A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13165

"WASHINGTON – A report (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165) released [July 19, 2011] by the National Research Council presents a new framework for K-12 science education that identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all students should learn by the end of high school.  The framework will serve as the foundation for new K-12 science education standards, to replace those issued more than a decade ago.  The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering; all three are independent, nongovernmental organizations.

The committee that wrote the report sees the need for significant improvements in how science is taught in the U.S. [emphasis added]  The new framework is designed to help students gradually deepen their knowledge of core ideas in four disciplinary areas over multiple years of school, rather than acquire shallow knowledge of many topics.  And it strongly emphasizes the practices of science – helping students learn to plan and carry out investigations, for example, and to engage in argumentation from evidence."

Open Access journal for biomedical and life sciences by Wellcome Trust, Max Planck Society, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute

June 27, 2011

Leading research organisations announce top-tier, open access journal for biomedical and life science

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust announced today that they are to support a new, top-tier, open access journal for biomedical and life sciences research. 

"The three organisations aim to establish a new journal that will attract and define the very best research publications from across these fields. All research published in the journal will make highly significant contributions that will extend the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

A team of highly regarded, experienced and actively practising scientists will ensure fair, swift and transparent editorial decisions followed by rapid online publication. The first issue of the journal, whose name has yet to be decided, is expected to be published in the summer of 2012."

Wiley-VCH and ChemPubSoc Europe set to launch OA Chemistry journal

Wiley-VCH and ChemPubSoc Europe set to launch OA Chemistry journal - 19 Jul 2011

Wiley-VCH , part of the scientific and technical publishing business of John Wiley &; Sons, Inc., and ChemPubSoc Europe, an association of 16 chemical societies, have announced the launch of an open access journal - ChemistryOpen. The societies are joining a new open access publishing programme announced by John Wiley & Sons in February.

ChemistryOpen claims to be the first open access chemical society journal. It will publish peer-reviewed primary research in all areas of chemistry, and will thus satisfy funding organisations and institutes which require that the research funded by them should be accessible to all. As an additional feature, the new journal will publish short summaries of PhD theses with a link to the full version. This Thesis Treasury will make PhD theses in Chemistry readily accessible while linking them through CrossRef to all cited journal articles in the programme.

The first open access articles will be posted online later this year, with the first full issue following in early 2012. Dr Karen Hindson and Dr Haymo Ross will serve as editors of the journal. To guarantee the highest possible quality the journal will have an Editorial Advisory Board headed by Professors Ramón Martínez-Máñez and Thomas Wirth, whose expertise cover a broad range of disciplines. Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 1987, also supports this initiative as an Honorary Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board.

Posted to Nanowerk (July 19, 2011)

Feds Charge Activist as Hacker for Downloading Millions of Academic Articles - Wired.com

Feds Charge Activist as Hacker for Downloading Millions of Academic Articles
Ryan Singel   |   ryan@ryansingel.net   |  July 19, 2011 | Wired.com   http://t.co/n3GBooF

 "Well-known coder and activist Aaron Swartz was arrested Tuesday, charged with violating federal hacking laws for downloading millions of academic articles from a subscription database service that MIT had given him access to. If convicted, Swartz faces up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
  
The grand jury indictment accuses Swartz of evading MIT’s attempts to kick his laptop off the network while downloading more than four million documents from JSTOR, a not-for-profit company that provides searchable, digitized copies of academic journals. The scraping, which took place from September 2010 to January 2011 via MIT’s network, was invasive enough to bring down JSTOR’s servers on several occasions."

"The indictment (.pdf) accuses Swartz of repeatedly spoofing the MAC address — an identifier that is usually static — of his computer after MIT blocked his computer based on that number. Swartz also allegedly snuck an Acer laptop bought just for the downloading into a closet at MIT in order to get a persistent connection to the network."

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz - press release

Hiring Non-MLS Librarians: Trends and Training Implications - ALA Presentation

The slides to the PowerPoint presentations for all four speakers at the “Hiring Non-MLS Librarians” session, LLAMA Human Resources Section, American Libraries Association Annual Confernece, New Orleans LA, 26 June 20111.

URL: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/l/IR00000459/00001

"Libraries hire professionals from outside librarianship for positions traditionally held by MLS-degreed librarians. Hear results of ALA-funded research to examine hiring practices in public and academic libraries and the essential elements of an orientation for non-MLS hires in librarian positions. We really need research on how to strengthen the MLS and stop this dilution of library staff. Hear and protest!"

Best of the web from American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

Top 25 websites from 2011 (and from 2010 and 2009) chosen by AASL at an ALA presentation in New Orleans. There are a number of collaborative tools.

All of these are free or partly free tools with some great applications. For example, there is something that looks like a cross between Prezi and MindMap called SpicyNodes and a citation tool called iCyte.

Check out the winners at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cfm