highly selective, issuing at most three briefs per working day.
To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe, Unsubscribe or Comment" link on the NBS page.
If you are interested in helping support the NASSMC Briefing Service, contact Jim McMurtray, jmcmurtray@nassmc.org, 703-516-5973.
NASSMC Briefing Service: www.nassmc.org/nbs.html
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GrantSeeker
Navigating through the breadth of information on funding opportunities to find matches for your program ideas can be a daunting task. Limited staff and resources, lack of time, and the prohibitive cost of subscription services may not allow you to devote a full effort to those critical first stages of researching external funding options.
NASSMC's GrantSeeker service can help you identify both federal and private funding opportunities exclusively designed to meet the needs of member coalitions. Thanks to a recent expansion, NASSMC now has access to information on over 300,000 public and private sponsoring agencies, including program announcements and guidelines, application materials, the latest updates and deadlines, awards lists and funded proposals.
GrantSeeker: www.nassmc.org/grant_seeker/gsintro.html
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NSSIP Awards to States Announced
NASSMC State Summits Implementation Program (NSSIP) grants have been awarded to the following states through funding provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Additional support is provided through a separate grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
- Alabama Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Coalition
- Colorado Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Coalition
- Connecticut Mathematics, Science & Technology Leadership Council, supported and administered by the CT Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science & Technology, Inc.
- Iowa Mathematics and Science Coalition
- New Mexico Partnership for Mathematics & Science Education
- South Carolina's Coalition for Mathematics and Science
- Tennessee Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education Center
The first of these Summits took place in South Carolina on April 14-15, 2005. View the South Carolina Summit agenda at www.sccoalition.org/. Summits have also been held in Florida and Massachusetts.
At least two more solicitations are expected. Please check www.nassmc.org/summits.html for the latest information.
Read the NASA press release.
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ITAA Event to Highlight IT Workforce Needs and Ways to Strengthen IT Industry Partnerships
The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) will be holding an ITAA Education Forum and SIG Inaugural Event on Thursday, May 12 in Arlington, VA. ITAA has created a new Special Interest Group (SIG) program focused exclusively on educational institutions (two and four-year colleges/universities) and Workforce Investment Boards (WIB). The SIG is designed to bridge the understanding gap between the academic and employer communities on timely and relevant information technology education and training, providing ongoing opportunities for SIG members to engage with ITAA member companies. The major goals of the event are to:
- Officially announce the creation of the SIG program
- Offer perspectives from the IT employer community through industry panels and other guest speakers
- Facilitate dialogue among SIG members and between SIG members and IT companies
There will be three panels at the ITAA event: IT Employer Workforce Needs and Expectations, How to Strengthen Partnerships with IT Industry and a Distinguished CEO Panel.
For more information and a registration form, go to www.itaa.org/. |
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Nanotechnology
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Images courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories, SUMMiT(TM) Technologies, www.mems.sandia.gov |
Myriad forms of nanotechnology are being developed by an ever-increasing number of agencies, businesses and institutions and the applications range from munitions to materials to medicine. The Foresight Institute is a nonprofit educational organization formed to help prepare society for anticipated advanced technologies, focusing specifically on nanotechnology. The Institute's goal is to guide emerging technologies to improve the human condition.
Why should we care about nanotechnology? The Institute publishes a series of essays addressing this very question. According to the essay by Foresight Institute Chairman Dr. K. Eric Drexler, we should care "Because technology is reshaping human life, and nanotechnology is where technology is going. Today's nanoscale science and technology includes research and development on the cutting edge of a broad range of fields."
Technically speaking, nanotechnology is atomic engineering, the application of science to control processes on a molecular size scale (nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter) by manipulating molecular and atomic particles.
For more information about nanotechnology, check out the American Chemical Society's Nano Letters journal, the Institute of Nanotechnology, Scientific American, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, Sandia National Laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the NOVA ScienceNOW profile of nanotechnologist Naomi Halas.
For more images like the ones provided here, visit mems.sandia.gov/scripts/images.asp.
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American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC)
The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) is the only organization exclusively devoted to providing a national forum for the improvement of the instruction of the mathematics in the first two years of college. AMATYC has approximately 2,800 individual members and over 100 institutional members in the United States and Canada.
AMATYC is a member of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Through joint projects, AMATYC cooperates with the Mathematical Association of America, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the American Association of Community Colleges. AMATYC works with the Mathematical Sciences Education Board to incorporate its recommendations into two-year college mathematics programs. AMATYC is a member of the Alliance for Involving Minorities in Mathematics. Finally, AMATYC coordinates activities of 43 affiliate organizations serving 46 states and one Canadian province, thus forming a leadership pool and information network dedicated to meeting the challenges facing two-year college mathematics education.
AMATYC's mission is to promote and increase awareness of the role of two-year colleges in mathematics education, and to:
- Ensure the preparation of scientifically and technologically literate citizens who are capable of making educated decisions, who have skills needed by business and industry, and who will continue to educate themselves;
- Lead the development and implementation of curricular, pedagogical, and assessment standards for two-year college mathematics education;
- Assist in the preparation and continuing professional development of a competent and diverse mathematics faculty skilled in a variety of teaching and learning techniques;
- Serve as a network for communication, policy determination, and action among faculty, affiliates, and other professional organizations; and
- Communicate two-year college mathematics perspectives in public, business, and professional sectors.
Learn more at www.amatyc.org/.
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Designing Engineers Monograph
Designing Engineers describes the evolution of three disparate projects: an x-ray inspection system for airports, a photoprint machine, and a residential photovoltaic energy system. Probing deeply into Exploring the everyday word of engineering, this monograph "reveals significant discrepancies between our ideal image of design as an instrumental process and the reality of design as a historically situated social process that is full of uncertainty and ambiguity. "
Author Louis Bucciarelli was a consultant to one project and participated in the design process for the other two. In all three projects he examines both the object (the way participants understood how things work) and the process (the way they go about designing).
Available from The MIT Press.
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NASSMC Annual Coalitions Directors' Meeting, April 5-6
NASSMC's Annual Coalition Directors' Meeting, April 5-6, featured Dr. William Wulf, President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Dr. Wulf spoke to the urgency of changing the outcomes of mathematics, science and technology education. Jay Labov and Greg Pearson, also of NAE, addressed attendees on NAE assistance and support for state summits.
Ted Kolderie and Joe Graba of Education Evolving spoke with the group on alternative school structure and on Kolderie's recent book Creating the Capacity for Change: How and Why Governors and Legislatures Are Opening a New-Schools Sector in Public Education. This year's conference also included the traditional Directors' Forum, an opportunity for coalition leaders to share ideas and hear about activities in other states.
Thanks to everyone for attending and contributing to a successful conference! We look forward to seeing you at next year's event.
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SchoolMatters
SchoolMatters is a public source for information and analysis about our nation's public schools, a national, easily searchable clearinghouse for education information and analysis. Standard & Poor's (S&P) believes that engaging each community around the strengths and challenges of its schools is one of the best ways to drive school improvement. Therefore, S&P makes its data and analysis available to the public for free through SchoolMatters.
S&P analysts, some of whom are former educators, have been studying educational research and methodologies for a number of years. Based on what is learned from both school administrators and policymakers, S&P wanted to develop a service that looked beyond financial information and, instead, focused on a comprehensive review of all education information. From this idea, S&P created a new business unit, School Evaluation Services, and developed its unique Return on Resources framework to synthesize student performance, financial information, and community and school demographics to help explain school and school district performance holistically.
SchoolMatters is provided by the Education Data Partnership, which was created to help transform the way education information is used by educators, policymakers, superintendents, and parents. The Education Data Partnership is a collaborative effort of the Council of Chief State School Officers, Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services, Achieve, Inc., and the CELT Corporation and is funded by The Broad Foundation and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn more at www.schoolmatters.com/.
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Return to Flight
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Image Credit: NASA/Kennedy Space Center |
Space Shuttle Discovery is now at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The long trek began at 2:04 p.m. EDT Wednesday, when the Shuttle "stack" -- the Orbiter, External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters -- left the Vehicle Assembly Building for the 4.2 mile journey, moving at barely one mile an hour. It ended with a "hard down" on the pad at 1:20 a.m. EDT on April 7.
The rollout is one of the last major steps before Discovery's launch on STS-114, currently targeted for the May 15 to June 3 time frame. The crew will fly to the International Space Station, testing new safety procedures and servicing the orbital outpost.
In all, Discovery underwent 41 major modifications in response to the Columbia accident, including work to address the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. These include adding the new Orbiter Boom Sensor System; equipping the Orbiter with cameras and laser systems to inspect the Shuttle's Thermal Protection System, or heat shield, while in space; installing sensors in the leading edge of the Shuttle's wings, a new safety measure that monitors the Orbiter's wings for debris impacts; and adding a new digital camera to view the External Tank during launch. The External Tank will fly with several modifications, including two new forward bipod heaters at the forward attach fittings that connect the tank to the Orbiter.
Learn more about the crew, rollout, launch, return-to-flight improvements and mission at www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/index.html
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posted 4/21/2005 |
www.nassmc.org
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