A team of NSDL Community members has begun an ambitious effort to help elementary teachers become more knowledgeable about the polar regions. The project “Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears,” part of the International Polar Year program, aims to provide best practices on how to integrate polar concepts into teaching. The group will begin publishing an […]

When the 2007 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing convened on Monday morning, the difference was apparent. Most of the 400 people in the room were younger than 30, and pale-skinned guys were in the minority. There was a roughly equal mix of black and Latino students, and there were more women than men. […]

Shodor, a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit organization serving educators and students and the NSDL Computational Science Pathway partner, has been recognized by Cisco for its innovative use of technology to improve math and science education nationally. Shodor was named a grand prize winner in the Nonprofit category of the Cisco Growing with Technology Awards 2007. […]

Two NSDL blogs have commemorated the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its “prosteishy sputnik,” or “simplest satellite.” Sputnik-1 stayed in Earth’s orbit for 22 days, sending back a signal to announce that the space age had begun. The Expert Voices blog NSDL Highlights […]

Bethany Carlson says she “was one of those kids in high school whose social life revolved around science and design competitions.” After college, she began exploring why science classes didn’t seem to attract more women or minorities. Now she is doing something about it - and on September 20, she shared her findings in […]

The NSDL Middle School Portal has started a new blog called “Connecting News With National Science Education Standards” to encourage teachers to use current events as teaching opportunities. Every Thursday, MSP staff will link a current news article to related teaching resources that connect specific content standards to that event.  The first post, which […]

Expert Voices recently noted a new NSDL resource that just might be the last word in the argument over whether or not people are heating up the planet. It is a presentation by Dr. Naomi Oreskes, an historian of science at the University of California-San Diego, to the American Meteorological Society’s Environmental Science Seminar Series. […]

Mercury transits the sun, November 8, 2006
Bill Wilson of the Memphis Astronomical Society took this photo of the planet Mercury passing across the face of the sun by holding the lens of his digital camera up to the viewfinder of a telescope. Enthusiasm for star-gazing is infectious at the Memphis Society’s site, which was […]

What is the Internet? Jen Wofford talked it over with an American-born fourth grader. Then she gave him a stack of magazines, scissors, and glue, and he made this picture:

Next, Wofford did the same thing with a child the same age who had recently come to the U.S. from Burma. Here’s what […]

“It amuses me when people wring their hands about a crisis in getting school children interested in science,”says Barry Fisher. “Forensics does that. It is a positive side effect.”
Ambassador for Science? 
Fisher is director of the crime laboratory for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and a national spokesman for forensic scientists. He makes his […]