News
Call attention to accomplishments, events, news items or "resources of interest" right now by contributing news and information to NSDL. Items submitted will go through a review by the NSDL Resource Center before being published to this website. 
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Jan 14, 2011News
Congratulations are due to Charles Kazilek at Arizona State University: his Ask a Biologist site has been awarded the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE), by Science magazine, designed to focus on the best of online educational resources in science.
Ask a Biologist utilizes the contributions of over 150 volunteers who craft the best possible answers to myriad questions directed to "Dr. Biology." In the response process, students (60%), teachers (20%), and parents and informal learners (20%) are participants in a well-crafted give-and-take that helps questioners clarify their queries and gets them engaged in the science.
Ask a Biologist received NSDL funding in the 2008 round of grants that enabled the project to transform the AAB website (over 1400 static web pages) into a much more dynamic site, employing the Drupal content management system and other Web 2.0 tools, enabling and promoting collaboration and contribution from its volunteer community of experts.
Ask A Biologist joins two previously awarded NSDL-related projects for 2010:- 26 February 2010: On the Cutting Edge professional development program for geoscience educators, from Carleton College's Science Education Resource Center, and its partners
- 30 April 2010: ChemCollective−Virtual Labs for Introductory Chemistry Courses
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Dec 20, 2010News
Two recent publications are featuring National Science Digital Library (NSDL) resources and services:
Check out Daniel Toomey’s article in the November School Library Monthly: The National Science Digital Library: STEM Resources for the 21st Century Learner. Dan is a 7th and 8th grade teacher at Edgewood Campus School in Madison, WI. He also co-teaches a secondary science methods course at Edgewood College. He loves to include using video to enhance classroom teaching and curriculum development—especially integrating technology in the science classroom—and creating standards-based middle school level curriculum.Dan learned of NSDL while exploring how technology can be used for student learning and teacher content knowledge, as part of his professional development goals. He began using NSDL often, and has been a strong proponent ever since. “I am on a personal mission to share this outstanding resource with as many teachers as I can,” says Dan. Many thanks for being such a great ambassador for NSDL!
Another notable example of NSDL in the news is the November/December issue of Knowledge Quest (Vol 39, No 2). Focused on STEM for our Students, the issue is guest edited by Marcia Mardis, assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University, and Kaye Howe, Director of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Resource Center, in Boulder, Colorado. The Nov/Dec issue contains a wealth of valuable articles showcasing NSDL resources and services, as well as others that are sure to meet multiple needs for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education:
- School Librarians, Science Teachers, and Optimal Learning Environments, by Barbara Schultz-Jones
- Speak Up! Students Embrace Digital Resources for Learning, by Laurie Smith and Julie Evans
- Teachers’ Domain: Digital Media (Including Video!) Resources for the STEM Classroom and Collection, by Daniella Quinones
- Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Bringing the Polar Regions Closer to Home, by Jessica Fries-Gaither
- Cook Up Curriculum with Content Clips, by Lois McLean
- Using Social Media to Build an Online Professional Learning Network of Middle Level Educators, by Kim Lightle
- NSDL as a Teacher Empower Point: Expanding Capacity for Classroom Integration of Digital Resources, by Eileen McIlvain
- Making Science Learning Available and Accessible to All Learners: Leveraging Digital Library Resources, by Anne Marie Perrault
- School Librarians as Digital Librarians: The Michigan Teacher Network Project, by Laura Stroup, Mary deWolf, and Margaret Lincoln
- President’s Column: Start the Conversation with Science Teachers, by Nancy Everhart
- Guest Editor: STEM for Our Students: Content to Co-conspiracy? by Marcia Mardis and Kaye Howe
- CBC Column: Bringing Science to Life with Readers Theater, by Melissa Stewart
This issue of KQ is available online to current members of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL); and educational libraries.
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Dec 06, 2010News
*Spring Saturday Explorations Workshop will be held February 5 - March 12 from 9:00am - 12:00pm*
Most of us use websites every day without stopping to wonder how they are made! Maybe you've always wanted to make a website but did not know where or how to start. Or maybe you've experimented with HTML code but want to learn more. Spring Saturday Explorations participants will work with HTML, CSS, and open source graphics programs to create a simple website. Participants will be introduced to the techniques and tools used to create and build websites and will be ready to go make more sites on their own. Workshops are intended for students in grades 6 through 8 (or the home school equivalent). Younger students who are particularly mature and older students who are interested may also be considered.
Once again we have an exciting new partnership with North Carolina Central University (NCCU). The Spring Saturday Explorations students will be invited to participate in CybAdventures at NCCU. CybAdventures is a morning of hands-on experiments and computational activities that are both entertaining and informative. Students will be introduced to web-based activities to assist them in learning about CyberInfrastructure and how to apply computational resources to their learning process. Topics range from Chemistry to Geospatial sciences. Topics are dependent upon the availability of NCCU faculty.
2011 Spring Saturday Explorations Schedule
• Feb 5th at NCCU
• Feb 12th at NCCU
• Feb 19th at NCCU
• Feb 26th at Shodor
• Mar 5th at Shodor
• Mar 12th at Shodor
*Topics and Locations are subject to change*
Session size is limited to 18 participants in order to assure a high quality learning atmosphere. Participants work both in teams and individually in a supervised, hands-on learning environment. Each day they learn about new scientific approaches and tools and then have the opportunity to try them out for themselves in our computer lab.
All activities take place at the Shodor headquarters in downtown Durham, North Carolina and at the NCCU campus. Participants will be using high-performance laptops equipped with computational software which the students will learn how to use throughout their classes.
Prerequisites:
Participants should be 6th - 8th graders (or the equivalent) and interested in science and mathematics. Younger students who are particularly mature and older students who are interested may also be considered. While some experience with computers is helpful, it is not required.
To register please visit www.shodor.org/calendar or email Ernest Edinboro at ernest@shodor.org.
*Everyday Functions: Epidemics to Secret Codes*
For middle school students who are interested in MATH, SCIENCE and COMPUTERS, Shodor offers a variety of explorations to satisfy their intellectual appetites. On January 17, Shodor will offer a workshop, "Everyday Functions: Epidemics to Secret Codes", that specifically focuses on mathematical functions and their real-world applications. The workshop will be held at Shodor from 9am- 4pm.
Everyday Functions: Epidemics to Secret Codes is a 6-hour session that will introduce rising 6th through 8th graders to functions by considering the functional behavior in everyday life. Participants will explore mathematical models to discover the nature of functional behavior, examine visual representations of functions, and apply functions in solving real-world problems. Students will use computers to develop a deeper understanding of functions and their applications in other areas of mathematics, science, and computing. The workshop will involve formal lectures, structured hands-on labs and activities, and the opportunity to work collaboratively with other students.
To register please visit www.shodor.org/calendar or email Ernest Edinboro at ernest@shodor.org.
Shodor is the home of NSDL's Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) Pathways portal
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Nov 30, 2010News
Shodor is offering a Spring professional development course for middle school and high school math, science, and technology teachers.
The course, hosted by LearnNC, will explore the myriad resources available to faculty (for free!) through the National STEM Digital Library (NSDL). Participants will learn to use this collection of resources to find and implement the tools most relevant to their classroom. In individual and group activities participants will learn strategies for searching, self-reflection, and identifying resources. Participants will also review and discuss lessons learned within and throughout the course. In a final culminating project, participants will then take advantage of the resources explored in this online course and create a lesson plan personalized for their uses.
The course begins February 9th 2011 and will last for 6 weeks. Please visit http://www.learnnc.org/courses/catalog/stem_digital_library to find more information or to register. -
Nov 29, 2010News
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is advertising an opening for an Education Programs Director. The position will help coordinate the work required to further develop the EcoEdDL, an NSDL-funded selection services project developing digital materials and systems for effective support of undergraduate teaching of ecology, evolution, and plant sciences.
See the full announcement for more details. Last day to apply is January 18, 2011.
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Nov 17, 2010News
The ChemEd DL, the NSDL’s Chemistry Pathway, has launched a new Web portal. Check out the new site atwww.chemeddl.org. Visitors can scroll through our top resources on the main page’s carousel and will find it easier to access the ChemEd DL’s resources, collections and services using the drop-down menus at the top of each page. We’ve added a scrolling News feed at the bottom of the home page to keep visitors up-to-date on important announcements from the ChemEd DL, the NSDL, and the chemical education community, as well as news from a variety of sources that will be of interest to chemistry teachers. You can also stay connected by joining our Facebook page, following us on Twitter (@chemeddl), or subscribing to the RSS news feed.In addition to the new Web portal, we’ve unveiled updated versions of the award-winning Periodic Table Live! and Models 360 collection.
Periodic Table Live! allows users to explore a broad range of information about the elements and their properties. Each entry in the interactive PTL! contains images of the elements, interactive 3-D views of their crystal structures, videos of their reactions, physical and atomic properties, and the ability to graph numeric properties and sort properties in a data table.
Models 360 is a much expanded collection of molecular-scale structures that now includes organic and biochemical molecules as well as solid-state structures, all rendered as 3-D Jmol structures that can easily be manipulated on your screen. You can examine molecular structure and bonding and demonstrate molecular geometries, vibrations, symmetry, electron orbitals, and more. The updated collection includes an advanced search function that allows users to find the exact molecule they are looking for and a “take a snapshot” feature that encourages users to save pictures of the Jmol structures for use in their own resources and activities. Explore and enjoy!
John W. Moore
W. T. Lippincott Professor of Chemistry
University of Wisconsin-Madison
email: jwmoore@chem.wisc.edu
http://www.chem.wisc.edu/users/jwmoore -
Nov 05, 2010News
Shodor takes a moment to remember Benoit B. Mandelbrot (November 20, 1924 - October 14, 2010), a man often considered the father of fractal geometry.
Mandelbrot, who was known for his many contributions to the science and mathematics communities, recently died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 85. Born in Warsaw, Poland, he and his family fled to France to evade the Nazis in 1936. After the war, Mandelbrot studied under Gaston Julia, whose namesake is the Julia Set, at L’École Polytechnique in Paris. Later, he earned a master’s degree in aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology. In 1952, Mandelbrot returned to Paris to earn his doctoral degree in mathematics and later studied under mathematician John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. During a long and distinguished career, Mandelbrot worked at IBM, served as a visiting professor at MIT and Harvard, and in 1987 began teaching at Yale.
Mandelbrot’s contributions to math and science are broad and far-reaching, as recognized by his numerous awards and honors, including the Wolf Prize for Physics in 1993 and the Japan Prize for Science and Technology in 2003. Mandelbrot was among the first to study “fractals”, a term he coined to describe the self-similar properties of such objects (e.g., ferns, coastlines, and snowflakes). To quote Mandelbrot, “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.” Mandelbrot’s ability to notice patterns that many others missed eventually led to the discovery of the Mandelbrot Set, named in his honor. The set itself, when displayed graphically, contains beautiful patterns in number, symmetry, and design.
Mandelbrot’s use of computers to find new patterns in the Julia Set is echoed in Shodor’s message: through computation, students are able to notice patterns and attach meaning to otherwise abstract concepts. Shodor’s fractal microscope (http://shodor.org/master/fractal/software/) allows anyone to explore the very same patterns Mandelbrot noticed, while Shodor’s many other tools apply the principle of pattern recognition to other fields. Likewise, Shodor’s workshops offer guided instruction in computational science and mathematics.
On November 11, the fractal workshop (http://shodor.org/succeed/workshops/current/) will explore patterns in mathematics and nature that were discovered and more fully explained by Mandelbrot and others throughout the mathematics community.
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Nov 01, 2010News
NSDL's Engineering Pathway announced the 2010 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware, awarded on Friday, October 29, to two entries: Greenfoot Integrated Development Environment (Greenfoot), submitted by Poul Henriksen, Michael Kölling, Davin McCall and Marion Zalk, and Dynamics Animations, submitted by Richard Stanley.
The award was presented at the Premier Award Ceremony at the Frontiers in Education Conference, held in Washington, D.C. The award-winning courseware was distributed on CD ROM at the FIE Conference and is also available online. This year’s panel of judges comprised a diverse cross-section of experts in engineering education and interactive media. Sponsors of the award program are John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Microsoft Research, TechSmith and MathWorks.
Greenfoot is a pedagogical tool for teaching computer programming that allows students to use the full Java programming language to create games and simulations. The Greenfoot system greatly enhances student motivation while reinforcing object-oriented programming concepts. Greenfoot is a resource that can be used by instructors to support their teaching of programming concepts through the use of animation and process scenarios. Students instantiate objects into an onscreen world and then create Java code that causes the object, generally a character related to the scenario, to perform certain actions and responses to other objects encountered in the surroundings. The Greenfoot Integrated Development Environment provides facilities for sharing programming resources and usage advice as well as to post finished programming projects that are of general and entertainment interest to student users.
The Dynamics Animations are interactive animation software for an introductory dynamics course. The web-based animation is directly linked to a dynamics assignment, and no programming is required of the user. The software is designed to guide students to expose and explore dynamics concepts—and misconceptions. The software provides considerable choice to the user regarding the depth of exploration. Novice students may vary only the required parameter to answer the question that is being asked. For more experienced students, faculty can ask more complicated questions involving the same scenarios; these advanced scenarios typically require changing additional parameters.
The Premier Award competition, hosted by the NEEDS/Engineering Pathway digital libraries, is open to a wide range of submissions of “high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education.” The Premier Award program has been underway for 14 years and has honored 26 winners over this time. More details on the Premier Award and current and previous winners can be found on the Engineering Pathway at:http://www.engineeringpathway.org/ep/premier/
The Engineering Pathway is a portal to high-quality teaching and learning resources in applied science and math, engineering, computer science/information technology and engineering technology, for use by K-12 and university educators and students. Engineering Pathway is the engineering education “wing” of theNational Science Digital Library (NSDL).
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Nov 01, 2010News
The multi-agency Research.gov effort has released a Preview site (http://preview.research.gov/) that lets project personnel, policy makers, researchers, etc. find out information about federally funded research.
The SEE Innovation (Science, Engineering, and Education Innovation section of the site enables browsing of funded research via Research Areas (topical/disciplinary), as well as by States/Territories, and Research Assets (Aircrafts & Vessels; Program Centers; Facilities and Networks; Telescopes and Observatories). Feedback on the site and its services is sought - take a look and provide your feedback!
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Oct 22, 2010News
The US Senate recently confirmed Dr. Subra Suresh as the new director of the National Science Foundation, for a six-year term. Suresh has served as dean of the engineering school and as Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has conducted pioneering work on the biomechanicss of blood cells under the influence of disease processes, such as malaria. Suresh holds a bachelor's degree
from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, a master's degree
from Iowa State University, and earned his ScD from MIT in 1981. Dr. Suresh was sworn in as director of NSF on Monday, October 18.