Chemical Education Today
News & Announcements News from Journal House
Award Deadlines
More Blogging: Especially for High School Teachers
Nominations for the James Flack Norris Award
More JCE articles are being blogged. Last month you may have read that John Moore’s editorials are being blogged, beginning with the Look for the Expert Voices logo. August 2007 editorial. Now the Especially for High School Teachers columns are being blogged as well, beginning with the column for the October 2007 issue. The blogs are part of the Expert Voices area of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and are found at http:// expertvoices.nsdl.org/. To find the Especially columns, look for the Chemical Education Digital Library link in the K12 Teachers heading, and then choose High School from among the Categories listed at the right of your screen.
Nominations are invited for the James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry. The Norris Award, one of the oldest awards given by a Section of the American Chemical Society, is presented annually by the Northeastern Section. The Award consists of a certificate and an honorarium of $3,000. Nominees must have served with special distinction as teachers of chemistry at any level: secondary school, college, and/or graduate school. Since 1951, awardees have included eminent and less-widely-known but equally effective teachers at all levels. Nominations should focus on the candidate’s contributions to and effectiveness in teaching chemistry. The nominee’s curriculum vitae should be included and, where appropriate, a list of honors, awards, and publications related to chemical education. Seconding letters are an important part of a nominating packet. These may show the impact of the nominee’s teaching in inspiring colleagues and students toward an active life in chemistry and/or related sciences, or may attest to the influence of the nominee’s other activities in chemical education, such as textbooks, journal articles, or other professional activity at the local or national level. The Committee looks for impact of the candidate’s activities at the national or international level. The nomination materials should consist of a primary nomination letter, supporting letters, the candidate’s curriculum vitae. Reprints or other publications should not be included. The material should not exceed 30 pages. Please direct questions about the content of a nomination to Barry Snider, Brandeis University,
[email protected], the 2008 chairperson of the Norris Award Committee. Send nomination packets electronically in Adobe PDF format) to: Marilou Cashman, Administrative Secretary of NESACS,
[email protected]. The annual deadline for nominations is April 15, 2008.
ChemEd DL Online Workshops Two very successful online workshops have been completed in collaboration with NSTA and the NSDL. The topics were “Chemistry and Taste” and “Sticky Molecules and Protein Folding”. The workshops have been archived at NSTA, at http:// learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSDL/ webseminar8.aspx and http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/ symposia_seminars/NSDL2/webseminar3.aspx, respectively. There will be more of these online workshops as soon as we are able to schedule them with NSDL, which will probably be in fall 2008. Watch this column for announcements. JCE Sponsors Social Events Spring ACS Meeting in New Orleans The Journal is one of the sponsors of the new CHED Social Hour that debuts at the Spring ACS Meeting in New Orleans. See p 34 and watch for updates in future JCE issues. Journal staff look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. It is always good to put a face with an email correspondent. BCCE 20 at Indiana University Journal staff will don aprons to scoop ice cream again, this time on Tuesday evening, July 29. The BCCE’s evening activity for that day will be an art walk/pub crawl with an ice cream social at Bloomington’s WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology. JCE will share sponsorship of the activity with colleagues from 2YC3. We hope to see you there!
Green Chemistry Awards The Green Chemistry Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency invites applications for its awards for Innovative Green Chemistry Technologies, including the prestigious Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Nominations—that are descriptive and brief—are due by December 31, 2007; more information is at http://www.epa.gov/ greenchemistry; accessed Nov 2007.
Announcements Share Your News with the JCE Community! Send contributions to the JCE News & Announcements column to Elizabeth A. Moore, associate editor, by email at betmoore@chem. wisc.edu or at the address on the masthead. Contributions should be concise, to the point, and appropriate for the Journal’s audience. They may be edited for clarity, timeliness, or length.
44
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 85 No. 1 January 2008 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
Chemical Education Today
Awards Announced U.S. Chemistry Olympiad Team Earns Four Medals
The 2007 United States Chemistry Olympiad team in Moscow. From left to right: Kenneth Brewer (Provo, UT, silver medal); Justin Koh (Bakersfield, CA, silver medal); Sofia Izmailov (Plainsboro, NJ, bronze medal); and Brian Lee (Franklin Lakes, NJ, silver medal).
Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities ASM Workshops for Teachers The American Society of Materials (ASM) announces summer 2008 materials science camps for high school teachers. The workshops are for high school teachers of science, technology,
Molecules That Matter: An Exhibit of Art and History Ten profoundly significant carbon-based molecules are the stars of Molecules That Matter, an innovative arts-and-sciences exhibition at Skidmore College’s Tang Museum through April 13, 2008. The top ten molecules—all carbon-based and each associated with one decade of the 20th century—are aspirin, isooctane, penicillin G, polyethylene, nylon, DNA, progestin, DDT, Prozac, and Buckminsterfullerene. Giant-sized, scientifically accurate molecular models of each molecule cluster with sciencerelated contemporary artworks and with historical and cultural artifacts that serve as time capsules of the 20th century. The exhibition puts a human face on its science in the form of Skidmore chemistry students volunteering as gallery docents. Molecules also sports a complementary Web feature accessible at http://tang.skidmore.edu/tagword/1800/; accessed Nov 2007. The interactive multimedia presentation contains an abundance of scientific, cultural, and historical details, documents, and images that didn’t fit into the Tang’s gallery space, designed with input from a dozen Skidmore students (hailing from a range of majors) under the supervision of Tang staff and Skidmore chemistry professor Ray Giguere. Giguere, who proposed the original concept for Molecules That Matter, also served as its co-curator and scientific overseer. Molecules That Matter will travel to the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s new Hach Gallery; the College of Wooster, Baylor University, and Grinnell College. For more information, go to the Tang Museum
A giant nylon molecule dominates the foreground in this installation view from Molecules That Matter. Behind it, Jean Shin’s prescriptionbottle installation, Chemical Balance 2 (2005), embodies three more of the exhibition’s ten molecules: polyethylene, penicillin, and Prozac.
© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 85 No. 1 January 2008 • Journal of Chemical Education
45
photo by Art Evans, courtesy Tang Museum, Skidmore College
photo courtesy of ACS
The U.S. Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) team recently returned from Moscow, Russia with four medals. Kenneth Brewer, Justin Koh, and Brian Lee earned silver medals, and Sofia Izmailov earned a bronze medal. The medals are based on the student’s performance on a five-hour theoretical examination and a five-hour laboratory practical. The examinations are written by the host country but are approved by a jury consisting of two mentors from each country. This year 66 countries sent teams to the Olympiad, and almost all consisted of four students. More than 250 students participated, and the organizers awarded 31 gold, 56 silver, and 71 bronze medals. Next year’s competition will be in Budapest, Hungary. More than 10,000 high school students took the local qualifying examinations this year in the U.S., and, of these, about 900 were invited to take the national examination written by the Olympiad Examination Task Force and revised and approved by the USNCO subcommittee. Each year twenty of the top scorers on the national examination are invited to the U.S. Air Force Academy for two weeks in early June where they have about 40 hours of lecture on topics in advanced chemistry and about 40 hours of laboratory practice. The camp is under the direction of Kimberly Gardner of the Academy, and the lectures and laboratory work are directed by Academy faculty and three mentors. (The mentors for 2007 were John Kotz, Will Lynch, and Kara Pezzi. A former international Olympian and silver medal recipient, J. L. Kiappes, was a peer mentor again this year). The U.S. Chemistry Olympiad program is under the overall direction of Cecilia Hernandez of the ACS, and the USNCO subcommittee is chaired by Seth Brown of Notre Dame University.
art, and mathematics; they are one week long and are free of charge. There are nearly 20 camps locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Teacher participants learn the basics of materials science technology as taught at the high school level; they work hands-on with metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, and develop a greater appreciation for the importance of these materials to modern life. Two semester credits are available to the ASM workshop participants through the University of Washington; a registration fee of $180 is required for this option. More information is available from
[email protected] or may be found at http://www.asmfoundation.org; accessed Nov 2007.
Chemical Education Today
News & Announcements Web site: http://tang.skidmore.edu/, which includes the exhibition’s Web site: http://tang.skidmore.edu/4/exhibitions/doc/2070/, along with a highly informative Molecules Web feature at http:// tang.skidmore.edu/tagword/1800/; all sites accessed Nov 2007.
held June 23–27, 2008 in Washington, DC. More information is available at http://www.GCandE.org; accessed Nov 2007.
Green Chemistry Conference The American Chemical Society announces the 12th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, to be
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2008/Jan/abs44.html
Supporting JCE Online Material
News & Announcements is available in full text (HTML and PDF) with links to cited URLs
Proposal Deadlines National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources These NSF deadlines have been established or are anticipated.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
46
ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Acad. Science and Engin. Careers Full Proposals, Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation and Dissemination January 17, 2008 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Preliminary Proposals April 24, 2008 Full Proposals October 16, 2008 Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEIN) Full Proposals (by invitation only) March 17, 2008 Course, Curriculum & Lab Improvement (CCLI) Full Proposals, Phases 2 and 3 January 10, 2008 Discovery Research K–12 (DR-K12) Full Proposals January 28, 2008 Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research: Workshop Opportunities (EPS) Full Proposals accepted any time Informal Science Education (ISE) Preliminary Proposals March 13, 2008 Full Proposals June 19, 2008 Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) Letter of Intent (if $2–$4 million) December 21, 2007 Full Proposals January 24, 2008 NSF Scholarship in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (S-STEM) Letter of Intent July 10, 2008 Full Proposals August 12, 2008 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring Full Proposals March 4, 2008 Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) Full Proposals January 8, 2008 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Full Proposals, REU Site (Antarctic) June 6, 2008 Full Proposals, REU Site August 18, 2008 Science Learning Centers (SLC) Full Proposals, spring target date February 4, 2008
Official deadline dates for proposals will be specified in the new program solicitation for each program, to be published at least three months before the relevant deadline date. Consult the NSF Education and Human Resources (EHR) Web site (http:// www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=EHR) and that of its Division of Undergraduate Education (http://www.nsf.gov/div/index. jsp?div=DUE) for the most up-to-date listings and guidelines; phone: 703/292-8670; email:
[email protected]. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.*
•
• •
• •
•
•
Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: January 9, 2008 Faculty Start-Up Awards Program: May 8, 2008 Henry Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: June 26, 2008 New Faculty Awards Program: May 8, 2008 Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry: May 22, 2008 Senior Scientist Mentor Program: Completed Proposals: November 15, 2008 Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences: Completed Proposals (by invitation): November 15, 2008
* New submission guidelines may apply; for details, check the Dreyfus Foundation Web site at http://www.dreyfus.org/. Further information and confirmation of the above deadlines may be obtained from The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., 555 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 100223301; phone: 212/753-1760; email:
[email protected]; http://www.dreyfus.org/ Research Corporation
• • • • •
Cottrell College Science Awards: May 15 and Nov. 15 Cottrell Scholar Awards: September 1 Research Innovation Awards: suspended 2004–2007 Research Opportunity Awards: May 1 and October 1 Special Opportunities in Science Awards: suspended 2006–2008
Further information may be obtained from Research Corporation, 4703 East Camp Lowell Drive, Suite 201, Tucson, AZ 85712; phone: 520/571-1111; fax: 520/571-1119; email:
[email protected]; WWW: http://www.rescorp.org/. NOTE: check this Web site for information about a new requirement for submitting applications online.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 85 No. 1 January 2008 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
