In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama’ outlined plans to boost federal education spending. The administration says it will seek to boost the Department of Education’s budget by $4 billion.

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Tags: Grant Opportunities, School Budgets

In this activity, students debate who invented the cotton gin. They come to realize the complexity of the seemingly simple historical statement: “Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.” A follow-up discussion explores the nature of invention, the importance of history, and the nature of historical evidence.

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Tags: African-American history, Class Activities, Class Debate, Ideas & Inventions

The African American History Program online database of the National Academy of Sciences includes African American citizens of the United States who have made significant contributions in science, engineering, or medicine.

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Tags: African-American scientists, NASA, Web Resources

Aerospace engineer Wanda Austin will deliver the 2010 Annual African-American History Program Lecture at the National Academy of Science, Feb. 18. Reservations required.

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Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Web Resources | Comments Off on Lecture: Getting It Right. Feb. 18, Wash. DC

Tags: Aerospace, African-American scientists, After School, Events, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Programs for Teachers

St. Cloud State University has developed a lab on wheels, better known as the Science Express, that visits K-12 schools in central Minnesota. The 53-foot-long semi-trailer contains a highly sophisticated science lab with equipment that no K-12 school could afford to have.

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Tags: Laboratory Experience, Programs for Students, Resources for Teachers, Teacher Resources, Technology for Learning

The Famous Black Inventors Website offers excellent profiles of past and present African-American innovators, as well as a resource page with information on inventors and inventions — highlighting African Americans and women — invention history and trivia, and links to other Internet sites.

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Tags: African-American Inventors, Ideas & Inventions, Web Resources

The Obama administration is developing a new formula to hold schools accountable for student performance as it works to revise the eight-year-old No Child Left Behind law. Changes may include eliminating the 2014 deadline for universal proficiency for all groups.

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Getting middle school students to spend a precious Saturday morning back in school—studying STEM topics, no less—may sound like an exercise in frustration. But, a program developed by the Salisbury, Maryland school district is having great success doing exactly that.

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Tags: After School, Computer Programming, Grades 6-8, Programs for Students, Science

A new report by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) examines mathematics standards used in grades 1-6 by Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea, which were chosen for international benchmarking because of their high performance on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessments. The analysis finds a number of features that can be utilized for the development of K-6 mathematics standards in the United States.

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Tags: Curriculum, Grades K-5, Mathematics, Research, Research on Learning, Web Resources