N E W S

The Periodic Table Live! from the Chemical Education Digital Library
Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL).
Students and teachers especially are invited to interact with the
periodic table, chose an element of interest, and learn all sorts of
interesting information about that element–from details of its
discovery, to its industrial uses and other characteristics.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

Cyberlearning Updates, New NSDL Pathways
At their recent NSDL Annual Meeting National Science Digital Library
partners met in Washington, D.C. Sept. 30 - October 2, 2008 to unveil
new directions for the 8-yr-old NSF initiative designed to leverage
online educational STEM opportunities for students and learners of
all ages nationwide. Three new NSDL Pathways partners, that provide
access to audience-specific views of appropriate NSDL resources and
services, were introduced.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

The Future of Networked Information
Over the past two years the Open Archives Initiative (OAI), in a project called Object Reuse and Exchange (OAI-ORE), has gathered international experts from the publishing, web, library, repository, and eScience communities to
develop standards for the identification and description of
aggregations of Web resources. Production versions of the OAI-ORE
specifications and implementation documents are now available to the
public, with a table of contents page here.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

E V E N T S

Upcoming NSDL Web Seminars: Beyond Penguins and Polar Bear Series, October 29th and November 13th
The next two free seminars in the NSDL series feature online
professional development programs for elementary educators, K-5.
These seminars will highlight resources from Beyond Penguins and
Polar Bears, a cyberzine that helps educators integrate science and
literacy with a focus on the polar regions.
Click here to view full article
Related Link(s): http://tinyurl.com/6g5pur; http://tinyurl.com/6eknth

Tune in to the Honeywell Nobel Minds Laureate Lecture Series
Join students and teachers worldwide on October 27, 2008 at 10am CST
for a lecture by Professor Mario J. Molina, winner of the 1995 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry. His lecture is part of the Honeywell Nobel Minds
Laureate Lecture series. The lecture will be given at Tecnologico de
Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico. You can watch it LIVE at:
http://www.honeywellscience.com.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

B O O K M A R K S

Speak Up Survey
Join 319,223 students, 25,544 teachers, 19,726 parents and 3,263
administrators who have participated in Speak Up Day annual national
educational research surveys facilitated by Project Tomorrow. The
2008 survey closes December 19, 2008.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

“Moving Toward Web 2.0 in K-12 Education” Blog Post
Steve Hargadon, Educational Technology Consultant and Entrepreneur,
writes about K-12 educational technology and topics related to the
future of education. He boils down the Web 2.0 to the simple idea
that it is “a two-way medium” as it applies to education in this
recent blog post.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

Speaking of Something Interesting: NSDL Blogosphere Highlights
There is always something interesting in NSDL’s blogs: National
Chemistry Week: What Works?; Evaluating Information, and Discovery of
the Structure of DNA.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

Gaming Company Seeks Input from Teachers
Ramo means “play” in Gujrati, and is the name of a new gaming company
Ramogames.com. This gaming site is targeted at kids and is founded by Sumir Meghani a Harvard Business School graduate and Yahoo! alum along with others who have experience with companies like Electronic Arts, Thomson Learning. Meghani is seeking input from teachers about what might be useful in classrooms in this survey.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

Time for the Sparky Awards, from SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition)
The competition invites students to consider the issues and
creatively express their views around the 2008 contest theme
“MindMashup: The Value of Information Sharing.” Submissions must be
received by November 30, 2008.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

I N S P I R A T I O N

National Student/Parent Mock Election; October 30
The National Student/Parent Mock Election seeks to turn the sense of
powerlessness that keeps young Americans and their parents from going
to the polls into a sense of the power of participation in our
democracy.
Click here to view full article
Related Link

N E W S

Get Ready for Washington: NSDL Annual Meeting Updates
By Sarah Holsted The 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting is almost upon us. This update includes reflections on the planning process and an overview of the program.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org/

Annual Meeting 2008 Blog
Tune into NSDL Road Reports for up-to-the-minute blog posts about the NSDL Annual Meeting.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/roadreports/

Rolling Out NSF’s NSDL Awards for 2008-2009
Eighteen National Science Digital Library (NSDL) awards have been announced by the National Science Foundation.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://tinyurl.com/3un7ph

Pathways and Projects Updates
Download NSDL Pathways Highlights and NSDL Projects Updates from the Annual Meeting web site.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org/

New Web Site for Engineering Pathway
The Engineering Pathway recently redesigned its website to better engage the younger generation by incorporating findings and recommendations from the recent National Academy of Engineering study, Changing the Conversation.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://www.engineeringpathway.com

NSDL’s Science Literacy Map Tool Adds 41 New Maps and “Student Misconceptions” Feature
The new version of the National Science Digital Library’s Science Literacy Map (SLM) tool is an easy-to-use service that finds and presents students with the right resource at just the right moment.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/?id=SMS-MAP-0048

E V E N T S

Educause 2008
IT in Higher Education will once again be in the spotlight at Educause 2008 to be held in Orlando, FL October 28 - 31.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://net.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=321&bhcp=1

B O O K M A R K S

“Pat the Librarian” Featured in APS Forum on Education
Pat Viele, NSDL blogger and the physics and astronomy librarian at Cornell University has an article about information fluency for physics featured in the Summer 2008 newsletter of the APS Forum on Education.
Click here to view full article http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_27
Related Link: http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/summer2008/viele.cfm

Timelines and review process for the Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) solicitation
The timelines and review process for the Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) solicitation,, are changing in 2009.
Click here to view full article
Related Link: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07603/nsf07603.htm

I N S P I R A T I O N

Large Hadron Rap
A creative team from the CERN Large Hadron Collider found a unique way to tell the world why physicists are so interested in the results of the collision of sub atomic particles at high speeds in a new music video seen by millions of Internet viewers.
Click here to view full article http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_39
Related Link: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

N E W S

Keeping a Digital Promise

On Thursday, July 31, 2008, Digital Promise, a fund to keep America competitive in this digital century by transforming education, workforce training, and lifelong learning, was passed by both the U.S. House and Senate as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_00

Related Link: http://www.digitalpromise.org/newsite/

New Features, Functionalities, and Fun Stuff from the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears Project

You can now Browse Columns, and access the Archive.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_01

Related Link: http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/polar

New Additions to the MicrobeLibrary

The American Society for Microbiology’s MicrobeLibrary continues to grow. Recent additions include a new issue of Focus on Microbiology Education(FOME) newsmagazine featuring over 30 reviews of educational materials including textbooks, websites, and electronic materials.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_02

Related Link: http://www.microbelibrary.org

NSDL Pathways at NSF Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Meeting

Principal Investigators from the NSF CCLI program met at the Renaissance Hotel, Washington DC, from August 13-15, 2008. The meeting was hosted by AAAS.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_03

Related Link: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5741

Teachers’ Domain Pathways to Digital Media for Education Launch New Editions!

Selected STEM media resources from Teachers’ Domain collections will be catalogued according to topics and commonly taught courses in Astonomy, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Geoscience, Health Science, and Physics.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_04

Related Link: http://www.teachersdomain.org

Summer Travel Review in Expert Voices Road Reports

Reports from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT); RepoCamp at the Library of Congress plus a view from SIGGRAPH 2008 in LA are all available on NSDL Road Reports.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_05

Related Link: http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/roadreports/

Now Available: Production-Ready Fedora 3.0 Fits With the Web

Fedora Commons released version 3.0 of the popular Fedora software that completes all general release features on July 30, 2008. Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, “We are pleased to offer a Fedora 3.0 that is a foundational step towards a model-driven content architecture.”

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_06

Related Link: http://www.fedora-commons.org/developers/

E V E N T S

NSDL Launches Third Series of Web Seminars This Fall

NSDL Web Seminars 2008-2009 Series begins September 25, 2008. NSDL has partnered for it’s third year with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) as a part of their online professional development programs. These free, 90-minute seminars allow educators to interact with experts in the NSDL community from a desktop.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_17

Related Link: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL3/webseminar.asp 

NSDL Annual Meeting Details for Presenters-Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Washington, D.C.

Make final changes to presentations, submit posters, contact information and other details.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_18

Related Link: http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org

Free Webinar: Find Out Why Online Learning is One of the Top Five Tech Trends in Education

Will your students and educators benefit from this trend or be left out? Join Net Day Project Tomorrow on Wednesday, Sept 17th for a free webinar where we will share the updated online learning trends from Speak Up 2007 and our report ”Learning in the 21st Century: A Trends Update.“

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_19

Related Link: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/learning21Report_Update.html 

Free Workshops for Education and Outreach Professionals

NSF is sponsoring three workshops for education and outreach professionals and NSF Research Centers Educators’ Network (NRCEN) members. The purpose of the workshops is to build the community of participants using and contributing to the NEO-Sphere.org web site by offering an introduction to the resources on the site and guided instruction in adding and accessing these resources.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_111

Related Link: https://www.engin.umich.edu/form/neosphere

B O O K M A R K S

Participatory Learning Competition

The second HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition is now open!  The focus is participatory learning. Awards will be made in two categories.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_212

Related Link: http://www.dmlcompetition.net 

Learning in the 21st Century: A Trends Update

The report Learning in the 21st Century: A Trends Update highlights the results of the most recent Speak Up online survey (fall 2007), in which Project Tomorrow probed deeper on this important national topic.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_213

Related Link: http://fs6.formsite.com/blackboardmarketing/form422360408/index.html

I N S P I R A T I O N 

Quasi the Robot

Quasi the Robot (2.0) is a friendly animatronic figure capable of fascinating conversation, remembering if she/he has met you before, getting embarrassed and communicating other subtle characteristics of emotion, speech and human behavior.

Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_314

Related Link: http://interbots.com/

Ithaca, NY Today Fedora Commons released version 3.0 of the popular Fedora software that completes all general release features. The NSDL Data Repository is powered by NCore technologies that utilize Fedora repository software. Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, “We are pleased to offer a Fedora 3.0 that is a foundational step towards a model-driven content architecture.” He went on to say, “Users will find it simpler to maintain and operate their repositories with version 3.0—it’s more scalable and fits better into the Web.”

Fedora 3.0 features the Content Model Architecture (CMA), an integrated structure for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital objects in Fedora. The software is available at <http://www.fedora-commons.org/> and at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedora-commons>. The Fedora CMA plays a central role in the Fedora architecture, in many ways forms the over-arching conceptual framework for future development of Fedora Repositories. Fedora 3.0 features include:

Overview of new Features in Fedora 3.0 Release
-Content Model Architecture – Provides a model-driven approach for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital content in Fedora
-Fedora REST API – A new API that exposes a subset of the Access and Management API using a RESTful Web interface contributed by MediaShelf
-Mulgara Support – Fedora supports the Mulgara 2.0 Semantic Triplestore replacing Kowari
-Migration Utility – Provides an update utility to convert existing collections for Content Model Architecture compatibility
-Relational Index Simplification – The Fedora schema was simplified making changes easier without having to reload the database and significantly increasing scalability
-Dynamic Behaviors – Objects may be added or removed dynamically from the system moving system checks into run-time errors
-Error Reporting – Provides improved run-time error details
-Multiple Owner as a CSV String – Enables using a CSV string as ownerID and in XACML policies
-Java 6 Compatibility – Fedora may be optionally compiled using Java 6 while retaining support for Java Enterprise Edition 1.5 deployments
-Relationships API – API-M has been extended to enable adding, removing, and discovering RDF relations between Fedora objects
-Revised Fedora Object XML Schemas – The new schemas are simpler, supporting the CMA and removing Disseminators
-Atom Support – Fedora objects can now be imported and exported in the Atom format
-Messaging Support – Integrates JMS messaging for sending notification of important events
-Validation Framework – Provides system operators a way to validate all or part of their repository, based on content models
-3.0-Compatible Service Releases – New versions of the OAI Provider and GSearch services are compatible with Fedora 3.0. The GSearch release also enables messaging support for GSearch, which allows for more robust and seamless integration with the Fedora repository.
-Many new enhancements–see the Release Notes.

The Fedora CMA builds on the Fedora architecture to simplify use while unlocking potential. Dan Davis explains the CMA in the context of Fedora 3.0, “It’s a hybrid. The Fedora CMA handles content models that are used by publishers and others, and is also a computer model that describes an information representation and processing architecture.” By combining these viewpoints, Fedora CMA has the potential to provide a way to build an interoperable repository for integrated information access within organizations and to provide durable access to our intellectual works.
Please continue to contribute your observations and comments to <fedora-commons-developers@lists.sourceforge.net> or <fedora-commons-users@lists.sourceforge.net>. Fedora 2.2.2 will continue to be supported for production repositories.

Acknowledgements
The release of Fedora 3.0 is made possible by a collaborative partnership with community developers and the Fedora core software development team that include: Chris Wilper (Fedora Commons), Eddie Shin (Fedora Commons), Bill Branan (Fedora Commons), Paul Gearon (Fedora Commons and Mulgara), Robert Haschart (Fedora Commons), Ross Wayland (Fedora Commons), Aaron Birkland (Fedora Commons and National Science Digital Library), Jim Blake (Fedora Commons and National Science Digital Library), Matt Zumwalt (API-M LITE, Media Shelf), Gert Schmeltz Pedersen (GSearch), Cuong Tran (API-M LITE, Digital Innovation South Africa), Pradeep Krishnan, Ronald Tschalär, Bill Arrow, Jim Paul and many others.

About Fedora Commons
In 2007 Fedora Commons was established as the permanent home of Fedora open source software which is a robust, integrated, repository platform that enables storage, access and management of virtually any kind of digital content. Fedora has been downloaded 25,000 times in the last year, and is used by over 125 national libraries, institutions, and businesses worldwide to do more with their digital collections, enable long-term preservation of digital assets, build on a flexible and extensible, modular architecture, keep control of their data, and participate in Fedora’s innovative community. To find out about Fedora organizations, institutions and projects visit the Fedora Commons Community Registry.

New Collections in the Engineering Pathway
The Engineering Pathway has partnered with additional engineering education communities to add eight new collections and 2,457 new records now available at NSDL.org.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_00
Related Link: http://nsdl.org/browse/?subject=New

New Web-Based Collection of Open Source Physics Resources
The Open Source Physics (OSP) project and the ComPADRE digital library are pleased to announce the creation of a new web-based collection of OSP resources.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_02
Related Link: http://www.compadre.org/osp

New in MicrobeLibrary
http://www.microbelibrary.org
A new issue of Focus on Microbiology Education (FOME) news magazine that emphasizes outreach to high and middle school students has been published in the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) MicrobeLibrary.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_03
Related Link: http://www.microbelibrary.org

Chemistry Moodle Blossoms
At the Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL) the Moodle classroom management system is used to host a number of courses. Lately the Moodle webpage is becoming a hot bed of activity.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_05
Related Link: http://moodle.chemeddl.org/

Call for Entries: Second Annual Sparky Video Contest Spotlights Student Views on Information Sharing
Six library, student, and advocacy organizations have announced the Second Annual Sparky Awards, a contest that recognizes the best new short videos on the value of sharing and aims to broaden the discussion of access to scholarly research by inviting students to express their views creatively.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_010
Related Link: http://www.sparkyawards.org/

Build a Better Engineering Course: Call for Submissions
2008 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware
NEEDS, John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Research, Techsmith and Autodesk are pleased to announce the 2008 Premier Award competition. The Premier Award recognizes high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_011
Related Link: http://www.needs.org/premier/

E V E N T S

Chemistry Workshops Workshops for Wisconsin Teachers
The Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL) is now hosting local workshops for chemistry teachers in Wisconsin.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_011
Related Link: http://www.needs.org/premier/

Weekly Mathematica Seminars from Wolfram Education Group
Coming up: A Technical Overview of Mathematica, Monday, July 7, 10am EDT; Creating Demonstrations, Tuesday, July 8, 6pm EDT, and others.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_216
Related Link: http://www.wolfram.com/weg/seminar.cgi

B O O K M A R K S

Wikis in College Classrooms
Wiki Writing: Collaborative Learning in the College Classroom, a collection of essays edited (in the “Wild, Wild Wiki”) by Robert Cummings and Matt Barton, is described as, “An indispensable and engaging guide to using wikis in the classroom.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_317
Related Link: http://www.wildwiki.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Stanford University School of Education Open Access Motion
In recognition of its responsibility to make its research and scholarship as widely and publicly available as possible, the faculty of the Stanford University School of Education is determined to take advantage of new technologies to increase access to its work among scholars worldwide, educators, policymakers, and the public.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_318
Related Link: http://chronicle.com/news/article/4769/stanfords-education-school-mandates-open-access

I N S P I R A T I O N

Gapminder
The Gapminder web site features interactive analysis tools, videos, podcasts and interactive presentations that support their mission as a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_419
Related Link: http://www.gapminder.org/

Instructional Architect Helping to “Design the Digital Classroom”
The Research Office at Utah State UniDesIversity recently profiled the work of Mimi Recker and her Instructional Architect research group at Utah State University, funded by the NSF NSDL program.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_00
Related Link: http://research.usu.edu/researchmatters/htm/designing-the-digital-classroom

Improving Critical Thinking in Higher Education
Bob Panoff, Shodor’s executive director, presented “NSDL Resources to Support Critical Thinking” at the “Critical Thinking Through Technology” workshop at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) on May 20, 2008.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_01
Related Link: http://nia.ecsu.edu/bw/bwf_orr.html

Developing Middle School Students’ Conceptual Understanding and Scientific Habits of Mind
NSDL’s Middle School Portal and the National Middle School Association hosted a web seminar entitled, “A New Model of Science Curricula and Instruction” on Thursday, May 29, 2008.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_02
Related Link: http://msteacher.org/

Plug the NSDL Wiki into the NSDL Repository and Get . . . A Scholarly Publication
A new National Science Digital Library (NSDL) scholarly publication, Classic Articles in Context (CAC), was launched in April 2008 with an atmospheric science theme: “Climate Change and Anthropogenic Greenhouse Warming: A Selection of Key Articles, 1824-1995, with Interpretive Essays.” Classic Articles in Context will present additional significant scientific questions of the Twentieth Century using landmark and important legacy papers in future issues.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_03
Related Link: http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/PALE:ClassicArticles

Francis Eberle Named Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Francis Eberle, executive director of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA) and an NSDL PI, will take the lead at NSTA in August replacing Gerry Wheeler as NSTA’s executive director.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_04
Related Link: http://www.nsta.org/about/pressroom.aspx?id=54908

NSDL at Minnesota Independent Schools “Affinity Day”
Teachers from Minnesota schools recently came to Providence Academy in Minneapolis to hear Bob Panoff, Founder and Executive Director of the Shodor Foundation, share his ideas about “Resources and Collaborations Available for Teachers through the National Science Digital Library.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_05
Related Link: http://www.shodor.org/cyberpathways/

Engineering Education History in Expert Voices
Engineering Pathway PI Alice Agogino regularly posts a “Today in History” item of interest in NSDL’s blogosphere.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_06
Related Link: http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/pathwaysnews/author/aliceagogino/

See All the Way Around a Molecule
A description of the ChemEd DL’s new collection of molecular models called Molecules 360.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_08
Related Link: http://www.chemeddl.org/collections/molecules/index.php

NSDL Core Integration Staff Updates
Karen Henry, former NSDL Core Integration Technical Project Manager, and and Alex Chaux, former NSDL Core Integration Programmer have accepted positions with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_07

E V E N T S

NSDL/NSTA Web Seminar: Enlightening Experiences with Energy
Get ready for labs, interactives, historical accounts, and lesson plans related to energy curricula on June 12, 2008, 6:30-8:00 p.m. ET–all at your fingertips! Brought to you by the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_19
Related Link: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx

Summertime Fedora Commons User Meetings and Events
Fedora open source repository platform users are planning meetings and events in Canada and Europe throughout the summer and early fall. Take a look at upcoming opportunities to share ideas and information.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_11
Related Link: http://www.ecdl2008.org/

Moving To the “Next Level” of Materials Science Education
Laura Bartolo, PI of NSDL MatDL Pathway, is co-organizer of an upcoming NSF supported Materials Science Education Workshop to be held August 3-5, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The workshop is sponsored by the NSF Directorate of Math & Physical Sciences, Division of Materials Research. The goal of the workshop is to bring together 40 invited representatives from the materials science education community for a two-day workshop to provide a roadmap to the “next level” of materials science education for the coming decade.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_111
Related Link: http://matdl.org/

Thank you for Your Annual Meeting 2008 Submission
The Annual Meeting Planning Committee and reviewers are reading proposals for presentations and Lightning Talks for the 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting to be held September 30–October 5 in Washington, D.C.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_112
Related Link: http://onramp.nsdl.org/eserv/onramp:534/AM07_final_report.pdf

Climate Discovery Online Courses for Educators: Summer Session Now Accepting Registrations
This summer The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) offers a series of seven-week online courses for middle and high school teachers that combine geoscience content, information about current climate research, easy to implement hands-on activities, and group discussion.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_114
Related Link: http://ecourses.ncar.ucar.edu

SPARC Institutional Repositories Conference
SPARC, in partnership with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan/National Institute of Informatics, announces the SPARC Digital Repositories Meeting 2008, to be held November 17-18, 2008 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_113
Related Link: http://www.arl.org/sparc/ir08/

Web Seminar Series to Feature “Math Tools in Action”
Find out how to add dynamic computations and visualizations to websites using webMathematica 2. The Wolfram Education Group announces its newest seminar series scheduled throughout June 2008, “S22: Overview of webMathematica.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_114
Related Link: http://www.wolfram.com/services/education/seminar.cgi

B O O K M A R K S

Highlights From the June 2008 Issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears
Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears issue 4 focuses on “Weather and Climate: From Home to the Poles.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_216
Related Link: http://beyond penguins.nsdl.org

‘Open Students” Seeks Guest Bloggers
‘Open Students’ accepts guests posts on any aspect of Open Access and welcome guest posts by students, faculty, librarians, administrators, publishers, and others.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_217
Related Link: http://www.openstudents.org/write/

Future Libraries
The editorial in the May/June Issue of D-Lib Magazine introduces a new JISC web site, Libraries of the Future,” that addresses the provocative question, “In an information world in which Google apparently offers us everything, what place is there for the traditional, and even the digital, library? In a library environment which is increasingly moving to the delivery of online rather than print resources, what of the academic library’s traditional place at the heart of campus life?”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_218
Related Link: http://dlib.org/dlib/may08/05editorial.html

Curriki–The Global Education & Learning Community’s “Summer of Content”
Curriki is offering $500 per unit of instruction and $1600 per semester course to ensure strong curriculum coverage for all major subject areas in K-12.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_219
Related Link: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/SummerofContent

I N S P I R A T I O N

The Story of Stuff
This site has presented over 2 million viewers with a multi-media description of all the “stuff” in our lives created by the industrial-consumer process—from its raw material extraction, manufacture, sale, use and disposal, along with how the “cycle of stuff” affects communities at home and abroad even though most of this cycle is hidden.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_320
Related Link: http://storyofstuff.org/

Shodor Receives Statewide Partnership Award
When it comes to partnering with other organizations to improve math and science education, there’s one North Carolina non profit organization that stands out: Shodor.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_00
Related Link: http://www.shodor.org/cyberpathways/

From the Exploratorium: Digital Library Afterschool Website Launches!
Through a collaboration with the California School-age Consortium and their trainee network, Exploratorium outreach specialists are sharing NSDL materials and resources from the website with afterschool leaders and frontline staff across California.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_01
Related Link: http://www.exploratorium.edu/afterschool/activities/

From BioSciEd Net (BEN): Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education focuses on Genomes and Online Learning Outcomes
A new volume of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (JMBE) has been published in the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) MicrobeLibrary.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_02
Related Link: http://www.microbelibrary.org

Streamlined and Eye-catching New Look for Chem Ed Digital Library
The Chemical Education Digital Library has a new look. All of the original content is there plus new content has been added, and appearance and functionality have been improved.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_04
Related Link: http://chemeddl.org/

Shodor Director Bob Panoff Delivers Keynote in Rome
A keynote address was given on Mar. 18, 2008 by Dr. Robert M. Panoff, founder and director of the Shodor Education Foundation in Durham, NC, as part of the UNIV 2008 Forum in Rome.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_05
Related Link: http://www.shodor.org

Connecting People, Places, Ideas and Passion in NSDL’s Blogosphere
The final lecture to Networks 204 that has generated over 600 blog posts in Expert Voices capped the three-year teaching and research initiative with a lecture entitled, “Getting Connected: Social Science in the Age of Networks.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_06
Related Link: http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/cornell-info204/

Try an Interactive Fossil Sort from Content Clips
The interactive fossil sort, used as part of an assessment probe activity and the electronic storybooks in the April 2008 issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears magazine, illustrate how teachers can use Content Clips to create their own classroom interactives. Note that Content Clips requires Adobe Flash.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_07
Related Link: http://tinyurl.com/69mkxn

Guidelines for Managing Copyright for NIH Public Access Requirements
In a preprint article published online by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Duke University Scholarly Communications Officer Kevin L. Smith offers pragmatic strategies that authors and their institutions can use to manage authors’ copyrights to fulfill the requirements of the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_08
Related Link: http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br258.shtml

E V E N T S

Get Online for a Free Polar Geography Lesson from Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears Magazine
Join experts from Ohio State University: Jessica Fries-Gaither, Elementary Resource Specialist and Beyond Penguins Project Director, and Carol Landis, Education Outreach Specialist at the Byrd Polar Research Center as they examine the unique and dramatically different areas of Arctic and Antarctic regions through the lens of geography.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_19
Related Link: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx

Mark Your Calendars for the 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting
The 2008 NSDL Annual Meeting will be held from September 30 to October 2, 2008 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The theme for this year’s meeting is “STEM Research and Education in Action.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_110
Related Link: http://annualmeeting.nsdl.org

Tune in to CONFCHEM, a Virtual Chemistry Conference
From April 22 until May 18, 2008 “CONFCHEM”, a virtual conference, is taking place using email and a listserv. The CONFCHEM schedule consists of a series of eight paper presentations focused on “Chemistry at the National Science Digital Library.”
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_111
Related Link: http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem/2008/b/index.htm

SAVE on Early Registration for the Fedora Red Island Repository Institute
Register by May 16 and reserve your spot at the Fedora-focused Repository Institute on Prince Edward Island, one of Canada’s premiere travel destinations known for its sandy beaches, golfing, seafood and iconic red dirt roads.
Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php#id_112
Related Link: http://vre.upei.ca/riri

High School For The Next 15 Years
Projections released today by The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education show that the number of high school graduates in the US will peak at 3,340,000 in 2007-08, decline modestly to 3,189,000 in 2013-14, and then rebound to near its 2007 level (3,362,000) in 2021-22.  But underneath those placid national averages will be rapid changes in the geography and ethnicity of graduates.  The number is projected to increase at least 20 percent over the next decade in six states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Texas, and Utah), and to decline at least 10 percent in eight states (Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North and South Dakota,  Vermont, and Wyoming).  The number of non-Hispanic white graduates is projected to decline from 1,903,000 in 2007-08 to 1,588,000 in 2021-22. But the number of Hispanic graduates is expected to increase from 465,000 to 780,000, and the number of Asian graduates from 159,000 to 244,000.

NMC Virtual Campus Turns Two
The New Media Consortium’s virtual campus on SecondLife.com turns two years old this month. Boot up your avatar  and drop by to attend events  at an online amphitheatre or share ideas in a virtual teacher’s lounge.  On March 24 at 11 am Pacific time, the NMC is invited to hear Byron Reeves, a professor at Stanford, co-founder of Media X, and research leader at the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center . LIFE is an NSF-funded interdisciplinary collaboration between learning scientists at the University of Washington, Stanford University, SRI International, and other institutions across the country.

Steve Hargadon’s Ode To Web 2.0
Steve Hargadon, host of the EdTech Live podcasts and director of the Open Technologies project at The Consortium for School Networking, raised a lot of dust with a long blog post on March 4 called “Web 2.0 Is The Future of Education.” “I believe that the read/write web, or what we are calling web 2.0, will culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically have a greater impact than the advent of the printing press,” he wrote.  “I believe that we cannot even begin to imagine the changes that are going to take place as the two-way nature of the Internet begins to flower.”  Comments are welcome.

A Grammy in Mathematics
University of New Hampshire mathematician Kevin Short won a Grammy last week for developing an algorithm that helped a team of audio technicians restore the only recording of Woody Guthrie performing before a live audience. The wire recording was severely damaged and took more than a year to transfer into a digital format. Sound engineer Jamie Horwath used a constant hum on the tape to set algorithms that corrected variations in the original recording’s speed. He called on Short, whose research focuses on the applications of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory, to fill in missing sounds caused by breaks in the wire. The Grammy for Best Historical Album was awarded to “The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949” on February 10. A longer report from Science News is available here.

New in Microbe Library
New resources have been added to The American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) Microbe Library. They include a new issue of Focus on Microbiology Education that emphasizes bioinformatics and microbial genomics, and a new article in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education on a student project to examine complex traits in Drosophila. Three new curriculum activities and three new visual resources are also available for downloading. The Microbe Library is looking for authors to submit appropriate resources, such as classroom activities and images of the microbial world. Submissions are due March 1, 2008. For more information, go to the website or contact MicrobeLibrary AT asmusa.org.

ConfChem 08 To Focus on NSDL
ConfChem is a free and open conference on topics in chemistry education that is presented entirely online. Its Spring 2008 session will focus on Chemistry at the National Science Digital Library and will open with a paper by Lee L. Zia, NSDL’s program officer at the National Science Foundation. Presentations are also scheduled from three NSDL Pathways (ChemEd DL, CSERD, and Compadre). The conference opens on April 15th. Submissions and comments will be accepted until May 15th and will then be archived online. The conference is sponsored by the Committee on Computers in Chemical Education of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society.

Flower Bulb Science
There is nothing like a pot of tulips in the middle of winter to inspire young scientists. The Bulb Project is a new website that shows K-12 educators how to use flower bulbs to teach science, art, and history. It is also the subject of the next NSDL Web Seminar Series, which will be presented on Thursday, February 7th from 6:30-8:30 pm Eastern time. Marcia Eames-Sheavly of Cornell’s Garden-Based Learning Program and others will explain the tricks of teaching students how to force bulbs out of season, control how tall the plants grow, create a digital collage, or spell out hidden messages on a lawn. Free pre-registration is required through the NSTA Learning Center.

NSDL at AAAS
It is not too late to register online for the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), to be held February 14-19 in Boston.  You can also register in person. NSDL will be featured in two conference sessions on Sunday the 17th in Room 209 of the Hynes Convention Center. Faculty Collaborative Online Tools and Projects: Lessons from the NSDL is scheduled for 8:30 am, and at 2:15 pm NSDL will hold a Digital Resource Showcase for K-12 Science Education. Both sessions are free and open to the public (no registration required). Come and share ideas with representatives from many NSDL partners. For more information, contact Robert Payo (rpayo AT ucar.edu).

YouTube Delivers One Million Möbius Fans
Möbius Transformations Revealed is a short video by Douglas Arnold and Jonathan Rogness, two mathematicians at the University of Minnesota.  It depicts the beauty of Möbius transformations, and it shows how moving to a higher dimension reveals their essential unity. It was one of the winners in the 2007 Science and Visualization Challenge and was featured along with the other winning entries in the September 28, 2007 issue of journal Science. The video, which was first released on YouTube in June 2007, has been watched there by more than a million viewers so far.