Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NSTA - Share your Ideas at the 2011 conference

Share Your Good Ideas at an NSTA Conference
Don't delay—the deadline for submitting a session proposal for the NSTA 2011 San Francisco National Conference on Science Education is April 15, 2010. In 2010, NSTA will hold area conferences in Kansas City, MO (October 28–30), Baltimore, MD (November 11–13), and Nashville, TN (December 2–4). For more information, visit www.nsta.org/conferences and click "Presenting at NSTA Conferences." Here you can also pick up tips on submitting a successful session proposal.

Don’t miss your chance to apply for the Realize Science Technology Grant, which is open to all teachers in the United States and Canada who use handheld video microscopes in creative, innovative, and educationally valuable ways. The grant will award $20,000 worth of cutting-edge science education equipment and curriculum tools. Awardees will receive new handheld video microscopes with software to take still pictures, video, and time-lapse movies, and accompanying curriculum books with lessons designed to meet both state and national science standards. The top five applicants will receive four additional microscope sets, making a total of five for their classrooms.
Applications must be postmarked by March 31 or faxed by midnight on that date. For more details, visit the website.

2011 Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge Now Open for Entries
High school students from across the country are invited to GO GREEN by participating in the newest phase of the nationwide Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. NSTA has partnered again with the Siemens Foundation and Discovery Education to educate, empower and engage students, teachers and communities to become agents of change in improving the environment.
In keeping with the Challenge’s overall mission to build a more sustainable world, high school participants (grades 9-12) are encouraged to form teams of up to four students, research an energy related issue using scientific investigation, and create a replicable solution using web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education. Student teams, with a teacher or adult advisor can register for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge at www.wecanchange.com.
Fostering learning, teamwork and problem solving around sustainability, the website offers robust resource guides of standards-based lesson plans and teacher materials to accompany each stage of the Challenge.

More information, including entry details, registration, and detailed prizing information for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, can be found at www.wecanchange.com.


Visit the NSTA online calendar for more science education opportunities.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Engineering Design Ideas

"The Lemelson folks created this 20 page free pdf cartoon guide to visual
communication (drawing - all black and white) with the specific idea of
helping students learn how to communicate innovative engineering design
ideas.

http://www.howtoons.com/images/reader/HowtoonsVCGuide.pdf


Could be a fun resource for teachers to share with students..."

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Paid summer internships - NASA - Middle and Secondary Teachers

On behalf of NASA, I would like to share with you an exciting professional development opportunity for the teaching staff in your community. This unique program, developed by NASA, will provide teachers with the opportunity to experience cutting-edge technology, explore aerospace engineering concepts, and develop hands-on lessons that will engage and inspire their students.

NASA is committed to making a significant impact on building an educator workforce that is skilled in teaching innovative engineering design and simulation-based engineering. Toward that end, NASA Langley Research Center has developed a Simulation-Based Aerospace Engineering Teacher Professional Development Program. The program will offer 16 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics middle and high school teachers a unique opportunity to work beside NASA engineers and mentors during a paid two-week internship at a NASA facility during July 2010. The internship will focus on aeronautics modeling and simulation at the following Research Centers: Ames Research Center (near San Francisco) and Langley Research Center (Hampton, Virginia). Each of these centers extensively employs modeling and simulation tools to perform their research and technology development activities.

RTI International, the managing contractor for this project, seeks applications from outstanding middle and high school teachers who will be able to adapt and use this exciting material in their classrooms. Your school community is one of only eight across the country receiving the announcement of this exciting professional development opportunity. Please reach out to those teachers who would benefit from this internship and have the capacity and support to integrate some aerospace simulation-based engineering lessons into their curriculum. More information about the program as well as the application packages can be found by visiting https://stemaero.rti.org. We will accept applications through March 20, 2010.

Sincerely,

Olivia Rice
RTI International
919-541-7011
www.rti.org

Pfizer-Wyeth Scholars Program

Pfizer-Wyeth Scholars Program: A Great Professional Development Opportunity for High School Biology Teachers

The Biotechnology Institute seeks to address the critical problem of high attrition among new science teachers with the innovative Pfizer-Wyeth Scholars Program. As an extension of the Institute’s successful National Biotechnology Teacher-Leader Program, each year the Institute will form three-member teams consisting of a new “scholar”
teacher (ideally in the 3rd year of teaching biology/life science), an experienced “mentor” teacher, and a scientist from Pfizer-Wyeth. The Institute will recruit teams from areas local to Pfizer, this year, high schools around the Boston area will be targeted.

The teams will work together for the spring semester. Within each team, the mentor will provide the new teacher, called the “Scholar,” guidance in curriculum implementation along with encouragement and advice on classroom management skills. The Pfizer scientists will share their scientific interests and experience of real-life applications of biotechnology with both teachers, thus enabling the teachers to impart a basic understanding of biotechnology and insight into potential career paths of his or her students. The Scholars will invite the scientists into their classrooms to participate in biotechnology-related lessons.

The Program will begin with a two-day orientation, led by Institute staff on March 4th and 5th at the Pfizer Campus. All of the teams will participate in the orientation together, fostering team building and linkages across teams. During the orientation, the teams will develop
their action plans for the spring implementation. Following the
orientation, the teams will continue to communicate via email and phone for on-going support. The scientist-mentor team supports the implementation of biotechnology into the scholar’s classroom. This culminates with a lab activity and visit from the scientist to the scholar’s classroom.

There will be an additional meeting day in April at which time, teams present their experiences to the group and plans are discussed for participation at The Biotechnology Institute’s Teacher Leader Program which is conducted in conjunction with the annual BIO conference

The Biotechnology Institute has made a strong commitment to the development of a more diverse workforce in biotechnology and it recognizes that teachers from underrepresented populations often face additional challenges. The Institute will recruit Scholars who are either members of minority groups themselves or are from schools with a high percentage of minority students.

This is an excellent professional development opportunity. The Biotechnology Institute provides this professional development free of cost to the district. Substitute coverage and travel expenses to the annual conference are provided by the Biotechnology Institute.
This year the conference will be in Chicago, IL.

Please visit our website: http://www.biotechinstitute.org