Chemical Education Today
Report
Manual and Automated Document Retrieval at the NSF Web Site by Donald J. Wink
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/pubsys/browser/odbrowse.pl This page supports searching the NSF document database by (a) type, (b) specific document number, (c) and by searching the text of the documents. The text search is especially helpful if you want to find out where a document has been referred to within other NSF documents. A recent search on “Shaping the Future” gave the original report and sixteen other references to materials, such as newsletters, program announcements, and award data that show the scope of the document's influence. If you are interested in focusing on the publications of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, then go the EHR home page, where a brief listing of recent general publications appears, or to the appropriate Division page, where a more detailed list and a “working library” of current publications are provided. The EHR Directorate maintains a general listing at http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/pubs.htm, but it may be more useful to head for documents pages for the Divisions of Undergraduate Education (http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ EHR/DUE/documents/documnts.htm—note the absence of an “e” in the file name!) and Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education (http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/ESIE/ About NSF Reports
This column will cover new and existing features of the National Science Foundation World Wide Web pages, with a focus on programs of interest to chemical educators and their students. The first appearance of this column was in the April 1998 issue (J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 405–406). The goal of the column is to bring important items to the chemical education community, including information on new grant programs. Each month, one or more items from the pages will be discussed. These will include program announcements, science education links available through NSF, and guidelines for obtaining grant award and educational database information from NSF.
NSF Online Documents: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/pubsys/ browser/odbrowse.pl EHR–Publications: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/pubs.htm NSF/DUE Reports and Publications on Undergraduate Education: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/DUE/documents/ documnts.htm Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/ESIE/publications.htm NSF Custom News Service: http://www.nsf.gov/home/cns/ start.htm
access date: March 1998 䉴 NSF Proposal Deadlines are on page 525.
publications.htm). Both contain lists of twenty or more documents, including some available only in hardcopy form—but ordering instructions are provided for these. The last way to get documents, and one of the handiest, is by subscribing to the NSF Custom News Service. The link to the sign-up page is at http://www.nsf.gov/home/cns/start.htm . You provide them with an email address, and they will send information on the publications you are most interested in. You select from an assortment of document types (press releases, forms, reports) and areas of science (including education). When the document is posted online, the service doesn't actually send the publication; it sends a notice with a Web address, so you can go and retrieve the information at your leisure. You may also opt for a weekly summary mailing of all NSF publications and, if you just want the information available for consultation, you may ask the system to hold your selections until you visit the NSF site again. A focused request to the News Service can take the place of most of the work in finding out new material as NSF puts it online. Note 1. The url for “Science in the Home” has changed from the one that appeared in the April column. The correct url is http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/ehr/science_home/html/
The correct url for the new Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement guidelines is: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/DUE/documents/general/9845/ccli9845.htm
Donald J. Wink is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607;
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 5 May 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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NSF Information
Last month, I discussed the general structure of educational materials at the NSF Web site,1 and now we can focus on important components for the chemical education community. First among these components is the documentation that NSF provides on the history and the current status of NSF-supported education initiatives, which is the topic for this month. Most NSF documents that communicate information are accessible in text and html formats, and some are present in Adobe pdf format. Forms that can be filled in are available in Postscript and, often, Microsoft Word format. The Foundation has a general document search page, at:
