Written by Angelina Weir on January 6, 2012.
The National Space Centre will lead the programme using space as the inspiration for learning
A new academy has been set up to enable teachers to use space as a theme in their core subject lesson plans.
The National Space Centre in Leicester is to lead the programme to promote excellence in science, technology, geography and maths.
Teachers will be able to access training and work alongside scientists to deliver space masterclasses.
The academy is being sponsored by a number of hi-tech firms to promote careers in the aerospace industry.
The National Space Academy will be supported by scientists from the University of Leicester, the University of Nottingham and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, Oxfordshire.
They will be responsible for training teachers to use space concepts in their lessons, providing careers events and organising a bespoke space engineering apprenticeship at Loughborough College.
Complex theories
A spokesman for the National Space Centre said the courses were designed to address the shortage of trained people entering the aerospace industry.
He said the feedback from a pilot project in the East Midlands had been very positive and teachers had successfully used space and the planets as a way of teaching complex theories such as the laws of motion.
Teachers can apply to the National Space Centre in Leicester to take part in the programme, which they can use to enhance learning for GCSE and A-level students.
Sir Martin Sweeting, chairman of the National Space Centres board of trustees, said: “Students respond very positively to the subject of space as a context for their learning.
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Written by Angelina Weir on January 4, 2012.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi professor Evan Ortlieb wants to help students fight cancer and find their educational calling — one college scholarship at a time.
Ortlieb, along with family and friends from Baton Rouge, La., established the nonprofit Ortlieb Foundation in their hometown in 2009.
The organization helps provide funds in 48 states for college students who are cancer patients.
The passion for the foundation, Ortlieb said, stems from his own experience with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which he was diagnosed with at age 16.
Ortlieb, an assistant professor of literacy education, who moved to the city more than a year ago, said his initial cancer treatment in 1999 helped shrink the fist-size growth in his lymphatic system and knock it out.
He spent about three years after that undergoing additional treatments to prevent it from coming back.
Ortlieb, 29, said his cancer has been in remission for 12 years.
The cancer treatments changed him. H
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Written by Angelina Weir on December 5, 2011.
From The Detroit Free Press: Hundreds of administrators in the Detroit school district are moving from expensive leased office space into district-owned property, saving about $1.8 million a year. The move is expected to result in a net reduction of 98,400 square feet. The district will pay onetime relocation costs of $1.3 million but reap the full savings in ensuing years.
Written by Angelina Weir on December 4, 2011.
Human stem cells aren’t immune to the aging process, according to scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The researchers studied hematopoietic stem cells, which create the cells that comprise the blood and immune system. Understanding when and how these stem cells begin to falter as the years pass may explain why some diseases, such as acute myeloid leukemia, increase in prevalence with age, and also why elderly people tend to be more vulnerable to infections such as colds and the flu.
“We know that immune system function seems to decline with increasing age,” said Wendy Pang, MD. “This is the first study comparing the function and gene expression profiles of young and old purified, human hematopoietic stem cells, and it tells us that these clinical changes can be traced back to stem cell function.”
Specifically, the researchers found that hematopoietic stem cells from healthy people over age 65 make fewer lymphocytes — cells responsible for mounting an immune response to viruses and bacteria — than stem cells from healthy people between ages 20 and 35. (The cells we
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Written by Angelina Weir on November 24, 2011.
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.
Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.
For my purposes, I define science books pretty broadly to include science, engineering, computing, history & philosophy of science & technology, environment, social aspects of science and even business books about technology trends or technology innovation. Deciding what is and isn’t a science book is squishy at best, especially at the margins, but in the end I pick books that seem broadly about science and technology rather than something else completely. Lists of business, history or nature books are among the tricky ones.
All the previous 2011 lists are here.
This post includes the following: Strategy + Business Best Business Books 2011, Technology. (Free registration & login required.)
- What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelley
- In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
- Final Jeopardy: Man vs.
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