JCE Software Receives Pirelli Award

This announcement is so recent that not all details are known at press time! But we do know that JCE Software is the chemistry winner of the 11th Pirelli Internetional Award for our entry, Chemistry Comes Alive!.

About the Pirelli Award

According to the Pirelli Group

[T]he Pirelli Internetional Award is the world’s first Internet multimedia award aimed at the diffusion of scientific and technological culture worldwide. Internet multimedia is a broad field that covers any interactive audio visual format that is electronically transmissible. It extends beyond simple websites to include all digital interactive information delivery products and processes such as flash animations, CD-ROMs, WAP and even email attachments.

It was conceived in 1994, developed in 1995, and launched in 1996. To our knowledge, it is the first international competition of its kind on the Web. Awards are granted every calendar year to the best multimedia presentations that concern one of three main themes for the diffusion of science and technology: multimedia oriented toward physics, chemistry, mathematics, life sciences and the enabling information and communication technologies that package, deliver, present and define multimedia itself.

… We believe that the diffusion of social, economic and technological advances are as important as their discovery. Thus, the medium, Communication, is ripe for recognition. As in 1968, when Economics was recognized by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as a fundamental actor in the social and political development of the world, the time for Communication has come: the Pirelli Internetional Award is intended to be only the first step.”

Chemistry Comes Alive! Series Receives the Award

Jon Holmes, editor of JCE Software, flew to Italy to attend the award at a ceremony held at the Temple of Hadrian in Rome and to receive a prize of 15,000 euros.

Jon Holmes receives the Pirelli Award at the ceremony in Rome.

National Chemistry Week—Save the Date!

It’s only the beginning of summer, but you’ll want to take a minute to mark October 21–27, National Chemistry Week (NCW), on your calendar. This year marks the 20th anniversary of this exciting event (see this report for a glimpse of its history). NCW continues to be a great opportunity to get your students and your community excited about chemistry and to show how chemistry really is all around us.

This year’s theme is “The Many Faces of Chemistry” and focuses on the variety of careers related to chemistry. Plans are well underway at JCE to bring readers an October 2007 issue packed with NCW resources. The Chemical Education Today (front) section of the issue will feature vignettes with photos from a variety of people whose careers involve chemistry and science in some way. How might a jewelry-designer’s job relate to chemistry? A law enforcement agent? Wait and see! With each vignette, we plan to cite past JCE articles that include related activities and experiments for students to try. The issue will also include the next installment in our series of resource papers. It will collect the best of JCE resources on the topic of careers. Our regular features, “From Past Issues”, “News from Online”, and “JCE Classroom Activities” will also complement the 2007 theme.

To really plan ahead, the theme for NCW 2008 (October 19–25, 2008) is “Having a ball with chemistry—the chemistry of sports”. Do you have any sports-related article ideas? Tell us! Please contact us via email.

Calling All Subscribers…

If you have a personal subscription to JCE, we need your help—so that we can make our service even better.

We need your email address. Right now we are ready to tell subscribers in an email message when the latest issue is up on JCE Online. We have everything we need to make this service happen except—email addresses.

Send us your email address by contacting us via email or by including this information when you renew your subscription. Or, you can visit us at our meeting booth and tell us in person. Thanks!

Awards Announced

Passer Award Report

The Dorothy and Moses Passer Education Fund Committee recently awarded three grants.

• James I. Collins, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA: to attend a POGIL Workshop in Colorado Springs, CO, July 19–21, 2007.
• Deanne Opperman, Southwest Community College, Sylva, NC: to attend the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center Fellowship Institute in Fairbanks, AL, June 16–27, 2007.
• Sue Roper, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA: to attend a POGIL Workshop in Boise, ID, July 12–14, 2007.

The next award deadline is September 1, 2007. Please see below for information concerning the criteria for applying. The committee chair is Richard Jones.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Applications Being Accepted for The Dorothy and Moses Passer Education Fund

This Fund was established by a generous donation of Dorothy and Moses Passer. Moses (Mike) Passer was for many years the head of the ACS Education Division. The Fund supports grants to provide support for teachers in programs at two- and four-year colleges or universities that do not have any advanced degree programs in the chemical sciences. The awards are to support continuing education activities that must be directly related to the applicant’s teaching and must take the applicant away from his or her campus. The applicant must be a full-time faculty member. The applications are reviewed by a committee. There is no application form but an application must include a description of the proposed activity and how it relates to his/her teaching with dates, locations, titles, and contacts; a brief description of the applicant’s institution and department; a short curriculum vita; an itemized estimate of expenses, amount of aid requested, and sources of all supplemental funds. No support will be given for general attendance at national, regional, or local ACS meetings nor for support of a sabbatical. Closing dates are three times each year: January 1, April 1, and September 1. All applications must be received electronically. For further information or inquiries contact Richard Jones; mailing address is Sinclair Community College, Dayton, OH 45402

Astronomy Education Review

Astronomy Education Review (AER), the Web-based journal/magazine for everyone involved in astronomy education and outreach, is celebrating its 5th anniversary by announcing the online publication of its 10th (and largest ever) issue. The issue is now available.

AER actively solicits interesting papers and articles on all aspects of space science education and outreach. We are particularly interested in increasing the number of papers relating to education outside the formal classroom. The journal gets between 130,000 and 270,000 hits per month from every state of the U.S. and over 90 other countries.

The editors are Sidney Wolff and Andrew Fraknoi; for further information contact Andrew Fraknoi, Chair, Astronomy Program, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022.

Schedule of NSTA Meetings

A schedule of upcoming regional and national meetings of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) appears below.

2007 Area Conferences

• Northern/Midwestern Area Conference: Detroit, MI, October 18–20, 2007. The theme is Engineering a Brighter Future.
• Western Area Conference: Denver, CO, November 8–10, 2007. The theme is Peak Experiences in Science.
• Southern Area Conference: Birmingham, AL, December 6–8, 2007. The theme is Science—From Space to Shore.

2008 National Conference

• 56th National Conference on Science Education: Boston, MA, March 27–30, 2008

Schedule of ACS Regional Meetings

• 62nd Northwest Regional Meeting (NORM): Boise, ID, June 17–20, 2007
• 20th Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting (RMRM): Denver, CO, August 29–September 1, 2007
• 42nd Western Regional Meeting (WRM): San Diego, CA, October 10–13, 2007
• 59th Southeastern Regional Meeting (SERMACS): Greenville, SC, October 24–27, 2007
• 63rd Southwestern Regional Meeting (SWRM): Lubbock, TX, November 4–7, 2007.
• 42nd Midwest Regional Meeting (MWRM): Kansas City, MO, November 7–10, 2007

Schedule of 2YC₃ Meetings

• 178th Conference (Eastern): Bergen Community College, Paramus, NJ; September 28–29, 2007.
• 179th Conference (Southern): Durham Technical Community College, Durham, NC; November 2–3, 2007.
• 180th Conference: Baton Rouge Community College (tentative); April 4–5, 2008.

People

NSB Public Service Award

The National Science Board has announced that Bassam Shakhashiri, University of Wisconsin–Madison, is the recipient of the 2007 National Science Board Public Service Award. He is being recognized “not only for his distinguished service in the Federal Government but also for his influential communication of science to mass audiences through his books and television and radio programs”.