August 12, 2015
Dear ASEE K12 and Precollege Engineering Division Members,
Welcome to August and the start of a new academic year! There are three division-related pieces of information in this newsletter: 1) the 2016 Annual Conference Call for Papers, 2) Division Committees (please consider joining!), and 3) a brief note about financial changes within the ASEE organization. After my signature, please see a few announcements about an award and some NGSS-related resources that may be of interest to you.
1. The Call for Papers for the 2016 Annual Conference has been posted. Head here, and select “Papers Management” from the horizontal purple bar to see a list of all important dates/deadlines. The drop-down list below “Papers Management” will take you to the Call for Papers and to information for authors, reviewers, etc. Our K12 & Precollege Division call for papers reflects a few changes as compared to last year, including that we have removed specific strands from the Research-to-Practice papers. Also, the K12 Curriculum Exchange has a new name: the Resource Exchange. Our Saturday K12 Teachers Workshop (June 25) will also be hosting a Resource Exchange; those submitting to the main conference Resource Exchange are encouraged to also submit to the Saturday K12 Teachers Workshop Resource Exchange. Some dates to keep in mind:
- Abstracts for the main conference are due October 19th
- Reviewers must review abstracts by November 2nd
- Full papers for the main conference (assuming abstract acceptance) are due February 1st
- Proposals for the Saturday K12 Teachers Workshop are due February 4, 2016 (more information in future newsletters)
Please consult this page for a complete list of dates.
2. Division Committees: Our division has formed multiple committees to attend to division business and growth. Below is a list of the committees and their chairs welcoming contributions from additional members. If you are interested in joining those committees, please contact the chair. This is a great way to do some national-level service! Contributing to these committees typically involves communicating via email or phone/web conference a few times per semester, and occasionally reviewing documents. Importantly, your ideas can be shared to shape these initiatives.
- Saturday K12 Workshop Committee – This committee works to assist ASEE with the Saturday K12 workshop. This includes providing input on the format of the day, the call for proposals, the proposal review form, and also actively participating in the review process of the submitted abstracts. Most correspondence is via email; some possibly by phone. Contact the chair, Martha Cyr – mcyr@wpi.edu – if you are interested in joining this committee!
- Sunday Workshop Committee – The goal of the Sunday Workshop committee is to help facilitate two workshops sponsored by our division that are of interest to teachers who attended the Saturday K12 Workshop and other ASEE conference attendees. (Note: This year, the Sunday Workshop will be free to those who attended the Saturday K12 workshop!!) The workshop will be strategically planned to foster interaction between K12 Workshop attendees and ASEE conference attendees. Most correspondence is via email; perhaps one conference call per semester. Contact the chair, Jenny (Melander) Keshwani – jmelander7@unl.edu – if you are interested in joining this committee!
- Diversity Committee – Last year, this committee contributed to the Year of Action on Diversity in many ways, including by adding diversity language to our bylaws. This year, the committee aims to: create content, resources and materials for the Division website; create a “diversity tip” that appears in each division newsletter; and work with other division committees to promote diversity and inclusion in their committee objectives. The diversity committee will kick off with a conference call and do most other correspondence via email. Contact the chair, Morgan Hynes – morganhynes@purdue.edu – if you are interested in joining this committee!
- NEW! Branding Committee – The purpose of this committee is to improve the division’s branding & messaging, both internal to ASEE and externally to stakeholders of pre-college engineering education. Goals: increase ASEE awareness of who we are and what we do; increase Division members’ awareness of opportunities to engage and serve; increase all Stakeholders awareness of our division as the premier resource for all things related to P12 engineering education. Communication: This committee will conduct full-committee meetings using Adobe Connect platform, with optional dial-in. This platform is useful for sharing files and web-cams. Contact the chair, Meagan Pollock – mpollock@napequity.org – if you are interested in joining this committee!
- NEW! Website Committee – This is a new committee aims to gather ideas about how to improve our Division website. Communication will occur primarily through email. Contact the chair (and our Division Webmaster) Michael Stone – devexplosion@gmail.com – if you are interested in joining this committee!
- NEW! Mentoring Committee – This is an exploratory committee to discuss how we may incorporate mentoring within our Division to support its members, including teacher members, new members, etc. Most correspondence via email; perhaps one conference call per semester. Contact the chair, Liz Parry – eaparry@ncsu.edu – if you are interested in joining this committee!
Also, our Program Committee is led by Program Chair Nancy Ruzycki, as well as by Immediate Past Program Chair Merredith Portsmore and Program Chair-Elect Liesl Hotaling. If you have ideas about the conference program to share with Nancy, please send those to her at nruzycki@mse.ufl.edu.
3. Financial Updates from ASEE Headquarters: You may have already learned that ASEE is running with a deficit “of slightly less than $1.2 million.” To address the deficit and in an attempt to make ASEE’s financial practices “more sound,” ASEE is “taking firm actions.” One of these is passing a balanced budget, another is increasing institutional membership fees, and another is “adding a BASS account administrative fee.” Regarding the latter, BASS = Banking and Accounting Services System. BASS accounts can carry over from one year to the next, unlike regular operating expenses. Division membership dues are the primary mechanism by which BASS accounts get filled, albeit not the only mechanism. In the past, we could use 100% of the money put into the BASS account for our needs without an administrative fee. Beginning October 1, 2015, we will be charged 30%. Thus, if $100 is headed towards our Division BASS account, only $70 will be deposited into the account and $30 will go towards the fee. Please see this document for a full explanation, as well as this document for Frequently Asked Questions. (Note that quotes have been taken from the first of these documents.)
Please don’t hesitate to contact me about the division or your interest to post in upcoming newsletters. Have an excellent start to your new year!
Sincerely,
Pam
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Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Ph.D.
Chair, K12 & Precollege Engineering Division
American Society for Engineering Education
Associate Professor of Science Education
Director, Integrated STEM Instructional Leadership (PreK-6) Post-Baccalaureate Program
Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences
Towson University
ANNOUNCEMENTS
| Northrop Grumman Foundation Excellence in Engineering Education Award |
| A partnership between the Northrop Grumman Foundation and NSTA recognizes excellence in the field of engineering education. One award will be presented annually to a K–12 public school science/technology teacher with a minimum of 3 years’ teaching experience. Awardees will be recognized for exhibiting excellence in engineering science education. The award consists of $5,000 for classroom materials and equipment, a cash prize of $3,000, and $2,000 to attend the NSTA National Conference on Science Education. Apply by November 30. Learn more, or download an application. |
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Take a few minutes to brush up on engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with this podcast focusing on the role of technology and engineering in the NGSS. This podcast is a segment of the web seminar Engineering Practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, January 15, 2013, with presenter Mariel Milano, P-SELL and STEM coordinator for Orange County Public Schools.
As teachers across the country work to address the NGSS, many face challenges of finding adequate resources. In an effort to assist, the University of Washington’s Institute for Science and Math Education has compiled free tools for improved STEM teaching. Each STEM Teaching Tool focuses on an issue, offers contextualization as to why it matters, issues to consider and recommended actions.
(STEMteachingtools.org)
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