NOVEMBER 2002 VOL. 62 NO. 3 - International Technology and ...

In the News & CalendarPassagePamela L. Mountjoy, a formerelementary school instructor whomanaged the Teacher in SpaceProgram of the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration, died ofcancer September 12, 2002.Working as an independent contractorfor NASA from 1985 to 1991and as a full-time civil servant for thepast 11 years, Ms. Mountjoy traveledto schools across the country topromote education in mathematics,science, and technology.She helped with NASA educationprograms and activities such asEarthKam, which allows students totake digital images of Earth from acamera mounted previously on spaceshuttle flights and currently on theInternational Space Station. She alsodeveloped an education resource centerto share information collected fromNASA’s space exploration.Ms. Mountjoy began working forNASA the year before the space shuttleChallenger disaster. Ms. Mountjoythen accompanied educator BarbaraMorgan, who was Christa McAuliffe’sbackup on the Challenger mission, onspeeches given at schools.Ms. Mountjoy graduated from theUniversity of Maryland in 1974 andworked as an elementary teacher from1975 to 1985. Her honors fromNASA include the DistinguishedService Medal, the Exceptional ServiceMedal, and the Silver Snoopy forprofessional excellence. She was alsoa recipient of ITEA’s Prakken ProfessionalCooperation Award andworked tirelessly at a number ofITEA conferences with professionaldevelopment and exhibits.Dean’s Summit IIITEA will again collaborate with theInstitute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) on “Deans SummitII: Fostering Campus Collaborations,”a conference to be held January 9-12,2003 in Miami, FL. This summitwill provide participants with effectivestrategies to enhance collaborative programson community outreach, futureteacher preparation, and pedagogicalpractices for engineering education.Themes for this conference willinclude: Integrating/Infusing Standards,Community of Deans, Collaborations,Diversity, Successful Practices, Pipelinefor Teacher Education and Engineering,Funding Sources, andAssessment. The summit will bemutually beneficial to schools of educationand schools of engineering.Schools of engineering can provideeducators with technical expertise andreal-world applications of science,mathematics, and technology curricula.These changes can have apositive impact on the level of technologicalliteracy of ALL students. Inaddition, these reforms can be incorporatedinto continuing educationprograms for in-service teachers.Schools of education can provide engineeringeducators with current pedagogicalstrategies to effectively presentacademic concepts. More informationon this meeting can be obtained atwww.ieee.org/organizations/eab/fcc/index.htm.Rocket ContestThe first ever national rocket contestfor high school teams is off and running.Sponsored by the AerospaceIndustries Association (AIA) and theNational Association of Rocketry(NAR), the Team America RocketryChallenge offers U.S. high schoolstudents the challenge to design,build, and fly a multi-stage rocketcarrying two raw eggs and anelectronic altimeter as close as possibleto 1500 feet. Five winning studentteams will share a total prize pool ofapproximately $50,000 in savingsbonds, and their supervising teachers’departments will share $9,000 in cash.The top 100 teams will compete in afly-off in Northern Virginia inApril 2003. Additional informationand applications are available atwww.aia-aerospace.org.SET for SuccessThe American Institute of ChemicalEngineers (AIChE), along with theGirl Scouts of America, have developedSET (Science, Engineering, andTechnology) for Success Science Kitsfor children ages 8-11. The kits deliverhands-on activities that are educationaland fun while introducing kids to theexcitement of Science, Engineering,and Technology. “Making It Matter”contains two activities and two wordgames dealing with polymers. Kids canmake plastics and recycle one polymerinto another. “Oil Up” contains twoactivities. The first explores cleaningup oil spills, and the second examinesconsequences of an oil spill on abeach. The kits are priced at $30 each(plus $5 U.S. and $10 internationalshipping). Visit www.aiche.org/set/ forordering information or to download afaxable order form.Rough Science on PBSA new PBS series that premiered inOctober 2002, is making science funand accessible. “Rough Science” is thethinking person’s reality show. The10-part series, a co-production of theBBC and Open University, in associationwith WETA in Washington,DC, takes a group of highly skilledscientists, drops them in a remotelocation, and presents them with aseries of science-based challenges,which must be completed with onlythe materials at hand. “RoughScience” adventures and activities areavailable on the companion Web siteat www.pbs.org/roughscience.CTTE Research IncentiveGrantThe Council on Technology TeacherEducation (CTTE) is sponsoring anNovember 2002 • THE TECHNOLOGY TEACHER 3