[Whiteboard-subscribers] Whiteboard Report #134, 4/2/08

Wed Apr 2 11:54:55 EDT 2008

NSDL WHITEBOARD REPORT #134

April 2, 2008

Whiteboard Report news is on the Web at http://NSDL.org and  http:// 
expertvoices.nsdl.org/whiteboardtalkback. Back issues are available  
at http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue--Archive.php.

NEWS

NSDL Program Solicitation Is Released

http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08554
The National Science Foundation released the program solicitation for  
NSDL for fiscal year 2008 last week.   Proposals are due by June 27  
in four tracks:  Pathways, Services, Targeted Research, and a NSDL  
Resource Center.  Proposals for small grants that extend or enhance  
efforts supported by awards from all tracks except the Resource  
Center will also be accepted.  “It was quite a relief to see the NSDL  
solicitation,” said Kaye Howe, co-PI of NSDL’s Core Integration  
division.  “It gives the community the means to build on what we’ve  
accomplished and continue the momentum of the Pathways. There are  
some genuine challenges in making this work, but we all know how  
important the work is and that we must keep NSDL moving forward on  
behalf of STEM education.”

Dave McArthur on the future of NSDL

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=2
David McArthur, senior researcher at GoH and consultant to the  
National Science Digital Library (NSDL), discusses the benefits for  
continued investment in the National Science Foundation's maturing  
program in the cover story of the February issue of IEEE Computer  
(Vol. 41, Issue #2). The article outlines the past, present, and  
possible future for the NSDL. McArthur sees NSDL “growing both as a  
platform for improving the productivity of educational resource  
development and transforming education research, and also as a tool  
for creating and managing scientific knowledge about education and  
learning.” On a large scale, he says, the NSDL could become a key  
part of a new cyber infrastructure for education and education research.

Classic Articles in Context For Teachers

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/highlights
http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/PALE:ClassicArticles
Classic Articles in Context (CAC) is a new feature on the NSDL Wiki  
that integrates seminal works of scientific inquiry into a dynamic  
learning space for teachers and learners. In the first CAC feature,  
science historian James Fleming introduces 21 papers on climate  
change and anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse warming, from an  
1824 essay by Fourier to a 1995 paper in the journal Climate  
Dynamics.  Fleming’s introductory essays and links to the complete  
text of the papers give teachers resources they can use to portray  
science as a process that builds on discovery.  CAC also gives  
academic publishers a free area to showcase articles that are  
normally available only to subscribers.

Marcia Mardis, Mover & Shaker

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6535087.html
Marcia Mardis, Assistant Professor at the Library and Information  
Science Program at Wayne State University, has been named a 2008  
Mover and Shaker in the March 15 issue of Library Journal. Mardis has  
been a member of the NSDL community since the early days, most  
recently as a team member of DLConnect,  a NSF-funded project  
involving several institutions that collaborate to disseminate the  
NSDL within school settings through development workshops. In the  
award description, a colleague calls Dr. Mardis “an unstoppable  
force, inspiring others to try new things and undertake new  
challenges.” Congratulations Marcia!

Surveying the Post-NIH Landscape

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alpsp/lp
http://www.arl.org/sc/implement/nih/guide
The April 2008 issue of Learned Publishing is devoted to the effects  
of new legislation requiring authors funded by the National  
Institutes of Health (NIH) to make their research articles publicly  
available on the PubMed Central Archive within 12 months of their  
publication. Editor Priscilla Markwood writes that “institutional  
subscriptions, especially for niche journals, could soon be  
devastated.” At the same time, the Association of Research Libraries  
(ARL) has developed a Web-based guide to assist research institutions  
in implementing the NIH’s new Public Access Policy, which becomes  
effective April 7. The guide is helpful to a range of campus  
constituencies that may be involved in implementing the new policy,  
including research administrators, legal counsel, and librarians. The  
guide is freely available for download. The special issue of Learned  
Publishing is available through subscribing institutions.

BOOKMARKS

$1,000 For Teachers From Toshiba

http://toshiba.com/tafpub/jsp/home/default.jsp
Since 1999, Toshiba America Foundation has given grants to teachers  
in grades K-12.  Elementary school teachers (K-6) are eligible for up  
to $1,000 to support their ideas for project-based learning in  
science and mathematics. Funded projects in grades 7-12 provide  
students with the opportunity to practice science in new ways that  
promise to increase their engagement with the subject matter and  
improve their learning. There is no funding limit for grade 7-12  
applications, but most grants are for $10,000 or less.  This year’s  
application  deadline for both programs is August 1.

EdWeek Grades States On STEM

http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2008/03/27/index.html
EdWeek, the news magazine for educators, is allowing free access to  
all the material on its website through April 7.  The special report  
in its March 27 issue is “The Push to Improve Science, Technology,  
Engineering, and Mathematics.” The story includes detailed reports on  
STEM education in each state, as well as an interactive map that  
ranks states according to how well they provide access to STEM  
resources. In addition, the report includes stories showing how  
teachers are learning to incorporate technology across subjects; the  
new requirements states are putting in place to close the technology  
gap; and a review of the last decade in educational technology.

Survey of Standards for Digital Repositories

http://dare.uva.nl/document/93727
Investigative Study of Standards for Digital Repositories by Muriel  
Foulonneau and Francis André (Amsterdam University Press, 2007)  
reviews current standards, protocols, and applications in the domain  
of digital repositories. The book, which is available for free  
download, pays special attention to the interoperability of  
repositories to enhance the exchange of data in repositories. It aims  
to stimulate discussion about these topics and supports initiatives  
for the integration of and development of new standards. The authors  
also take a look at the nearby future and ask which steps should be  
taken now in order to comply with future demands.

August Library Assessment Conference in Seattle

http://www.libraryassessment.org
The Association of Research Libraries, the University of Virginia  
Library, and the University of Washington Libraries are pleased to  
announce the second Library Assessment Conference. “Building  
Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment” will be held at the  
University of Washington in Seattle, August 4-6, 2008. The conference  
is geared toward library and information professionals and  
researchers with responsibility for, or an interest in, the broad  
field of library assessment with an emphasis on (but not limited to)  
North American academic libraries.

NSDL Annual Meeting, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2

http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org
Save the dates for the 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting, which will be held  
from September 30 to October 2, 2008 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in  
Washington, DC. The theme for this year's meeting is "STEM Research &  
Education in Action." In the next week, look for the Call for  
Proposals and the meeting website with logistics and travel  
information. We look forward to seeing you in the Fall!

INSPIRATION

Numerical Disasters

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/cornell-cs322
http://ta.twi.tudelft.nl/users/vuik/wi211/disasters.html
Twelve years ago, after a decade of development, an unmanned Ariane 5  
rocket launched by the European Space Agency exploded just after its  
first liftoff. The cause of this $500 million firecracker was a  
software error caused when a 64 bit floating point number relating to  
the horizontal velocity of the rocket with respect to the platform  
was erroneously converted to a 16 bit signed integer. Numerical  
disasters like these are one thread in a lively blog that supports  
the course “Introduction to Scientific Computing” at Cornell  
University.  “One great thing about scientific computing is that  
anybody can do it, but that's also a downside since doing things well  
often involves getting the details right,” says the course’s  
professor, Doug James. “It reminds me of Carl-Erik Froberg's famous  
quote about scientific computing: ‘Never in the history of mankind  
has it been possible to produce so many wrong answers so quickly!’”

NSDL Whiteboard Report describes research, news, and notes from the  
National Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Education Digital  
Library (http://NSDL.org), which is funded by the National Science  
Foundation. Whiteboard is published bi-weekly and includes  
information from NSDL projects and programs nationwide. Please  
redistribute. To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://nsdl.org/ 
publications/?pager=signup.

Whiteboard Report is edited by Carol Minton Morris (clt6 AT  
Cornell.edu). Project leaders and participants from the NSDL  
community are encouraged to send research news and notes of interest.  
Please limit these items to 200 words and provide web links to  
additional information.

The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is the nation's online  
library of resources for science, technology, engineering, and  
mathematics education and research. NSDL would like to thank the  
National Science Foundation for its generous support and advocacy of  
NSDL as the NSF digital library of science education. This material  
is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under  
Grants No. 0227648, 0424671, and 0227888. Any opinions, findings, and  
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those  
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the  
National Science Foundation.

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