NASSMC's GrantSeeker Program Provides Information on Funding Opportunities for Member Coalitions and Constituents

GrantSeeker is a personalized, one-on-one assistance service that provides custom grants searches based on your program ideas and needs. GrantSeeker 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.

Current posted opportunities include:

• The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation is now accepting applications for Community Action Grants. In 2007-08, the foundation's Community Action Grants program will award one- and two-year grants. Deadline: January 15, 2007.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Education (OED) is requesting applications for environmental literacy projects in support of free-choice learning. Two separate requests for applications for environmental literacy projects has been issued. Required preposposals due November 29, 2006. Full proposals due March 21, 2007.
• A variety of opportunities are also posted and available either nationally or focused on specific states.

Visit the GrantSeeker webpage at www.nassmc.org/grant_seeker/gsintro.html.

NSTA Statement on the Distribution of An Inconvenient Truth

There has been much reaction to a recent Opinion-Editorial piece in The Washington Post regarding NSTA. Since the American business community plays a vital role in STEM education improvement, we think it is important for coalition members to be informed on this issue.

NSTA's response with updates is available at www.nsta.org/pressroom&news_story_ID=52977.

Announcement of Opportunity from U.S. Department of Education: Teacher Incentive Fund

This competition is a reopening of a competition run by the Department of Education for FY 2006 Teacher Incentive Program funds. Sixteen awards were made on November 1, 2006. At that time, applicants who were not awarded funding were notified. Previous applicants and all other eligible applicants are encouraged to apply. The purpose of the Teacher Incentive Fund, authorized as part of the FY 2006 Department of Education Appropriations Act, Public Law 109-149, is to support programs that develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools.

The specific goals of the Teacher Incentive Fund include: Improving student achievement by increasing teacher and principal effectiveness; reforming teacher and principal compensation systems so that teachers and principals are rewarded for increases in student achievement; increasing the number of effective teachers teaching poor, minority, and disadvantaged students in hard-to-staff subjects; and creating sustainable performance-based compensation systems.

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: December 29, 2006
Deadline/Closing Date for Transmittal of Applications: February 12, 2007

Applications for grants under this competition (CFDA Number 84.374A) must be submitted electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site at: www.grants.gov.

More information about the Teacher Incentive Fund is available at www.ed.gov/programs/teacherincentive/index.html.

Einstein Fellowship Seeks Candidates for 2007-2008 School Year - Application Period Now Open!

The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship is a paid fellowship for K-12 math, science, and technology teachers. Einstein Fellows spend a school year in Washington, DC serving in a federal agency or on Capitol Hill. To be considered for an Einstein Fellowship, apply and submit three letters of recommendation online by January 8, 2007.

The goal of the Einstein Fellows program is to provide an opportunity for teachers to inform national policy and improve communication between the K-12 STEM education community and national leaders. Selection is based on excellence in K-12 mathematics, science, or technology teaching; demonstrated leadership; an understanding of national, state, and local education policy; and communication and interpersonal skills. The Fellowship program was created in 1990 with support from the MacArthur Foundation. Congress formalized the program in 1994 by passing the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Act.

Apply online at applicationlink.labworks.org/applicationlink/default.htm

For more information about the Einstein Fellows program visit www.trianglecoalition.org/ein.htm or contact Andrea Bodmann at bodmanna@triangle-coalition.org.

NASA Explorer Schools Program Application Now Available

NASA Explorer Schools, or NES, brings together a team of full-time teachers and a school administrator (Grades 4-9) in order to develop and implement a three-year action plan to address local challenges in science, technology and mathematics education. The objectives are listed below:

• Increase student interest and participation in mathematics, science, technology and geography.
• Increase student knowledge about careers in mathematics, science, engineering and technology.
• Increase student ability to apply mathematics, science, technology and geography concepts and skills in meaningful ways.
• Increase the active participation and professional growth of educators in science.
• Increase the academic assistance for and technology use by educators in schools with high populations of underserved students.
• Increase family involvement in children's learning.

Go to explorerschools.nasa.gov/ and select the "Program Application" link in the left navigation bar. Online applications must be submitted on or before Jan. 31, 2007.

Urban Student Achievement In Science Report Released by The Nation's Report Card

The report highlights the achievement of fourth and eighth-grade students in 10 of the largest U.S. school districts that voluntarily participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Participating districts include Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; and San Diego.

This report presents results for the first trial school-district-level science assessment in NAEP at grades 4 and 8. Ten urban public-school districts voluntarily participated: Atlanta City, Austin Independent School District, Boston School District, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, City of Chicago School District 299, Cleveland City School District, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified, New York City Public Schools, and San Diego Unified. Student performance is reported in terms of average scale scores on the NAEP science scale and the percentages of students who attained the achievement levels set by the National Assessment Governing Board. Comparisons are made to public school results in large central cities and the nation. Student performance is reported by race/ethnicity, eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch, and gender. At grade 4, in 7 of the 10 districts, students performed as well as or better than students in large central cities. Two districts had higher average science scores than the average in large central cities. At grade 8, in 6 of the 10 districts, students performed as well as or better than students in large central cities. Students in three districts had higher average scores and higher percentages performing at or above Basic compared to large central cities.

Access the report here.

Barbarian Science

NASSMC has received a limited quantity of Executive Director Jim McMurtray 1999 book, Barbarian Science. These books will be sold with 100% of the proceeds going to NASSMC's general fund. The $20 cost includes shipping. Published by Town Square Books (the Jackson State University Press), Barbarian Science was originally written for marketing to universities offering courses in the literature of science through the English Departments. It later reached a secondary audience in colleges of education.

This short book (100 pages) is about science literacy in America and the need to make science accessible to the general population. The current national attention toward making science available to a larger population has made the book more timely now than when it was written. Barbarian Science has been used in universities across the country and is still sold in college book stores here and there.

To order Barbarian Science, please send your check, payable to NASSMC, at $20 per copy, to Deborah Jones, National Alliance of State Science and Mathematics Coalitions, 1840 Wilson Blvd., Suite 200, Arlington, VA 22201-3000.

Of Interest...

The Banana River reflects the brilliant launch of the Delta II carrying the STEREO spacecraft. Image credit: NASA

+ Nanoporous' material gobbles up hydrogen fuel: Hydrogen-powered cars could one day store fuel safely and efficiently using polymers filed with nanoscopic holes. Researchers have achieved a new record for absorbing hydrogen using such "nanoporous" polymers. Frantisek Svec at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, and Jean Fréchet, at the University of California in Berkeley, both in the US, revealed the feat at the International Congress of Nanotechnology, held in San Francisco between 30 October and 2 November.

+ NASA's First 3-D Solar Imaging Mission Soars Into Space: NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories mission, known as STEREO, successfully launched Wednesday at 8:52 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. STEREO's nearly identical twin, golf cart-sized spacecraft will make observations to help researchers construct the first-ever three-dimensional views of the sun. The images will show the star's stormy environment and its effects on the inner solar system, vital data for understanding how the sun creates space weather.

+ Drillers get into Antarctic seabed: Perched atop a thick ice shelf, scientists in Antarctica have begun drilling down into the frozen continent's deep history. Engineers have drilled through the Ross Ice Shelf, through hundreds of metres of water underneath, and — this past weekend — poured concrete on the seafloor to anchor their next step. In the next couple of days, they plan to begin pulling up cores of sediment from the seabed. Over the next 2 months, they hope to extract some 1,200 metres of core, recording about 7 million years of geologic and climatic history.

+ Design for silent aircraft to be released: A U.S.-British team of researchers from academia and the aerospace industry believes the passenger aircraft of the distant future will not only be fuel efficient, but virtually silent. Leaders of a long-range research venture called the “Silent Aircraft Initiative'' were scheduled Monday to release a conceptual design for a plane they say could cut through the air with practically no sound bothering those below, thanks to its unique shape and design features to limit engine noise. The design adds a new twist to aviation's long history of mixed success developing flying wings designed to be more fuel- and space-efficient than conventional aircraft with long, narrow fuselages.

+ Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron: Biologists have learned where and how some plant seeds store iron, a valuable discovery for scientists working to improve the iron content of plants. Their research helps address the worldwide problem of iron deficiency and malnutrition in humans. The team found that iron is stored in the developing vascular system of the seed of Arabidopsis, a model plant used in research. In particular, iron is stored in the vacuole, a plant cell's central storage site. The researchers also learned this localization depends on a protein called VIT1, known to transport iron into the vacuole.

A new use for vitamin C (background) allows researchers to use less copper catalyst to drive powerful polymerization reactions critical for manufacturing many plastics. Credit: National Science Foundation, adapted in part from a Carnegie Mellon graphic

+ Vitamin C and water not just healthy for people -- healthy for plastics, too: Two new laboratory breakthroughs are poised to dramatically improve how plastics are made by assembling molecular chains more quickly and with less waste. Using such environmentally friendly substances as vitamin C or pure water, the two approaches present attractive alternatives to the common plastic manufacturing technique called free radical polymerization (FRP).

+ Cell transplants 'restore sight': Cell transplants have successfully restored vision to mice which had lost their sight, leading to hopes people could benefit in the same way. UK scientists treated animals which had eye damage similar to that seen in many human eye diseases. They were able to help them see again by transplanting immature retinal stem cells into their eyes.

+ Hazy life: Hazy skies on early Earth could have provided a substantial source of organic material useful for emerging life on the planet, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. In a study published in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences the week of Nov. 6, the research team measured organic particles produced from the kind of atmospheric gases thought to be present on early Earth. The laboratory experiment modeled conditions measured by the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon, Titan, last year during the NASA-European Space Agency's Cassini mission, according to Margaret Tolbert of CU-Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, one of the study's authors.