Getting to Know the Periodic Table of Elements: Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon

NASSMC 2006 Annual Coalition Directors' Meeting, March 28-29

Registration information for the March 28-29 NASSMC Annual Coalition Directors' Meeting has been posted on the NASSMC website. Included is a draft agenda, which will be updated as the conference approaches. A final agenda will be provided in your registration packet.

The final registration deadline is March 3, 2006.

Representatives from NASA, the National Governors Association, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Academies of Science, the Business Roundtable, and the International Technology Education Association will be on hand to discuss recent national developments, initiatives and programs impacting STEM education. Jacqueline Henson, NASSMC attorney, will be with us on Tuesday afternoon for a Q&A session on nonprofit legal issues that you have raised. This session is open to all interested parties. This has been an eventful year for state STEM coalitions, and an expanded Directors Forum will provide opportunity for coalition leadership to share experiences, programs, and results.  

As in the past, NASSMC will reimburse for travel (up to $350) for one official representative per member coalition. Accommodations for official coalition representatives are provided for the nights of March 27-28 at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center. Official coalition representatives rooms are direct billed to NASSMC. This benefit is available to dues-paid member coalitions. As before, coalitions may pay annual membership dues at the time of conference registration. Registration, annual report, and dues forms are on the website.

Registration for the conference also confirms lodging at the hotel at the conference rate of $180 per night. Attendees, other than the official representative, will be billed at checkout at the same conference rate. Additional nights will also be billed to the guest at the conference rate. If you have special needs, please notify NASSMC (registration@nassmc.org) and we will make arrangements with the hotel. Please also address any questions to registration@nassmc.org.

NASSMC agenda: www.nassmc.org/agenda2006.html

NASSMC registration information and form: www.nassmc.org/registration/register_2006a.html

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This year's conference immediately precedes the Triangle Coalition's Annual Policy Conference, which will be at the same location. There is a joint plenary speaker session of both organizations on Wednesday afternoon. If you are also interested in attending the Annual Triangle Policy Conference, you must register separately for that event at http://www.trianglecoalition.org/conf.htm.

American Competitiveness Initiative

President Bush's 2006 education agenda, the American Competitiveness Initiative, aims to strengthen innovation and education in the U.S. by improving mathematics and science education, foreign language studies, and high schools.

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush Announced the ACI to encourage American innovation and strengthen the nation's ability to compete in a global economy. This ambitious strategy is designed to

• increase Federal investment in critical research
• ensure that the United States continues to lead the world in opportunity and innovation, and
• provide American children with a strong foundation in math and science.

The American Competitiveness Initiative commits $5.9 billion in FY 2007, and more than $136 billion over 10 years, to increase investments in research and development (R&D), strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.

Learn more about the ACI here:

www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/index.html

Review the U.S. Department of Education Fiscal Year 2007 Budget Summary here:

www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget07/summary/index.html

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NASSMC Executive Director Jim McMurtray attended a closed circuit viewing of the President's State of the Union Address as the guest of the White House on January 31, 2006. The viewing was held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

2006 Summits: Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Alabama, and Tennessee

TEXAS
The Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) convened business, education, civic, and political leaders at its Annual VIP Briefing January 18-19: A Commitment to Texas’ Future: Responding to the crisis in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The purpose is to help sustain a constructive and unified effort to improve public education in Texas. The theme of the 2006 Briefing was “A Commitment to Texas’ Future: Responding to the crisis in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).” Presenters included Dr. Geoffrey Orsak, Dean and Professor of the Southern Methodist University School of Engineering, and Dr. Willard Daggett, President of the International Center for Leadership in Education, among others.

OKLAHOMA
The Coalition for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education in Oklahoma (CASMEO) held its Summit, Oklahoma is OK ... or Are We?, February 2. Speakers included Susan Savage, Secretary of State of Oklahoma; Samuel Houston, President and CEO of the North Carolina Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Center; Senators David F. Myers and Susan Paddack, and Norma Noble, Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Workforce Development, Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

COLORADO
The U.S. Space Foundation and the Colorado Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Coalition (COMSTEC) have been busy planning a STEM summit event for February 23. Participants include NASA, NASSMC, the U.S. Dept of Education, legislators, educators and businesses including Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Corp. and Raytheon. Coordinated by the Space Foundation, this Summit will set itself apart from other education meetings in the creation of a State Action Plan, which will be developed by the participants of the Summit and implemented by COMSTEC during the coming year. The preliminary draft of the Action Plan will be formed through a breakout session of the Summit participants who will also present the items their breakout groups have decided to be the most important items to pursue for success.

ALABAMA
The Alabama Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Coalition (AMSTEC) will hold its 2006 Governor's Summit for Mathematics and Science Education - Growing What Works - March 6-7. The Summit will serve as a catalyst to clarify and re-define Alabama's pathway to continued leadership in STEM education for the next decade. Summit Goals are to identify: the width and breadth of Alabama's needs and challenges in improving STEM education for all students; Alabama's needs for improving STEM education specifically to enhance workforce competitiveness; strategies for engaging the entire stakeholder community in support of meeting those identified needs and challenges (like improving STEM education for all students); as well as to share of best practices from around the state identified in the forum activities.

TENNESSEE: April 11-12, Nashville

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Information about all of the state summits held thus far can be found here: www.nassmc.org/summitstates.html

Information about NSSIP can be found here: www.nassmc.org/summits.html

Reality Check Report 2006: Are Parents and Students Ready for More Math and Science?

This report , the first in a series by Public Agenda, finds that parents and students do not share the concern of business and government leaders about flagging math and science skills. Public Agenda found that while, in general, parents support proposals to make high schools globally competitive, most (57%) also say the amount of science and math their child studies now is about right. In fact, Public Agenda notes, parents' concern about math and science achievement has actually declined since the mid 1990s. In 1994, 48% of parents thought their children were not getting enough math and science compared to only 32% of parents thinking the same in 2005.

American students aren't too worried either. Only one quarter say lack of emphasis on science and math is a problem in their own school. And, despite widely publicized predictions about the role science and technology will play in the economy of the future, more that four in 10 students say they would be quite unhappy if they ended up in a career with a math or science focus.

Just four in 10 students (41%) say having great skills with computers and technology is essential and half (50%) say that understanding science and having strong math skills are essential. When asked to rank serious problems in their own schools, not being taught enough math and science ranked near the bottom of their concerns.

Download the report here. (PDF ~400K)

A more tightly-focused report was done for the New England region. Public Agenda found that while, in general, New England parents support proposals to make high schools globally competitive, most (61%) also say the amount of science and math their child studies now is about right. New England kids aren't too worried either. Only one quarter say lack of emphasis on science and math is a problem in their own school. And, despite widely publicized predictions about the role science and technology will play in the economy of the future, nearly five in 10 students say they would be quite unhappy if they ended up in a career with a math or science focus.

Download the New England-specific report here. (PDF ~200K)

NSRC National K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute, July 9-14

NSRC will host a National K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute on July 9-14 in Arlington, Virginia. The Institute will be a major first step toward helping school districts meet their assessment goals under the No Child Left Behind legislation. In addition, an exemplary inquiry science program will guide students toward becoming science-literate citizens and productive workers in an increasingly science- and technology-driven world.

Visit the NSRC website for a copy of the brochure (PDF format) describing the symposium and an application form (Microsoft Word format).

RESOURCES: GrantSeeker, Engineering Education, Environmental Education, Center on Education Policy Reports, and The Toolbox Revisited

GrantSeeker
The GrantSeeker page has been updated with new opportunities from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Science Foundation, among others. 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.
www.nassmc.org/grant_seeker/gsintro.html

Engineering Education Service Center (EESC)
The EESC provides consulting, publications and workshops and presentations that promote engineering for K-16. EESC's mission is to provide information resources to promote, guide, and stimulate interest in science and engineering; its vision is to diversify the types of engineers in society by exposing large numbers of students to the capacity they will have to benefit society.
www.engineeringedu.com/

National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF)
Chartered by Congress in 1990, NEETF is a private non-profit organization dedicated to advancing environmental education in its many forms. Since it was established, the Foundation has become a leader in the development of new policies, grant-making approaches, and direct programming to advance environmental literacy in America. NEETF links environmental education (EE) to many of society's core goals such as better health, improved education, environmentally sound and profitable business, and volunteerism in local communities. Each program also focuses on the needs of under-resourced people in American society.
www.neetf.org/

Center on Education Policy (CEP) Reports
The CEP has released three new reports: Wrestling the Devil in the Details: An Early Look at Restructuring in California; A Shell Game: Federal Funds to Improve Schools; and High School Exit Exams. All reports are available in PDF format at the CEP website.
www.cep-dc.org/

The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion From High School Through College
The Toolbox Revisited is a U.S. Department of Education data essay that follows a nationally representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. The universe of students is confined to those who attended a four-year college at any time, thus including students who started out in other types of institutions, particularly community colleges. To access the Executive Summary, visit:
www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/toolboxrevisit/index.html

Getting to Know the Periodic Table of Elements: Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon

MAGNESIUM
Etymology: From the Greek word for a district in Thessaly called "Magnesia."

What it is: Magnesium, an alkali Earth metal, is the eighth most abundant element and constitutes about 2% of the Earth's crust by weight, and it is the third most plentiful element dissolved in seawater. Magnesium is a strong, silvery-white, light-weight metal.

Brilliant: Magnesium produces a brilliant white light when burned (in air). At one time magnesium powder was used as a source of illumination (flash powder) with photography. Magnesium powder is still used in the manufacture fireworks and marine flares.

Why it's important to the automobile industry: Magnesium is strong and light so it is often used in automotive components. Volkswagon uses magnesium in its engine components for many years; Porsche used magnesium alloy for its engine blocks before switching back to aluminum. 2006 BMW 325i and 330i models feature magnesium engine blocks.

• Atomic Number: 12
• Atomic Symbol: Mg
• Atomic Mass: ~24

ALUMINUM
Etymology: From the Latin alumen: alum)

What it is: Aluminum is the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust (after oxygen and silicon.)

How and when it was first isolated: In 1825 Hans Oersted (Denmark) first prepared Metallic aluminum by heating dry aluminum chloride with potassium metal.

In case you need to melt some: Aluminum has a relatively low melting point: 660°C.

Wait ... how exactly is it spelled? In 1807, it was proposed that the name Aluminum be used for the metal. Shortly thereafter, the name aluminium was adopted to conform to the "ium" ending of most elements, and this spelling is now in use elsewhere in the world. Aluminium was also the accepted spelling in the U.S. until 1925, at which time the American Chemical Society officially decided to use the name aluminum thereafter in their publications.

• Atomic Number: 13
• Atomic Symbol: A
• Atomic Mass: ~27

SILICON
Etymology: From the Latin silex: silicis, flint.

What it is: Originally thought to be a compound, in 1811, Gay Lussac and Thenard probably prepared impure amorphous silicon by heating potassium with silicon tetrafluoride. In 1824 Berzelius, generally credited with the discovery, prepared amorphous silicon by the same general method and purified the product by removing the fluosilicates by repeated washings. Deville in 1854 first prepared crystalline silicon, the second allotropic form of the element. It is the second most abundant element and comes in many forms including sand, quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint, jasper, and opal (all some of the oxide forms) as well as granite, hornblende, asbestos, feldspar, clay, mica (all some of the silicate mineral forms).

Uses: Silicon is one of the most useful elements: it is used to make concrete and brick; it is used as a refractory material for high-temperature work; it is used in making enamels, pottery, etc.; it is a principal ingredient of glass. Something known as "hyperpure silicon" can be mixed with boron, gallium, phosphorus, or arsenic for use in solid-state devices, which are utilized by the electronics and space-age industries. "Hydrogenated amorphous silicon" has shown some promise in producing economical cells for converting solar energy into electricity.

Silicon is important to plant and animal life. Diatoms in both fresh and salt water extract Silica from the water to build their cell walls. Silica is present in the ashes of plants and in the human skeleton. Silicon is an important ingredient in steel; silicon carbide is one of the most important abrasives and has been used in lasers. (Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory)

• Atomic Number: 14
• Atomic Symbol: Si
• Atomic Mass: ~28

Of Interest...

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

+ Distant world tops Pluto for size: New observations confirm an icy, rocky world in the distant reaches of the Solar System is wider than Pluto by several hundred km.
news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4667100.stm

+ Transfer of toxin gene: Biology researchers at Lewis & Clark College and the University of Arizona have found evidence for an ancient transfer of a toxin between ancestors of two very dissimilar organisms—spiders and a bacterium. But the mystery remains as how the toxin passed between the two organisms. Their research is published this month in the journal Bioinformatics, 22(3): 264-268, in an article titled "Lateral gene transfer of a dermonecrotic toxin between spiders and bacteria."
scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2006/02/02/lateral_transfer_of_toxin_gene/

+ Slime mold controls robot's movements: A bright yellow slime mould that can grow to several metres in diameter has been put in charge of a scrabbling, six-legged robot. The Physarum polycephalum slime, which naturally shies away from light, controls the robot's movement so that it too keeps out of light and seeks out dark places in which to hide itself. Details of the slime-bot project were presented at the Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, held in Osaka, Japan in January. According to NASSMC Executive Director Jim McMurtray, all further research has been suspended because the robots have all hidden and they can’t find them.
www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8718

Mirror neuron activity in the right posterior inferior frontal gyrus - indicating identification and empathy - while watching the Disney/NFL ad.

+Who really won the Superbowl? This year, at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Marco Iacoboni and his group used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses in a group of subjects while they were watching the Super Bowl ads.
www.edge.org/3rd_culture/iacoboni06/iacoboni06_index.html

+ Forty years of fiber optics: In 1966, Dr Charles Kuen Kao and George Hockham, both young research engineers from the Standard Telecommunications Laboratories, addressed a meeting at the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London with their exciting new findings on the possibilities of optical fibres. Optical fibres are transparent rods of glass or plastic stretched until they are extremely long, flexible and thinner than a human hair.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4671788.stm

+ Medieval people weren't shorter: Low doorways and small suits of armor led to conventional thinking that people in the middle ages were significantly shorter than we are. After an exhaustive study of hundreds of churchyard skeletons, British archaeologists Charlotte Roberts and Margaret Cox say that height discrepancy is little more than a tall tale.
discover.com/web-exclusives/medieval-height-not-shorter/

+ Astronomers discover tiny solar-system-to-be: On November 29, 2005, astronomers announced the discovery of what might become the smallest solar system yet known. Listen to the broadcast or read the transcript at Earth & Sky.
www.earthsky.org/shows/show.php?date=20060206

The solar-powered four-stroke nanomotor. Energy from the sun drives the movement of the yellow ring structure like a piston. Credit: PNAS

+ Minuscule motor runs on sunlight: The nanomotors—so small that 3.8 million of them lined up end-to-end would barely span the width of a penny—generate absolutely no waste. Each little motor is just 5 nanometers in length, macaroni-like in shape, and has a ringed structure at one end that moves back-and-forth like the pistons under your car’s hood. Energy, in the form of photons from sunlight, excites one end of the molecule, which sets off a four-step process. Electrons are transferred along the molecule until they reach the ring structure, causing it to slide 1.3 nanometers forward on the molecule. As the electron continues its path, it reaches a section that recycles it back to the beginning. This causes the molecule to “reset,” and the ring returns, piston-like, to its original position. The whole process takes about 100 microseconds.
www.livescience.com/technology/060123_solar_nanomotor.html

+ Smart armor for skiers: A futuristic flexible material that instantly hardens into armour upon impact will protect US and Canadian skiers from injury on the slalom runs at this year's Winter Olympics. The lightweight bendable material, created by Spyder and known as d3o, can be worn under normal ski clothing. It will provide protection for US and Canadian skiers taking part in slalom and giant slalom races in Turin, Italy. Skiers normally have to wear bulky arm and leg guards to protect themselves from poles placed along the slalom run. The material is synthesised by mixing together a viscose fluid and a polymer.
www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8721