N E W S

AAAS Project 2061 to Offer Content Alignment and Instructional Quality Training
With support from NSF’s NSDL program, the long-term science education reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will train the staff of seven NSDL Pathways as well as those of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) on how to determine the content alignment and instructional quality of K-12 digital resources. The workshop will be held in March 2009 at the AAAS headquarters in Washington, DC. It will be followed by a customized workshop for each individual NSDL Pathway.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_00
Related Link:  http://www.project2061.org/

Dr. Robert Panoff, CSERD, Leads Workshop and Gives Keynote Speech at the Annual Faculty Conference at Houston Community College
On January 30, 2009, science faculty from the Houston Community College District and representatives from the Houston Independent School District participated in a computational science workshop conducted by Dr. Robert M. Panoff, Executive Director of Shodor. Faculty and administrators were given a general introduction to computational science and three hours of hands-on exploration of the “sources and resources of the Pathways of NSDL.” The disciplines represented at the workshop were life sciences, biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, astronomy, and physics. The following day Dr. Panoff gave the keynote speech, “Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum,” at the annual Houston Community College Faculty Conference.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_01
Related Link: http://www.hccs.edu/hccs/faculty-staff/center-for-teaching-learning-excellence/about-the-center-for-tle/sponsored-events

NSDL Reflections Hot Topic: How Do You See the Future of NSDL?
In January, an article, “NSF Rethinks Its Digital Library,” was published in the AAAS Science Magazine discussing the history and current challenges of NSDL. It described some of the ‘rethinking’ by NSDL stakeholders and other observers. We’d like to get the broader community to think about and respond to this timely topic. A new area on web site is designed to respond to this (and future) hot topics facing the NSDL community. We invite you to visit the site and respond to the article by answering the question: How do you see the history of the NSDL and its future differently from what was described in the article?Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_02
Related Link: http://nsdlreflections.wordpress.com/

New in 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 the topic of concept inventories and assessments; one new articles accepted to volume 10 of the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education on the constructivist approach; two new curriculum activities; and four new visual resources.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_03
Related Link: http://www.microbelibrary.org

WGBH Teachers’ Domain News
Teachers’ Domain is pleased to announce a new adolescent literacy special collection funded by the Leon Lowenstein Foundation. These self-paced classroom activities use history and science topics to enhance the literacy skills of struggling readers in grades 5-8.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_04
Related link: http://hosted.vresp.com/235290/23cdafbf79/551000762/f5418be027/

In the Spotlight - Engineering Pathway Celebrates Black History and Engineers Week in February and Women’s History in March
The Engineering Pathway (EP) “In the Spotlight” highlights timely resources in our collections. In February we focused on Engineers Week. This month and next, browse our resources on African American scientists, engineers, and inventors, and gender diversity.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_05
Related link: http://nsdl.org/about/?pager=pathways&subpager=EP

Solving a Big Math Problem
While there is much discussion about the importance of mathematics to scientific research, engineering, and technological innovation, the performance of American math students on international assessments is below that of math students in many other countries. In its special report “Math: What’s the Problem?”– the National Science Foundation (NSF) uses video interviews and online resources to examine the state of math education and to discuss the roles of culture, technology, and research in improving math learning and proficiency. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_06
Related link: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/math/

E V E N T S

Helping Middle School Teachers with Free Online Professional Development
NSDL’s Middle School Portal Math and Science Pathways project, (MSP)2, and the National Middle School Association (NMSA) are partnering to provide a series of free online web seminars by recognized experts in support of middle school educators. These online learning programs are a convenient way to learn about resources and services that you can use in and out of your classrooms. Webinars are free and presented live, with recordings of the event available for subsequent use.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_18
Related link: http://www.nmsa.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Webinars/tabid/1011/Default.aspx?PageContentID=303

NSDL Brown Bag: Tools you can use from NSDL Technical Network Services (TNS)
NSDL’s Technical Network Services (TNS) provides open-source tools and support services that the STEM education community can use for creating production digital libraries and content-rich STEM learning environments. Join TNS staff for a brown bag web seminar session on March 5, 2009 at 1:00PM EST that is intended to provide current and prospective NSDL Pathways and projects, and other STEM educational developers, with an overview of three tools that can be used to manage and access collections of learning resources in interesting ways. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_19
Related link: http://nsdl.org/pd/?pager=brownbag

NSDL/NSTA Webinar: Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Arctic and Antarctic Birds
On April 21, 2009 at 8:00 pm ET join Jessica Fries-Gaither, Project Director and Elementary Resource Specialist for the Ohio Resource Center at Ohio State University and staff from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as they share free digital resources, lesson plans, and children’s literature from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine. This seminar is designed for K-5 educators. Register today for this web seminar!Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_110
Related link: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/SeminarRegistration.aspx

Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Workshop
The Engineering Pathway launched draft versions of a new BPC Portal at the BPC Community Meeting on February 9-10, 2009.  The portal, will engage the computing diversity community with a digital library, collaboration opportunities, news, bulletin board, blog and other community services. The BPC digital library includes resources tagged for promising practices, and key research regarding target populations in computing and IT including Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, women and persons with disabilities.Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_111
Related link: http//www.bpcportal.org

B O O K M A R K S

The Best of the MiddleWeb
NSDL’s Middle School Portal (MSP)2 has been selected as one of the “Ten Great Sites for Teachers” by MiddleWeb, which provides resources for schools, districts, educators, parents, and public school advocates who are working to raise achievement for all students in the middle grades. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_212
Related link: http://www.middleweb.com/10TeachingSites.html

Take Off with Polar Birds
Issue 11 of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, focusing on Arctic and Antarctic Birds, is co-produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and “explores the amazing birds that live in or migrate to the polar regions” in photos, stories, research and a podcast entitled, “Birdwatcher’s Delight: Birds and Inquiry Learning.” Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_213
Related link: http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/

Webinar on Water: Not Too Late To Check It Out
In December 2008, ChemEd DL broadcast a highly successful Web seminar on water. Resources available in the ChemEd DL collection were introduced and recent, cutting-edge research about the dynamic nature of liquid water and the number of hydrogen bonds per water molecule were discussed. The online archives include the presentation slides used at the Webinar, links to related content, and free access to the movies used in the Webinar. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_214
Related link: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL3/webseminar4.aspx

Call for Resources to MicrobeLibrary
The American Society for Microbiology invites authors to submit resources to its MicrobeLibrary. Resources sought include classroom activities and laboratory exercises; animations, images and videos depicting the microbial world; and quality images for standard microbiology protocols Submissions are due March 1, 2009. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_215
Related link: http://www.microbelibrary.org

I N S P I R A T I O N

Café Life
“Periodic Tables” is billed as a monthly Durham, NC gathering where curious adults can meet in a casual setting to discuss the latest science in plain English. On Feb 10 Bob Panoff offered his personal story about why he left tenured academics and created Shodor to help transform science and mathematics using networked learning communities such as the National Science Digital Library. Become a Periodic Tables fan on Facebook. Click here to view full article: http://content.nsdl.org/wbr/Issue.php?issue=current#id_316
Related link: http://www.ncmls.org/periodictables