April 2010
NAPE PDI
NAPE's 2010 Professional Development Institute was a huge success!
The NAPE Executive Committee and NAPE Education Foundation Board would like to thank
the speakers, workshop presenters, and attendees for their contributions to the
success of the event. NAPE members can read a recap, view the presentations, and
download the program book at
NAPE's website.
STEM EQUITY PIPELINE NEWS
Save the Date!
The next webinar is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, 2010, at 2 p.m. ET
and will feature Lise Eliot, Ph.D., author of Pink Brain, Blue Brain, How Small Differences
Grow into Troublesome Gaps--and What We Can Do About It.
Dr. Eliot will present the latest science related to female brain development, including
the role of genes, hormones, and environmental influences, and how social factors
are proving to be far more powerful than previously realized. She will offer concrete
ways that educators can help females and rein in harmful stereotypes. As a parent
of two sons and one daughter, she understands the difficulty of confronting gender
expectations and the value of doing so.
Dr. Eliot received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and is an associate professor
of neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of
Medicine and Science.
Registration information will be posted soon on the STEM Equity Pipeline website.
News from Ohio
The Ohio state team has shared some interesting statistics regarding the 10,695
pre-college STEM students who participated in The Ohio Academy of Science's State
Science Day during the years 1996-2008.
- More females (53.63%) than males (46.37%) participated.
- More than 50% of these students reported that, because of their participation in
local, district, and state science days, they are seriously considering a STEM career.
- Females and males showed considerable differences in their choice of topics of fields
of interest for research projects. (Refer to the State Science Day Summary for more details.)
- Approximately 50% of State Science Day students had mentors.
ARTICLES
Avatar's James Cameron Pushes Tech Careers to Young
(Karen Zeitvogel, Yahoo News)
"Avatar" director James Cameron urged young Americans Monday to pursue careers in
science and technology to keep the United States at the forefront of technical innovation
and allow him to make more blockbuster movies.
Read More
Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley
(Claire Cain Miller, New York Times)
CANDACE FLEMING'S résumé boasts a double major in industrial engineering and English
from Stanford, an M.B.A. from Harvard, a management position at Hewlett-Packard
and experience as president of a small software company. But when she was raising
money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls
one venture capitalist telling her that it didn't matter that she didn't have business
cards, because all they would say was "Mom."
Read More
The Race to Become a Green-Job Hub
(Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal)
Cities and states are marketing themselves as leading centers for green jobs, though
few are likely to achieve this status. "Every community in the country will benefit
from the green-jobs movement," said Jose Beceiro, the Greater Austin Chamber of
Commerce's director of clean energy. "But there are only a handful of cities that
will probably emerge as a clean-technology capital."
Read More
NSF Seeks New Approach to Helping Minority Students in Science
(Paul Basken, The Chronicle of Higher Education)
The National Science Foundation is re-evaluating its approach to helping minority
college students, proposing a consolidation of programs that currently assist specific
racial and ethnic groups. The new direction was set out by the Obama administration
in its budget recommendation for the 2011 fiscal year, which calls for the outright
elimination of three NSF programs: the Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Undergraduate Program, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, and
the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program.
Read More
PUBLICATIONS
New Partnerships for Learning Publication
The new report from the Harvard Family Research Project entitled "Promising Practices
in Integrating School and Out-of-School Time Program Supports" aims to help school
and Out of School Time (OST) program leaders, decision-makers, and funders, to understand
and implement effective OST-school partnerships for learning. The report describes
the benefits of these partnerships and presents research, strategies and examples
of the different principles of OST-school partnerships.
Read Report
Increasing Capacity and Quality in Afterschool Programs: Lessons learned from New
York
(AYPF)
BYA seeks to improve outcomes for young people ages 9-14 by increasing their participation
in high quality activities during the afterschool, evening, and weekend hours. The
initiative is designed to address two key issues in the afterschool field: the need
for high quality programs and the reduced participation of young people as they
enter adolescence.
Learn More
Navigating a Complex Landscape to Foster Greater Faculty and Student Diversity in
Higher Education
(American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association of American
Universities)
This handbook outlines legally sustainable ways to expand diversity on campuses,
particularly within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
Learn More
Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study
(USDOE)
This report is the second major experimental study by the USDOE to find that a high-quality
professional-development program failed to translate into any dramatic improvements
in student learning. A two-year study of efforts to improve teachers' instructional
skills in early reading reached a similar conclusion in 2008.
Learn More
RESOURCES
The Daring Game for Girls for the Wii and Nintendo DS packs
a powerful lesson about girl power in an entertaining adventure.
Killing Us Softly Film Updated: Jean Kilbourne at the Wellesley Centers
for Women takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive
ideals of femininity.
NSTA: New Science Teacher Academy
AAAS: Leadership in Science Education Prize for High School Teachers
ASM Materials Education Foundation: Grants for Teachers
Engineering Innovation,
a program of Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, is a summer college-level
course for high school students who attend lectures and do hands-on activities as
they learn to think and work like engineers.
With the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, students
have the opportunity to create an engaging one- to two-minute science video that
communicates 1 of 4 scientific concepts.
SAVE THE DATE
Webinar:
Marketing to Hispanic Students: Speaking to the Heart as Well as the Intellect,
May 25, 1:00 pm EDT
National
WomenTech Educators Train-the-Trainer Workshop, Emeryville, CA, June 28-29,
2010
USA Science &
Engineering Festival: October 10-24, 2010, Washington, DC
DISCLAIMER
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material
published in the NAPE Update are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of NAPE. Furthermore, inclusion of a product, program, or practice in
the NAPE Update does not imply its endorsement by NAPE.
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