14 April 2004

UT Austin GK-12 NEWS is published bi-monthly on current and future activities of interest to all GK-12 participants in Port Aransas (UTMSI) and Austin (ESI and UTIG).

New in this issue:

· Teacher’s Earth Science Institute – be sure to check out this opportunity under Professional Development-Teachers!

Announcements

· Registration deadline for the GK-12 Summer Course – extended to 17 April. www.utmsigk12.org

· Waller Creek Cleanup – 17 April. http://www.tmm.utexas.edu/events/cleanup/cleanup.html

· Making the Connection webcast by Texas Parks and Wildlife. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/eft/

· New website for preservice and new science teachers. http://www.nsta.org/newandpreservice

Education Highlights:

· Adding “half grades” to K-12. http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/8399006.htm

· Passing classes not required in Houston. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/education/2494551

Science Highlights:

· National DNA Day – 30 April 2004. http://www.genome.gov/10506367

· Drilling approved for Padre Island National Seashore. http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/press/newsreleases/022604.html

· Meeting challenges with geologic maps. http://www.agiweb.org/news/MappingBook-PressRelease.pdf

· Making conservation profitable. http://conbio.org/inpractice/article42MCP.cfm

	UTMSI	ESI	UTIG
Meeting Dates	Monthly meetings at 4:45 pm, the second Wednesday of each month 14 April 2004 Flour Bluff Intermediate School 12 May 2004 UTMSI video classroom	11 May 2004 TBA	19 April 2004. 5 pm. Report on recent presentations at professional meetings with reports from attendees. 5 May 2004 GK-12 Fellowship Presentations at UTIG
Lecture Series	SCHWEPPE SERIES http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/research/seminars/schweppe.htm PUBLIC LECTURES http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/outreach/public_lectures.htm	OUTREACH LECTURE SERIES www.geo.utexas.edu/esi/outreach/lectures.html 23 April 2004. John Abbott Texas’ Tiny Wonders: Scientific Tales from the Insect World The School of Biological Sciences lists their lectures and seminars at http://www.biosci.utexas.edu/calendar/viewMonthList.asp?calendarID=0
		An extensive listing of Jackson School of Geosciences lectures can be found at http://www.geo.utexas.edu/techtalks/index.html#March Clicking on the presenter’s name will bring up a list of the lecture titles for that week and links to the presentation abstract when available.
Research Experience for Teachers	Summer 2004. Rivers of the Peruvian Amazon (Oxapampa, Peru) Paula Fluhrer of Dublin Coffman High School, Dublin, Ohio 15 May-23 June 2004. Arctic Climate Change (USCG ice breaker Healy) Alaska Patty Cie, Yelm Middle School, Yelm, Washington		15 April-27 May 2004. SE Caribbean Tectonic Study on R/V Ewing. Meredith Keelan, O.H. Herman Middle School July 2004. Blanco Fracture Zone Seismic Experiment on the on R/V Ewing Donna Clarke, Round Rock High School Follow these cruises at www.ig.utexas.edu/outreach/ttif/index.htm
Other Affiliated Outreach	4 September 2004. MSI Open House	ESI Newsletters ESI maintains newsletters to notify the community on outreach activities. http://www.geo.utexas.edu/esi/outreach/newsletters.html	UTIG Outreach A list of other UTIG affiliated outreach activities can be found at http://www.ig.utexas.edu/outreach/index.htm
GK-12 Workshops/ Field Trips	30 April 2004. Spring workshop: final lesson plan development, post-TAKS field extravaganza, and symposium presentation. 10-14 May 2004. GK-12 Coastal Science Field Week, includes over 200 Flour Bluff and Port Aransas students from 4^th to 8^th grades 3-9 June 2004. GK-12 Summer Field Course, Port Aransas http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/people/staff/dunton/GK12/summercourse.htm	1 May 2004 Workshop on entomology and water quality to follow-up on John Abbott’s OLS on 23 April.
Year-end UT Austin GK-12 Symposium – Monday 7 June, 2-7 pm, Port Aransas: contact your coordinator to arrange housing in Port Aransas!!! GK-12 Summer Field Course – 2-9 June 2004, Port Aransas (graduate course credit for teachers!) http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/people/staff/dunton/GK12/summercourse.htm
Professional Development	30 April 2004. Spring workshop: final lesson plan development and preliminary symposium presentations.	1 May 2004 Open to non-GK-12 teachers. Lessons and professional development credit will be available. Advanced registration required; space will be limited. http://www.geo.utexas.edu/esi/gk12/documents/insectworkshop.pdf
Recent Presentations
Future Presentations		7-10 August 2004. ESRI Education User Conference 2004 Veronica Chapa, Jessica Gordon, and Barbara Parmenter. Creating Community: University of Texas at Austin and Local Schools.	3-5 May 2004. Rocky Mountain/Cordilleran GSA Vanessa Svihla, Tim Fennell, and Katherine Ellins. Effective problem-based activities: imparting content and learning skills through a debate on the K-T extinction event. 5 May 2004. UTIG Spring Fellowship Seminar All UTIG Fellows 31 March-3 April 2005. National Science Teachers Association National Convention Mary Phillips (Waco ISD) and Donna Clarke (Round Rock ISD). Texas Teachers in the Field Presentation
2004-2005 Application Deadlines	Fellows – 15 May 2004 Teachers – 15 May 2004	Fellows – 30 April 2004 Teachers – 7 May 2004	Fellows – 30 April 2004 Teachers – 7 May 2004

Events on the following pages are not organized or supported by UT Austin GK-12, but are listed because they may be of interest to GK-12 participants. These lists are updated biweekly. Please send any additions to your program coordinator.

Future Meetings/Conferences - Education:

22-24 April 2004 – Texas State Teachers Association 125^th Annual Convention, Austin. http://www.tsta.org/news/HoD2004.shtml

4 May 2004 – Let the Quest Begin: a multimedia festival, Corpus Christi. http://www.roymillerhighschool.com/multimedia.html

13-15 May 2004 – American Federation of Teachers Super Conference, Philadelphia. http://www.aft.org/meetings/superconf.html

2-4 June 2004 – Best Education Practices for Water Outreach Professionals, Madison. http://www.uwex.edu/erc/waterbeps/symposium.html

20-23 June 2004 – National Educational Computing Conference, New Orleans. http://www.iste.org/necc

13-15 July 2004 – American Federation of Teachers 78^th Annual Convention, Washington, DC. http://www.aft.org/convention/program.html

7-10 August 2004 – ESRI Education Users Conference, San Diego. http://www.esri.com/events/uc/papers/callforpapers.html

21-24 October 2004 – Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, Austin. http://www.sacnas.org/cfpk1204.html

4-6 November 2004 – Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching, Corpus Christi. Abstract deadline 30 April 2004. http://www.statweb.org/CASTCC/

10-13 November 2004 – National Association of Biology Teachers, Chicago. http://www.nabt.org/sup/conferences/

31 March-3 April 2005 – National Science Teachers Association national convention, Dallas, Texas. Abstract deadline 15 April 2004. http://www.nsta.org/conventions

Future Meetings/Conferences - Science:

15-17 April 2004 – Southwestern Association of Naturalists, San Antonio. No longer accepting abstracts. http://www.biosurvery.ou.edu/swan/meet04/Call_for_Papers.html

3-5 May 2004 – Rocky Mountain/Cordilleran Geological Society of America regional meeting, Boise. http://www.geosociety.org/sectdiv/rockymtn/04rmcdmtg.htm

3-7 May 2004 – Integrated Monitoring and Assessment for Effective Water Quality Management, Newport, Rhode Island. http://www.csg.org/CSG/Policy/environment/environmental+monitoring+and+assesment+program/default.htm

17-20 May 2004 – National Water Quality Monitoring Council Conference: Building and Sustaining Successful Monitoring Programs, Chattanooga. http://www.tetratech-ffx.com/NWQMC/index.cfm

17-20 May 2004 – 4^th National Water Quality Monitoring Council Conference, Chattanooga. No longer accepting abstracts. http://www.nwqmc.org/2004conference.pdf

13-18 June 2004 – American Society of Limnology and Oceanography summer meeting. No longer accepting abstracts. http://www.aslo.org/meetings/savannah2004/

2-4 June 2004 – Best Education Practices for Water Outreach Professionals, Madison. http://www.uwex.edu/erc/waterbeps/symposium.html

27 June-2 July 2004 – 11^th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction, Saratoga Springs, New York. No longer accepting abstracts. http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/WRI/

11-14 July 2004 – Watershed 2004, Dearborn, Michigan. http://www.wef.org/conferences/watershed04.jhtml

1-6 August 2004 – Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland. http://www.esa.org/portland/

15-17 September 2004 – Texas Water Monitoring Congress, Austin. Includes focus group on public outreach. No longer accepting abstracts. http://www.txwmc.org/2004_Congress/TWMC_2004_Call_for_Papers.pdf

7-10 November 2004 – Geological Society of America national meeting, Denver. Will include K-16 education session. Session proposal deadline has passed. Abstract deadline 13 July. http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2004/

13-17 December 2004 – American Geophysical Union fall meeting, San Francisco. Abstract deadline not announced. http://www.agu.org/meetings/meetings.html

Other Professional Development – Teachers

January-July 2004 – Teacher workshops at Fort Worth Zoo. http://www.fortworthzoo.com/school/workshops.html

24 April 2004 – Wet in the City Professional Development. Museum of Health and Medical Science, Houston. $20. http://www.mhms.org/images/workshops_spring_2004.pdf

24-25 April, 1 May 2004 – Texas Archeology Academy, Corpus Christi. $90. http://www.txarch.org/arch/2004.html

May-October 2004 – Advanced, Professional and Specialty Natural History Science Seminars at Eagle Hill on the Maine Coast. There are about 30 different seminars, mostly on botany. http://www.eaglehill.us/mgeninf.html.

8 May 2004 – That’s a Family! Teacher Workshop. Museum of Health and Medical Science, Houston. $20. http://www.mhms.org/images/workshops_spring_2004.pdf

Summer 2004 – American Museum of Natural History Seminars on Science. New York. learn.amnh.org

7-11 June 2004 – Texas Mining and Reclamation Association Teacher Workshop, Rockdale, Texas. FREE. http://www.tmra.com/freeteacherworkshop.html

7-11 June 2004 – Physics Teaching Resource Agent’s Rural Program, by American Association of Physics Teachers, College Station. Stipend offered for teachers. http://teacher.physics.tamu.edu/

14-25 June 2004. Teaching Environmental Science. Texas State University-San Marcos. FREE. http://www.texaswatch.geo.swt.edu/TES.htm

21-25 June 2004 – Texas Mining and Reclamation Association Teacher Workshop, Rockdale, Texas. FREE. http://www.tmra.com/freeteacherworkshop.html

June-July 2004 – Teacher workshops at McDonald Observatory. http://drs.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=teacher+workshops+2004+texas/v=2/SID=w/l=WS1/R=1/H=0/*-http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/

10-14 July 2004 – Down Under, Out Yonder Workshop for Educators, Galveston. $100-$250. http://gulfmex.org/duoy.htm

11-30 July 2004 – Classroom Applications of Mineral Exploration, Mining, Mineral Recovery, and Use for Middle and High School Teachers, Teacher’s Earth Science Institute, Houghton, Michigan. $60/day stipend, plus travel allowance, plus 6 graduate credit hours. http://www.mg.mtu.edu/nsfesit.html.

17-21 July 2004 – National Energy Conference for Educators, Galveston. http://www.need.org/training.htm

Grants/Awards for K-12 Science Educators (listed by closing dates)

19 April 2004 – 2004 All-USA Teacher Team Awards. $2,500. http://allstars.usatoday.com

1 May 2004 – Evolution Education Award. $1,000. http://www.nabt.org/sup/education/awards.asp

1 May 2004 – National Association of Geoscience Teachers Professional Development Grant. $500. http://www.nagt.org/stout04.pdf

21 May 2004 – CAPCO Science Class Challenge Contest. $500-$5,000. http://www.nocfcs.org/scc/scchome.htm

1 June 2004 – Outstanding Earth Science Teacher. http://www.nagt.org/OEST.html

10 June 2004 – Lindbergh Foundation grants for projects balancing the advance of technology and the preservation of the natural environment. Up to $10,580. http://www.lindberghfoundation.org/grants/grantapp2005.html

10 June 2004 – National Geographic Society Education Foundation. Up to $5,000. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/teacher_community/get_grant.html

15 June 2004 – Jordan Fundamentals Grant. 400 grants of up to $2,500 to reward teachers in underprivileged schools. http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikebiz.jhtml?page=26&item=jordan

19 January 2005 – Toyota Tapestry Grants for Teachers. 50 grants of up to $10,000 and 20 mini-grants of $2,500 to K-12 science teachers. http://www.nsta.org/programs/tapestry/index.htm

1 August annually – NWA Sol Hirsch Education Fund Grants to improve student education in meteoroloy. $500. http://www.nwas.org/solhirsch.html

15 September annually – Ezra Jack Keats Foundation grants to encourage literacy and creativity in children. $350. http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/programs/minigrants.htm

1 February, 1 May, 1 August, and 1 November annually – American Honda Foundation grants to support projects with a focus on math , science, the environment, and techonology. $10,000-$75,000. http://www.hondacorporate.com/community/index.html?subsection=foundation

31 March, 30 June, 30 September, and 31 December annually – Captain Planet Foundation grants to promote understanding of environmental issues. $500. http://www.captainplanetfdn.org/

15 September, 1 February, and 1 June annually. NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education. Up to $5,000. http://www.nfie.org/programs/grantguides.htm

Other Professional Development – Fellows

Ongoing – Workshops on writing for undergraduates. Topics include Introduction to College Writing, Writing Process, Research Papers, Tips for Writing Concisely, Brainstorming, Personal Statements, and Resumes and Cover Letters. Offered by Undergraduate Writing Center. FREE. http://uwc.fac.utexas.edu/pages/faculty/workshops.html

Ongoing – Graduate Writing Project. FREE. http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/grs/gwp/index.html

Ongoing – Graduate Student Writing Service. FREE. http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/tap/geninfo.html

Ongoing – UT Dissertation Listserver. FREE. http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/rc/disslist.html

Ongoing – UT TA talk Listserver. FREE. http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/ta_ai/tatalk.html

Each semester – Preparing Future Faculty Internships. FREE. http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/forms/pff-form.html