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Aug 2005 - Vol. 2, Issue 7 Previous Issues Submit newsletter content DLESE home
Contents
Resource of interest: Shuttle Discovery mission
The
space shuttle Discovery successfully returned to Earth on
Tuesday, August 9, in the Mojave Desert, 14 days after its launch. Discovery
traveled a total of 5.8 million miles during the mission. The
mission's array of cameras and sensors enabled a successful and ground-breaking
space walk to the shuttle's underside to remove protruding gap filler material
from the heat shield that could have endangered the shuttle's return to Earth.
The crew delivered supplies, and outfitted and performed maintenance on the
International Space Station. NASA's Return
to Flight web site offers information and images from the mission,
including photos from the successful landing. The
Ultimate Field Trip provides an astronaut's view of Earth, and a
journal and images from the Space Shuttle and the
International Space Station take from previous missions. Related space exploration news: On Friday, August 12, NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will gather more Mars data than all previous combined missions. The primary goal of the mission is to continue searching for evidence of water on the red planet, a key to learning about the possibilities of life on Mars. After a seven-month journey—arriving in March 2006—the satellite will orbit Mars for four years, using three high resolution cameras and a radar sounder that detects subsurface ice and water. The satellite is capable of transmitting data back to Earth at 10 times the rate of previous probes, and will serve as a communications relay station for future projected launches of an additional rover in 2007 and a science laboratory in 2009. (Contributed by H. Devaul and E. McIlvain) Professional development opportunity: NSTA Institute - SymposiaThe National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) offers a variety of teacher professional development opportunities through the NSTA Institute—a gateway to professional development for science teachers. Institute offerings include NSTA Partner Online Courses, NSTA Symposia, and NSTA Web Seminars (free). Symposia are face-to-face workshops generally followed up with two free Web Seminars, to maximize the effectiveness of newly learned content, while Partner Online Courses offer online coursework by other partner organizations via NSTA. NSTA Symposia are half or full day professional development opportunities offered at NSTA conventions. See a schedule of offerings at upcoming fall meetings at the Eastern Area Convention in Hartford (October), the Midwestern Area Convention in Chicago (November), and the Southern Area Convention in Nashville (December). If you are planning on attending an area convention, these are excellent opportunities to further your professional development. (Contributed by E. McIlvain) Recent events: ESSE 21 Annual Meeting
DPO recruiting associate editors for DLESE resource reviewThe DLESE Project Office is recruiting Associate Editors to assist with implementation of a formal review of the instructional resources in the library. Working with the Editor, Associate Editors will recruit science and pedagogical experts to review assigned resources, provide summaries of reviews, make a recommendation for action, and verify that appropriate modifications are made to resources based on the reviews. Reviewed resources will receive a publication citation acknowledging their peer-reviewed status in DLESE. Associate Editors will be asked to oversee review of between 50-100 resources over 12 months and will receive an honorarium for their efforts. We seek persons with a research background in an Earth system science discipline and expertise in modern pedagogical methods for teaching about Earth. Please send email to support@dlese.org if interested in becoming an Associate Editor. (Contributed by M. Hall) Want to be a DLESE reviewer or to have your resource reviewed?The DLESE Project Office is recruiting scientists and educators to perform science and pedagogical reviews of the instructional resources in the library. We are particularly interested in pedagogical experts at all levels to ensure grade level-appropriate reviews. We are also welcoming requests from resource owners who would like to have their resources reviewed. We will be developing a priority list for reviews to expedite the process. Successfully reviewed resources will be assigned a publication citation acknowledging their peer-reviewed status in DLESE. Please send email to support@dlese.org if interested in becoming a reviewer or having your resource reviewed. (Contributed by M. Hall) DLESE Evaluation Services minigrant programDLESE Evaluation Services, at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Education and Outreach Program (University of Colorado), offers a minigrant program to fund proposals to conduct evaluation and assessment studies of relevance to DLESE. Successful proposals will include any aspect of DLESE use, impact, development, review, or other relevant activity. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the aim of the program is to encourage and further participation by DLESE community members in the evaluation activities of the library on topics relevant to library development. Educators, home-schoolers, curriculum developers, informal educators, library developers, project evaluators, or other DLESE community members in the U.S. are encouraged to apply. A total of $12,000 is available for the program. Proposals must be submitted by September 30, 2005. Review of proposals will take place October 1, 2005, through November 30, 2005. Awards will be announced December 1, 2005. For complete information, see the Minigrant program web site (link removed 2006). (Contributed by S. Lynds.) Opportunity for water education resource contributors: DWELThe Digital Water Education Library (DWEL) needs persons with expertise in the following topical areas to help complete the collection of high quality K-12 water resources: oceans, water in the atmosphere, groundwater, surface water, water in space, water quality, water and life, water use, water policy, or the cryosphere. Participants will provide a preliminary review of the resources in a particular theme in the existing DWEL collection and provide URLs and grade level information for resources that are of high quality and warrant inclusion in the collection. Honoraria are available for the prospective work. Find out more. (Contributed by A. Stevemer) Progress report on 2004 Annual Meeting recommendationsParticipants at the 2004 Annual Meeting made over 50 recommendations for improvements to DLESE services and products. Over the past year, the DLESE Core Services have made significant progress on more than two-thirds of the recommendations and the work continues. A brief report on progress can be found under the Announcements at http://www.dlese-project.org. The report is a working document that will be updated as additional work is undertaken or completed. (Contributed by M. Hall) Thanks for your participation in DLESE 2005!Many thanks to all community members who attended and/or participated to make DLESE 2005 a great success. Special thanks go to site hosts Dr. Ashanti Pyrtle, Dr. Teresa Greely, and site coordinator Lois Bryce, of the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Despite the threat of Hurricane Dennis, participants expressed great appreciation for the field trips, workshops, Share Fair, DLESE-in-Action Forum. College of Marine Science students Bryan Nichols and Jozan Powell did a great job of publishing a daily newsletter that summarized each day's activities. Photos are also available at the meeting web site. (Contributed by E. McIlvain)
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