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High-Tech Summer SchoolSupercomputers and science learning are as "hot" this summer as global warming. Students and teachers alike are hitting the books and the field this summer to learn science and develop their technology skills through National Science Foundation-supported education programs. They’re being rewarded with innovative technology-based learning tools integrated into curricula. For more information, contact Lee Herring, 703-3061070/kherring@nsf.gov Contents of this News Tip:
SCIENCE IN THE SUMMERTIME: AS COOL AS THE POOLFifty urban fourth-grade girls easily agreed to forego their customary summer sidewalk hopscotch and swimming pool fun this July in order to participate in another water-related activity instead: summertime science on urban waterways. Temple University’s "Sisters in Science Summer Camp," founded by education professor Penny Hammrich and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is focused this year on Philadelphia's waterways. The girls are studying biological habitats, doing water quality testing and stream studies, and designing their own model rivers and biomes. In spite of competition from other forms of water fun and the fact that "we're competing with a lot of other summer programs, our numbers of participants are increasing each year," says Hammrich. Field trips are interspersed with the interactive, discovery based teaching approach, which has been found to fit girls' learning styles very well, says Hammrich. "Less competitive than boys and more conversationalist in their approach to learning, girls learn science better when allowed to investigate in cooperative groups." The summer camp is part of the year-long Sisters in Science program, which strives to develop and maintain girls' interest and literacy in science and mathematics, contributes to the professional growth of current and future teachers, and increases the involvement of volunteers and families in the education of children. TECHNOLOGY BRINGS THE WORLD TO STUDENTSA new NSF-supported, computer-based WorldWatcher Curriculum serves up massive amounts of climate and related data to middle and high school students, allowing them to manipulate and view the global information as easily as a kindergartner manipulates building blocks. "WorldWatcher educational software could revolutionize how science is taught, since it utilizes a potent data visualization component and discovery-based learning," said NSF program officer David Campbell. The curriculum, developed at Northwestern University, makes computer and CD-ROM technology integral components of science learning rather than mere supplements. The graphical component of WorldWatcher is a scientific visualization and analysis tool for geographic data that was adapted specifically for education. The curriculum fosters development of scientific thinking across disciplines. By combining scientific data-set libraries and visualization tools that transform quantitative data into easily understood color maps on the computer, the system permits a question-centered approach so students can meaningfully change variables and receive immediate feedback. The curriculum conforms to recommendations of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council regarding approaches to inquiry-based science education. The curriculum materials are designed for use in a variety of courses and contain explicit support for developing innovative teaching. GIRLTECH BRINGS EQUITY TO SUPERCOMPUTING FOR TEACHERSStimulating an interest in computers by girls and minorities and bringing teachers up to date in computational literacy are tall orders for the summer, but the National Science Foundation and the Education, Outreach and Training program at the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (EOT-PACI) are taking on the challenge. Together they brought more than 50 Houston area teachers this month to the fifth annual GirlTECH computational science training program at Rice University's Center for Research on Parallel Computation (CRPC) to raise the teachers’ professional competence a notch in the area of computational sciences and instill innovative teaching practices that encourage girls and minorities to pursue computing. The educators received intensive training in utilizing online resources for research, teaching, and collaboration. Then they had the opportunity to create their own home pages, design and publish web-based math and science lessons, and create home pages for their schools. The teachers developed strategies for using computing, simulations, and myriad Internet resources to supercharge math and science teaching. GirlTECH is not a one-time summer fling. Rather, "it is a long-term support resource for teachers," says Cynthia Lanius, program manager for GirlTECH at CRPC. And, according to EOT-PACI director Ann Redelfs, GirlTECH and the associated Mathematical and Computational Sciences Awareness Workshop have contributed significantly to advancing the interest of girls, women and minorities in computing. EOT-PACI is actively scaling GirlTECH and other successful teacher training programs to additional sites in various states.
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