[Whiteboard-subscribers] Whiteboard Report #129, 1/23/08
Brad Edmondson
brade at lightlink.com
Wed Jan 23 11:00:27 EST 2008
NSDL WHITEBOARD REPORT #129
January 23, 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
DLESE Finds A New Home
http://www.dlese.org
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110947&org=NSF&from=news
A pioneer in the online delivery of educational resources has found a
new home. Earlier this month, the National Science Foundation
announced that the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE)
will be maintained by The National Center for Atmospheric Research.
NCAR’s library will assume development and curation responsibilities
for DLESE, and its Computational and Information System Laboratory
(CISL) will provide systems and operational support. The agreement
means DLESE’s popular collections will remain free, there will be no
interruption in service, and the site will continue to grow and serve
the needs of geoscience communities. Questions about DLESE and its
collections should be directed to support AT dlese.org.
Memo to Parents: Teens Do Listen
http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/roadreports
Here’s an effective way to attract people to a conference booth: play
the call of a Weddell Seal loud enough to hear across the room,
according to a January 16 post in the NSDL blog Road Reports. The
post describes a highlight from a recent NSF Workshop and Exhibition
held in conjunction with the US Governors Conference. The session
described the successful public relations campaign slogan, math +
science = success, which is promoted by the NSF-funded University
System of Georgia Math and Science Partnership (MSP). According to
their market research, many families have a significant
communication gap. Children say they are most influenced by their
parents’ attitudes and advice, while parents feel that their children
are most likely to listen to teachers and school administrators. Who
knew they were actually paying attention?
Elemental Expertise: Periodic Table Wiki
http://www.chemeddl.org/collections/ptl
http://wiki.chemeddl.org/index.php
One of the jewels in the Chemical Education Digital Library is
Periodic Table Live! (PTL). It is a periodic table accompanied by
pictures, movies, atomic structures, and more information about the
chemical elements. The site also includes tools for sorting and
graphing its numerical data. Visitors can contribute information
about their favorite elements by using the Periodic Table Wiki, which
is listed under Collections on the main page of the ChemEd
Collaborative wiki site. If you have special expertise about one or
more of the elements, please share it at the Periodic Table Wiki.
Even if you don't want to contribute, you can listen in as a
community of chemists and educators get elemental.
Web Seminar Explains Oceanic Wiggles
http://earthref.org/ERESE
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL2/
webseminar7.aspx
What causes reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field? How does the
magnetic field help scientists determine the age of the ocean floor
and the movement of tectonic plates? A web seminar on January 29,
Earth in Reverse: Magnetic Wiggles on the Ocean Floor, will show how
anomalies in magnetic patterns (known as wiggles) reveal clues to the
geologic past. Dr. Chris Symons of the Scripps Institute of
Oceanography and Dr. Anthony Koppers of Oregon State University will
host this seminar for teachers of grades 6 to 12. The seminar will
run from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. In addition to talking about
their experiences, Symons and Koppers will showcase resources from
Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education (ERESE), which is
supported by Scripps. NSDL and the National Science Teachers
Association are the co-sponsors, and free pre-registration is required.
Blogs for Teachers Are Succeeding
http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/connectingnews
http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/polar
Last fall, staff at NSDL’s Middle School Portal began making weekly
posts to two Expert Voices blogs. Connecting News With National
Science Education Standards helps middle school teachers build
lessons around a current news item by linking it to online resources;
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears helps elementary teachers become more
knowledgeable about the polar regions while providing best practices
on how to integrate polar concepts into their teaching. After four
months, the Connecting Science blog is on track to have 1,000 page
views in January. After three months, the Penguins blog is heading
for 3,500 page views!
Verizon Grant to Achievement Network
http://www.jesandco.org
http://www.pr.com/press-release/68228
A major grant from the Verizon Foundation will allow JES & Co.’s
Achievement Standards Network (ASN) database of publicly available
state academic standards to grow beyond science, technology,
engineering and math subjects. The ASN is now adding standards in
English language arts, social studies, economics, geography, and the
arts. The Verizon Foundation’s Thinkfinity project chose the
inexpensive, widely-available ASN-based information over more
expensive private sources to show how each Thinkfinity resource
addresses their own state’s academic standards. “Support from The
National Science Foundation has enabled JES & Co. to be a key player
in the U.S.’s efforts to improve educational standings in STEM
disciplines,” said Diny Golder, executive director of JES and Co.
“With The Verizon Foundation’s support, we can now offer support to
resource providers in all subjects.”
Shodor’s Aid To Test Prep Season
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate
Shodor and the Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD)
have released a new set of tools to help teachers and students use a
more dynamic approach to assess student achievement in math skills.
The Interactivate Assessment Toolkit includes more than 50 Explorers,
Games, and Quizzes that allow students to tailor their assessment
activity by selecting a problem type, level of difficulty, and
allowed time for solution. These assessment tools also keep score,
so students will be able to track their progress as they improve
their computation skills and basic understanding of math concepts.
BOOKMARKS
Grants to Young Inventors
http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=8135
The Motorola Foundation has awarded $3.5 million to 106 programs that
use innovative approaches to develop young peoples’ interest in
science, technology, engineering, and math. The 2007 Innovation
Generation Grants place special emphasis on programs aimed at girls
and ethnic groups, such as the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids
program run by the National Society of Black Engineers. The company
is launching a portal site to encourage grantees to collaborate, and
also to provide access to the expertise of Motorola engineers and
scientists.
Learn to Teach With NASA’s Data
http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov
NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA will host a workshop
for teachers in grades 6 to 12 on June 22-27, 2008. The workshop will
focus on developing lessons from Earth System Science data sets
developed for the pre-college education community as part of the MY
NASA DATA program. The data sets are derived from the archive of
remotely sensed data retrieved from NASA's Earth Observing System
satellites. Participants will go on field trips and benefit from the
expertise of nationally recognized atmospheric researchers. Earth
Science educators are particularly encouraged to apply.
Applications must be postmarked by April 9, 2008.
MacArthur Series on Digital Learning
http://www.macfound.org
New studies on digital media and learning are available for free
download. The six-volume series is funded by the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and published by MIT Press. It
examines the effect of digital media on how young people learn, play,
socialize, and participate in civic life. Its release marks the
launch of the new International Journal of Learning and Media, which
will explore core issues facing young people in the digital age. To
access the material, go to the MacArthur Foundation’s site and look
for the newsroom item dated December 12, 2007.
NSDL at AAAS
http://www.aaas.org/meetings
The NSDL community will be well-represented at the upcoming American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting,
February 14-19 in Boston. On Sunday the 17th at 8:30 am, a session
entitled Faculty Collaborative Online Tools and Projects: Lessons
from the NSDL will be held in Room 209 of the Hynes Convention
Center. At 2:15 pm that day, NSDL will host a Digital Resource
Showcase for K12 Science Education, also in Room 209. Both sessions
are free and open to the public. Stop by and meet representatives
from many of NSDL's partners, including BEN and AAAS (Biology), MatDL
from Kent State University (Material Science), ComPADRE from AAPT
(Physics and Astronomy), University of Wisconsin (Chem EdDL) , CSERD
(Computational Science), University of California-Berkeley
(Engineering) , WGBH Teachers’ Domain, Ohio State University (NSDL
Middle School Portal ), Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, and
the Education Development Center (EDC). For more information,
contact Robert Payo, rpayo AT ucar.edu.
INSPIRATION
How Have You Changed Your Mind?
http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_index.html
The Edge Foundation has announced its annual question for 2008:
“Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How
have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind, and why?”
Its website already contains answers from165 prominent thinkers.
Keith Devlin, a mathematician at Stanford, says he used to believe
that mathematical truths existed in some independent Platonic realm.
But after several decades of studying and teaching, he says, “I now
see mathematics as something entirely different, as the creation of
the (collective) human mind. . . A Platonistic standpoint is
essential to doing mathematics, just as Cartesian dualism is
virtually impossible to dispense with in doing science or just plain
communicating with one another. But ultimately, our mathematics is
just that: our mathematics, not the universe’s.”
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 Brad Edmondson (gbe2 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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