Teaching Elements and Principles of Bridge Design - International ...

NEWS AND CALENDAR
IN THE NEWS & CALENDAR
What Happened With
Education in the Latest
National Budget?
The following quick summary was
provided in The Washington Post by
writer, Michael A. Fletcher: The
administration is requesting $56
billion for the Education Department,
a cut of half a billion dollars, or 0.9
percent, from fiscal 2005—the first
reduction in overall federal education
spending in a decade. The budget
would eliminate the Perkins loan
program, which provides low-interest
loans to low- and middle-income
college students. The budget would
use those savings to increase
spending on Pell grants, which
provide college grants to low-income
students, and raise the maximum
award $100, to $4,150. In all, 48
education programs would be
terminated, including those providing
college-readiness training to lowincome
high school students and
federal vocational education
initiatives that the White House said
are not performing well or duplicate
other federal efforts. Some of the
savings would be used to increase
spending in several programs,
including $1.5 billion to extend
federal No Child Left Behind testing
and accountability requirements into
the nation’s high schools.
ITEA’s current efforts are to continue
to be a part of larger coalitions that
are seeking science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) funding and to support
continued funding for the vocational
community. ITEA will continue to
educate its members and other
interested colleagues in procedures
to gain more funding at the state
level. Selected states are having
successes with funding, and all are a
result of the members being active in
communicating with their elected and
appointed representatives or officials.
ITEA’s efforts included a March
Legislative Symposium in conjunction
with the Triangle Coalition for
Science & Technology Education.
Information can be found on ITEA’s
Web site—www.iteawww.org.
ITEA’s 2005 Kansas City Conference
will have programs that address
legislative issues and strategies that
have proven success at the state
level.
For more information or assistance
with legislative issues, contact
itea@iris.org or call 703-860-2100.
New German
Translation
of Standards
There is a new
German
translation of
Advancing
Excellence in
Technological
Literacy: Student Assessment,
Professional Development, and
Program Standards (AETL) (ITEA,
2003). Standards für eine allgemeine
technische Bildung 2 is now available
from Gerd Höpken, Susanne
Osterkamp, and Gert Reich (Hg.),
2004, 180 Seiten, zahlreiche
Abbildungen, Best.-Nr. 385, ¤ 20,00,
ISBN: 3-7883-0385-9.
ITEA Placement Service
Did you know that ITEA provides a
placement service for its members? If
you are considering a job change or
looking for a qualified technology
educator, ITEA is your connection to
positions in technology education.
ITEA individual members can place
their resumes on the ITEA Web site
free of charge for two months, and
schools, colleges, and universities
can post position openings for $100
for one month or $175 for two
months.
Check out ITEA’s Placement Service
in “Members Only” at
www.iteawww.org. You will find
many new position announcements
and resumes. Forgot your password
for Members Only? E-mail
iteambrs@iris.org.
Summer Opportunity
Building on the successes of last
year’s inaugural teacher’s institute,
this year 24 teachers will have an
opportunity to learn about teaching
wireless technology literacy, micro
controllers, robotics basics, and
bringing space technology into their
classrooms during two American
Radio Relay League (ARRL) Education
and Technology Program teacher’s
institutes to be held at ARRL
headquarters in Newington, CT on
June 13-17 and August 1-5.
The theme of this year’s program is
Make the Science of Radio Come
Alive, and participating teachers can
expect to work hard at the institute.
Each 8 to 5 day is filled with lectures,
hands-on activities and
demonstrations, building,
programming, robotics competition,
and of course, time is set aside to
operate W1AW. The first three days
of the institute include instruction on
how to teach wireless technology,
day four is on microcontroller basics,
and the finale is how to teach basic
robotics. The class materials are a
mix of basic theory coupled with
pedagogical (teaching) strategies the
teachers can use immediately when
they return to their classrooms.
Each teacher will receive his or her
own resource library of relevant ARRL
publications, instructional kits offered
by the Education and Technology
Program, the course materials for
“What is a Microcontroller,” and the
“BOE-BOT” Robot kit.
THE TECHNOLOGY TEACHER • April 2005 3