NSTA WebNews Digest

Top Stories

Wikis for Science Ed Collaboration

2/5/2010 - NSTA Reports—Debra Shapiro
Teachers and students are communicating and sharing ideas on collaborative websites called wikis that allow them to post work, comment on others’ postings, and make revisions as a group.

New Science Teacher Academy: Empowering Teachers

2/4/2010 - NSTA Reports—Lynn Petrinjak
The third group of NSTA New Science Teacher Academy Fellows is preparing for the NSTA 2010 National Conference in Philadelphia next month, capping off their fellowship year.

Science from Vancouver to the Classroom

2/4/2010 - District Administration
Fortunately for our sportscentric culture, NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation have found a way to show K–12 students that science is applicable to everything from fashion to halfpipes.

How School Leaders Can Keep Education in the News

2/4/2010 - eSchool News
A recent study from the Brookings Institution says education isn't getting its fair share of national news coverage—and isn't getting the right stories reported when it does.

"Big Bang" Collider May Reveal Mystery Particle

2/4/2010 - Reuters
Scientists operating the "Big Bang" particle collider at CERN could solve the mystery of what gives mass to matter during a nearly two-year non-stop run lasting until late 2011, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Taking Science Into the Field

2/3/2010 - NSTA Reports—Debra Shapiro
Project Exploration, a nonprofit science education organization, provides out-of-school science programs that level the playing field for all students and have changed the face of science.

Digital Innovation Outpaces E-Rate Policies

2/3/2010 - Education Week
In its role helping the nation’s schools connect to the Internet and other telecommunications services, the E-rate has been among the most consistent of federal programs. But perhaps too consistent, educators and experts say.

Smashed Asteroids May Be Related to Dinosaur Killer

2/3/2010 - Reuters
Astronomers have found a comet-like object they believe was created by the collision of two asteroids, possible siblings of the rogue rock blamed for killing the dinosaurs millions of years ago.

University of Kentucky Launches Instructional Innovation Lab

2/3/2010 - Lexington Herald-Leader
The University of Kentucky is launching a new laboratory to develop innovative ways to educate students from pre-school through graduate programs. The goals are to figure out ways to incorporate new technology in teaching, help bridge gaps between what students know when they graduate from high school and what universities and employers expect them to know, and shake up conventional teaching and classroom formats.

“Extremely Large Telescope” Causes Rather Considerable Heartache

2/3/2010 - ScienceInsider
Trouble is brewing in the process of deciding where to site the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), a next-generation optical telescope that will have a mirror 42 meters across and will be the largest instrument in the world when completed in 2018.

Russia: No Plans for Moon

2/3/2010 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
The Russian space agency has no plans to fly to the Moon and will not be shifting this position now that President Obama has asked NASA to abandon a second American Moon program. The exploration goals of the two space agencies would “fully coincide” if America drops its Moon program.

District Dispatches: February 2010

2/2/2010 - NSTA Reports
These reports—from California, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania—share regional news affecting science educators.

Medical Journal Retracts Autism Paper 12 Years On

2/2/2010 - Reuters
The Lancet medical journal formally retracted a paper on Tuesday that caused a 12-year international battle over links between the three-in-one childhood vaccine MMR and autism.

Evolution Impacts Environment, Study Finds

2/2/2010 - National Science Foundation
Biologists say they've found evidence that ecology and evolution are reciprocally interacting processes, a fundamental shift in scientists' understanding of the relationship between evolution and ecology.

Fish Oil Supplements Beat Psychotic Mental Illness

2/2/2010 - BBC News
Taking a daily fish oil capsule can stave off mental illness in those at highest risk, trial findings suggest.

A Modest Proposal for Federal Science Spending

2/2/2010 - ScienceNews
The President's FY 2011 budget plan outlines a 5.9% increase in nondefense R&D.

Ruling on Online Term Papers Cites Copyright Questions

2/2/2010 - USA Today
A district court judge in Illinois has ordered the owner of a web-based company to stop selling term papers unless he can prove he has permission from the papers' authors.

2010 Resolution: Professional Renewal

2/1/2010 - Pat Shane
A Message From NSTA President Pat Shane

Core Knowledge to Link Curriculum to Core Standards

2/1/2010 - Education Week
Satisfied with the standards crafted by the multistate initiative, the foundation will make free its content-focused K–8 sequence.

Student-Built Rubik's Cube Size Satellite Selected for Flight by NASA

2/1/2010 - ScienceDaily
A tiny communications satellite designed and built by University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates has been selected as one of three university research satellites to be launched into orbit in November as part of a NASA space education initiative.

Young Scientists Get Their Feet Wet with Project on the Bay

2/1/2010 - The Boston Globe
Bay Farm Montessori School students were trolling the Duxbury shore line under a brilliant winter sun as part of a hands-on marine ecology course modeled on what scientists do.

Obama to Seek Up to $4 Billion Boost for Education

1/28/2010 - Education Week
Despite a pledge to hold down spending on most domestic programs, President Barack Obama on Wednesday night called for greater investment in public schools in his State of the Union address as part of a push to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Young Science Superstars

1/28/2010 - ScienceNews
Forty high school students have entered the final heat in the race to win the nation’s longest-running precollege science competition, the Intel Science Talent Search. This year’s finalists were selected from a pool of 1,736 entrants and will now compete for shares of $630,000 in scholarships.

Online Education Continues Its Meteoric Growth

1/28/2010 - U.S. News & World Report
Online college education is expanding—rapidly. More than 4.6 million college students were taking at least one online course at the start of the 2008–2009 school year. That's more than 1 in 4 college students, and it's a 17% increase from 2007.

Study Offers an Insight Into Dinosaur Colors

1/28/2010 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Fossilized structures of what appear to be feathers match the feathers of living birds down to the microscopic level, and from them scientists have determined what color the ancient feathers were.

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