Community News

The GLOBE at Night program is an international campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution. Citizen scientists are invited to record the brightness of the night sky in their areas. Measurements are submitted by computer or smart phone. There are five campaigns in 2013:

• Jan. 3-12
• Jan 31-Feb 9
• Mar 3-12
• Mar 31-Apr 9
• Apr 29-May 8.

Visit GlOBE at Night home page for more info...

Join Middle School Portal2 Book Club on January 23 for a discussion of a new annotated and illustrated edition of James Watson's book "The Double Helix." The new edition adds more info about the rivalries and race to decode the structure of DNA. Take part in the discussion at 7-8 pm EST. See more details and RSVP on the Middle School Portal. 

Read the New York Times Review

The PhET Interactive Simulations project (http://phet.colorado.edu) needs your help!

To help us secure future funding to advance our work and keep PhET free, and to make the site as useful as possible for YOU, we need to know more about how, where, and why you use PhET in your teaching, and how you see the simulations influencing your students’ learning. We also want your input on future directions for the PhET project.

We are seeking very broad representation, so *please complete* our survey and *forward* this invitation to any educators you know. The survey will take ~15-20 minutes, and your answers automatically save as you progress.

If you are ...

K12 Teacher who teaches with PhET:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5z4mrcuB1JwW9mZ

College Faculty who teaches with PhET:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a9TLQpQd0cRB6fz

Education-sector professional who uses PHET in your work or product (but not in teaching K12 or college):
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5bEt1hYhrHhUIFT

Familiar with PhET, but do NOT CURRENTLY USE PhET in your work:
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_e34gOkbneq7q0M5

If any of these links don't work, go here:
http://tinyurl.com/phetsurvey
Or copy and paste one of the URLs above into your internet browser.

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and your individual responses to this survey will be confidential. If you would like your institution to appear on a list or map of PhET users, you will have an opportunity to provide permission.

The survey results will be compiled to help improve PhET. Only aggregated results or anonymous statements will be used in any publications or reports, be disseminated on our website, or used in presentations to funders, educators, or researchers.

Thank you for your time and feedback!

Your PhET Team,
Kathy Perkins, Kathy Dessau, Noah Podolefsky, Mike Dubson, Robert Parson, Trish Loeblein, Noah Finkelstein, Emily Moore, Ariel Paul, Julia Chamberlain, Karina Hensberry, John Blanco, Jon Olson, Chris Malley, Sam Reid, Sam McKagan, Danny Rehn, Jesse Garrison, Linda Wellmann, and Oliver Nix

PhET Interactive Simulations
University of Colorado at Boulder
UCB 390, Boulder, CO 80309
phethelp@colorado.edu

PARCC - the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers - is a 24-state consortium led by non-profit Achieve - recently released a request for propoosals (RFP) through the Indiana Department of Administration (IDPA) for the item tryouts, field testing, embedded research, practice tests, and forms construction for the first operational year of the assessment in English language arts/literacy and mathematics.   The RFP specifies the development of technical and cost options for administering and scoring PARCC operational assessments in 2014-2015. Elements include: 

• Item tryout: The purpose of the item tryout is to better understand how assessment items, tasks, and innovations are functioning and to refine test administration, data collection, scoring materials and procedures. Item tryouts will occur in the spring of 2013.
• Field testing: The purpose of the field test is to administer items and tasks to representative samples of students across PARCC states in order to generate the data necessary to assemble multiple forms for operational testing in 2014-2015 and beyond. Field testing will occur in the spring of 2014.
• Operational forms: The RFP calls for vendors to use the item/task data generated by the field test to assemble multiple test forms for each content area (English language arts/literacy and mathematics) and for each of the grades 3-11. For mathematics at the high school level, forms will be assembled for each of six end-of-course assessments.
• Embedded research: A total of seven research studies will be conducted to inform operational test administration, scoring procedures and the development of metrics for reporting the results of operational assessments. Research activities will occur throughout the item tryout and field test phases, as well as during summer 2013 following item tryouts.
• Cost option: The RFP includes a request for the administration and scoring of the first operational exam and a standalone field test during the first operational year, as a cost option to PARCC. PARCC may choose to exercise this option and include these activities under a contract that will be assigned to the new PARCC operational organization after the grant period.

Vendors have until November 27, 2012 to submit proposals. 

RFP 13-29 can be found at http://www.in.gov/idoa/proc/bids/RFP-13-29/

Questions about the RFP may be directed to the Indiana Department of Administration

Learn more about PARCC, visit www.parcconline.org, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PARCCPlace, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PARCC