F I N E S S
E
Folio of Information for New England Space Scientists in Education
Bulletin #7: April 2006
Joint
Assembly of the American Geophysical Union and other Earth & space
science societies,
23-26 May 2006 in Baltimore will host 7 dedicated Education Sessions.
American
Astronomical Society Summer Meeting, 3-8 June 2006 in Calgary
will feature a workshop on “Teaching Excellence…” (3-4
June) and special sessions on “Improving Astronomy Education with
Virtual Support” (5 June), “Cool Astronomy” (5 June),
and “Balloon Science: Connecting Mission Research with Educational
Opportunities” (8 June).
International
Astronomical Union General Assembly, 14-25 August 2006 in
Prague will feature a Special Session on “Innovation in Teaching
/ Learning Astronomy Methods” (17-18 August).
Astronomical
Society of the Pacific Annual Meeting, 16-18 September 2006
in Baltimore, MD. The conference theme is “Engaging the EPO Community:
Best Practices, New Approaches.” Abstracts for workshops, panel sessions,
presentations, and posters will be accepted until June 1.
New England Space Science Education Summit, 25 September
in Boston, MA. This meeting is intended to bring together NASA educators,
informal science
education professionals, and space scientists who are involved in E/PO
for mutual discussions of common interests, goals, and messages. For more
information,
please contact Bill Waller at wwaller@mos.org.
Workshop on
Improving the Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors
through Active Learning, 20-21 May 2006 in Concord, NH. This workshop
is hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Astronomy Education.
NESSIE supports regional workshops for New England space scientists and educators.
These workshops provide important opportunities for scientists to become acquainted
with research findings in science education, proven pedagogical methods, and
recommended educational resources in space science education. They also provide
opportunities for scientists to partner with local educators from the K-12,
after-school, museum, and NASA communities. The next regional workshop will
occur 22-23 June at the Museum of Science, Boston. If you would like to participate
in this workshop or would like information on similar workshops, please contact
Cathy Clemens at cclemens@mos.org.
| EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: |
Some
of these may have been filled, so please check before applying.
NASA is looking for an Assistant Administrator for Education. This
full-time permanent appointment will be situated in Washington, D.C.
The deadline for applications is May 22. (Full
job description at the USA Jobs website).
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is seeking an Executive
Director who has considerable experience in managing research and education
programs relating to astronomy. (Full
job description at the ASP website)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has two fellowship opportunities
for scientists and science students interested in education. (Full
job description at the NSF website).
The “NSF
Astronomy and Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships” provide
support for postdoctoral astronomical research in combination with educational
outreach (see listing 03-578). The deadline for this fellowship opportunity
is October 11. The “NSF Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education” support
graduate students to pursue a program of enriching science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the K-12 grades (see listing
06-556). Letters of intent are due May 5, and the full proposal is due
June 19.
Current recipients of NASA space science research awards
under the ROSS and ROSES programs are invited to apply for supplemental
funding in support of their active involvement in Education and Public
Outreach. Funding levels are up to $15K/year for individuals and $50K/year
for collaborations, where related research programs can be pooled. See
NASA Guidelines
and Opportunities for E/PO for more information.
Abstracts
of E/PO programs that were awarded in FY2000 – FY2004 can be viewed
on this site as well. See also your local Broker/Facilitator (NESSIE) who can
help you formulate your EPO program.
Current recipients of Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer research awards
are also invited to apply for supplementary funding in support of developing
and implementing EPO programs. For more details, see Funding Opportunities for Scientists to access the pertinent mission’s
website.
The IDEAS program welcomes space scientists to apply for funding in
support of innovative programs in Education and Public Outreach. Funding
levels are up to $20K for one-year programs and up to $50K for two-year
programs. See http://ideas.stsci.edu, for more details – including
abstracts of winning proposals. The last proposal deadline was this October
21.
| RESOURCES FOR EMPOWERING SCIENTISTS IN EDUCATION: |
A web clearinghouse for scientists in education has
been created by the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO. Scientistsineducation.org is
a one-stop-shopping center for scientist-oriented education and public
outreach where you can
find information on getting travel
awards for conducting and communicating your EPO programs,
guidelines for writing E/PO proposals, white papers on why and how scientist
involvement in EPO is important, links to winning proposal abstracts, news
of pertinent workshops and conferences, and profiles of scientists in E/PO.
Communicating your accomplishments in E/PO is important to developing
the field of space science education and is beneficial to your professional
resume. The Astronomy Education Review (AER) invites scholarly papers for
peer review, descriptions and updates of E/PO programs, commentaries, and
other contributions relevant to astronomy education. See http://aer.noao.edu.
If
you have a website that you think would be of interest to the Space
Science Education and Public Outreach community, please send the
link and a brief description of the website to our webmaster Karen Spence
at kspence@mos.org for possible
posting on the
NESSIE website.
We are especially interested in personal profiles of New England
space scientists who
have been involved in Education and Public Outreach (see for example Profiles
of Scientists in Education and Public Outreach at the Space Science
Institute website).
Contact:
Bill Waller – (NESSIE)
E-mail: wwaller@mos.org
URL: http://www.mos.org/nessie
Phone: (617) 589-0227
FINESSE is a quarterly eNewsletter
service from NASA's New England Space Science Initiative in Education (NESSIE).
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