The TRW Avionics Systems Division announced that it has awarded $10,000 to the Science Alliance to expand the capability of its web site. The Science Alliance will use the funds to purchase its own server equipped with up-to-date software. SAIC will provide system administration, and SPAWAR will support the work of Dr. George Seymour, the Science Alliance webmaster.
The server and its associated software will greatly expand the Science Alliance’s ability to provide for increased traffic and to handle complex interactive communications. It will also allow the organization to track the activity on various features of its web site. Identifying trends in these data will enable the Science Alliance to enhance the features that are most frequently accessed.
Perhaps the most important reason for the new server is to increase the capability to form collaborative ventures with other organizations within San Diego County and throughout the world. Collaborations between the education, business, research, and informal science communities will provide an abundance of instructional resources and promote mutually beneficial learning and understanding.
This is the third successful Science Alliance grant proposal to be funded. Previous grants have been from the McCarthy Family Foundation and San Diego Gas & Electric, an Enova Company.
If you have not visited the San Diego web site recently, check it out at www.sdsa.org.
Once again, TOPS Staffing Services is making a $5,000 contribution to the Science Alliance. Such generosity comes our way via TOPS’ “Technology Opportunities for Public Schools.” This unique program allows local businesses to designate public high schools to receive donations based upon the businesses’ use of TOPS Staffing Services.
SAIC deserves special recognition for their participation; for the third straight year, SAIC has designated the Science Alliance as its beneficiary in the TOPS donation program.
We appreciate TOPS president Karla Hertzog’s efforts in making this special program possible.
Two high-profile companies have joined forces with very generous contributions in support of the Science Alliance. Pacific Bell has not only donated $4500 toward the hiring of a local science teacher this summer to update our Resource Catalog, but they also took the initiative to contact the Kinko’s Regional Office and enlisted their support as well. Kinko’s will print 2,000 copies of the revised Catalog, free of charge, for the Alliance’s community-wide meeting next fall, which will be held on Thursday, September 24. Kinko’s will also produce several hundred additional copies in time for the 1999 Awards Breakfast and at the San Diego Science Teacher’s Conference in March.
The Science Alliance is extremely grateful for this sponsorship, and will acknowledge the contributions of both Pacific Bell and Kinko’s by printing their corporate logos on the back cover of the Catalog.
Combine 2000 enthusiastic high school students with the latest technology and scientific research and you have a sure formula for success. The first San Diego county-wide Educational Technology Fair, sponsored by the Science Alliance with support from the San Diego County Office of Education, San Diego City Schools, San Diego Science Educators Association, and the five San Diego Congressmen, was clearly a valuable and enlightening experience for students, educators, and participating businesses.
On January 14th, the Del Mar Fairgrounds was transformed into a unique science and technology exhibit hall with hands-on interactive displays, experiments, and futuristic gadgets that gave the students a glimpse of their future. Based on the feedback received, it made a distinct and lasting impression with the students: “things will be more interesting in school,” “it was fun seeing a peak into the future,” “it helped me understand what some companies do and encouraged me to think about what I want to do in the future.”
The educators also felt the experience was extremely valuable. Jim Collins, Science/Technology Department Chair from Valley High School, wrote: “The High Tech Fair was such a tremendous experience for my students. They are still talking about the demonstrations and applying that information to various classroom assignments. I believe this was a new dimension in field trips. Hands-on experience along with practical information orally and printed as well.”
The only people who were disappointed were those not able to attend—a La Jolla High School student stated: “I can’t believe I missed it, that’s all the kids are talking about in science class.”
The High Tech Steering Committee represented the business, education, and government community. A special thank you to the members who worked almost a year to make this event a major success. A very special thank you to Congressmen Bilbray, Cunningham, Filner, Hunter, and Packard for their support and commitment to this county event.
See you all next year at the Second Annual High Tech Fair!
Visit the SDSA homepage (www.sdsa.org) and click on one of the San Diego Educational Technology Fair “Media Reports” to get additional information and pictures about the High Tech Fair. Special thanks to KPBS for providing the photos and sound bites.
On Saturday, January 31 more than 80 stakeholders in science education met to discuss possibilities for an initiative to strengthen science instruction in elementary classrooms. Special invitations to elementary teacher leaders, school administrators, university faculty, schools of education, research scientists, local business/industry scientists, and university students resulted in a group of science educators who dedicated a Saturday to critical conversation and building collaboration. The Partnerships Involving the Scientific Community in Elementary Schools (PISCES) Symposium, held at San Diego State University Aztec Center, featured presentations from Dr. Bob DeHaan, Aminata Umoga, Dr. Kathryn Kozaitis, and Dr. Vernon Allwood from the Atlanta Public Schools Elementary Science Education Partners (ESEP). This leadership team described the collaboration involved in establishing an effective partnership program. Symposium participants met in general sessions and breakout discussion groups to further discuss and plan for the potential of establishing such a program in districts in San Diego County.
Those who attended the symposium worked throughout the day to discuss and plan for the local initiative. Partnerships were then established between schools and scientists to attend a science leadership conference—San Diego Elementary Science Education Leadership Institute (San DELI)—on May 16–20.
The PISCES project is a collaborative effort of the San Diego Science Alliance, the San Diego County Office of Education, and San Diego State University. As a result of the symposium, an extended advisory committee has been established to assist with program development. The PISCES Symposium was made possible through an anonymous donation from a friend of the San Diego Science Alliance and San Diego State University. For additional information regarding the PISCES project, contact Nancy Taylor at ntaylor@sdcoe.k12.ca.us.
The San Diego Science Alliance unveiled its 1997 Report, a corporate-style publication highlighting many of the major events and activities the Alliance has sponsored in its successful three-year history.
This exciting document was made possible in large part by the generous support of Mentus Corporation, which contributed its publication consulting services to the Alliance pro bono, and helped to secure a favorable print cost. Additionally, the Alliance was able to raise two-thirds of the funds necessary for publication, allowing us to devote more of our own funds to new projects that directly support K–12 science education. Many thanks to those individuals who labored under such a short time frame to produce this report, especially Robin Kendall of Sea World, chair of the Communications Committee.
If you have not received a copy of the 1997 Report and would like one, please contact Patricia Winter, chair of the Science Alliance’s Board of Directors, at 619-455-3335, fax 455-3379, or e-mail pat.winter@gat.com.
Special thanks to Guy Iannuzzi, President,
Jennifer Thurston, and Marina Woods, of Mentus Corporation, for making the 1997 Report
possible.
Under the guidance of the San Diego Science Alliance, area high schools have formed a Biotechnology Education Program Hub (BEP) to bring new, biotechnology-related curriculum to their school sites. Faculty from science, mathematics, English, and social studies departments at Kearny, Oceanside, La Costa Canyon, Mission Bay, and Grossmont High Schools are enthusiastically immersing their students in an integrated program developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and BioRad, Inc. By joining together, the schools share the cost of equipment and resources necessary to run vital hands-on activities and discuss biotechnology and its impact on society. The laboratory activities are being facilitated by the Southern California Biotechnology Center.
The first school to receive the equipment and implement the curriculum was Mission Bay High School. Arlene LaPlante, Vice Principal at Mission Bay, said, “The students were very excited about this project. They were totally engaged during class. The next day they took their gels all over campus to show them to other students, teachers, and staff.”
Kearny High School was next in line to receive the equipment and will be followed by Grossmont, Oceanside and La Costa Canyon High Schools. The teachers at the five schools are in contact with each other in order to better prepare their students and implement this program.
For more information about the BEP Hub, contact Leslie Snider at the Southern California Biotechnology Center, (760) 795-6648.
The SDG&E/SDSA Teacher’s Hotline to San Diego Scientists officially commenced operations last fall. The Hotline is a tool for teachers who have questions about science content to have those questions answered quickly via e-mail by a local scientist eager to share scientific knowledge. Roger Scott and Tracy Landauer of WestEd monitor the Hotline daily, routing queries to the appropriate scientists who have volunteered to respond to questions in that particular category.
The Hotline currently has the capacity to handle more queries than it has fielded thus far. Therefore, we plan to make the Hotline available to high school and middle school teachers as well, so that more teachers can take advantage of this useful resource.
The Hotline is made possible by a grant from San Diego Gas & Electric, an Enova Company. For information, contact Tracy Landauer at tlandau@wested. org.
Todd Talashek, NutraSweet Kelco, will be presenting a paper at the National American Chemical Society Meeting in Dallas (March 29–April 2) in the Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. The session will focus on molecular modeling advances in agricultural and food chemistry.
. . .Pat Flanagan, Museum Education Director at the San Diego Natural History Museum, has received an award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA Excellence Award was presented to Pat for promoting cultural and ethnic diversity in coastal and ocean resource management.
. . .Several member companies of the Science Alliance sent people to the Community Leaders Breakfast hosted by the San Diego City School Administrators Association on Thursday, February 19. They were the guests of their partner schools. SDSA member companies represented at the breakfast were: California Space Institute at UCSD, General Atomics, Hewlett Packard, Hughes Network Systems, Kelco NutraSweet, Solar Turbines, and SPAWAR.
The next Science Alliance community-wide meeting is
scheduled for Thursday, September 24, at the Joe Rindone Regional Technology
Center, at the San Diego County Office of Education.
The tenth annual CHEM EXPO in San Diego was a hit where WATER was the theme! There were about 2,500 people in attendance, with more than 1,500 students from 62 different schools, at the Saturday, November 1 event in Balboa Park.
New this year was the American Chemical Society (ACS) Water Hardness Testing Booth. Students brought natural water samples in ziploc bags from 56 different zip codes. Using test strips to monitor the water hardness, the students entered the results into the National ACS database, then marked their results by placing a pin onto a large San Diego map at the location where they sampled.
Water was also the theme for a set of live chemical demonstrations by local college affiliates and for several hands-on demos, including blowing bubbles (water, dish soap, and glycerin) for the younger students. Corporate and government booths (which students visited for extra credit and to learn what chemists like about their jobs) also featured water as the major theme. The City of San Diego had a Water Conservation booth where students learned how to conserve this precious and limited resource, while the City of San Diego Household Hazardous Materials Program booth discussed disposal of these materials in order to prevent pollution of our oceans and bays. The NutraSweet Kelco Company showed how they control the rheological properties of water by hands-on demonstrations of making instant gel worms by mixing alginate (a kelp extract) solutions with water containing calcium ions.
A free raffle was held with a student receiving $50 every half-hour of the 4-hour fair and $500 going to the school with the greatest attendance at the fair (106 students from Scripps Ranch High).
SDSA Newsletter Volunteers
Newsletter Editor:
Janet Trentacosta
Newsletter Staff:
Robin Kendall, Sea World
Patricia Winter, General Atomics
Sciences Education Foundation
Contributors:
Barbara Abelin
Tracy Landauer
Roger Scott
Printing of the newsletter donated by
Sea World of California.
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