The Science of Innovation
3-D printers and electronic tattoos are just some of the inventions featured in a new video series launched to mark Thomas Edison’s 165th birthday. Produced in collaboration by NBCLearn, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the “Science of Innovation” includes 11 segments – with related lessons – illuminating the process by which scientists and engineers develop innovative ideas into patents and products.
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The National Science Foundation offers K-12 educators a variety of resources and funding for projects. Learn about NSF’s Discovery Research K-12 program, as well the recently released DR K-12 solicitation to support projects that develop and study resources, models and technologies for STEM education.
From safety gear and split-second timekeepers to systems that improve training or healing, the impact of engineering on sports is pervasive. As Team USA heads to London in July, the National Science Foundation has partnered with the educational and Olympics divisions of NBC News to create videos highlighting the engineering that helps the world’s top athletes go for glory. 
If safe, clean drinking water flows from your tap, thank the teams of engineers who design, maintain, and upgrade the complex systems that deliver life’s most vital fluid. Indeed, engineering is all about identifying and solving society’s urgent problems–as your students will see in “Engineering a Difference,” an award-winning video series sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Two online webinars and a workshop that will provide information about the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, including how to prepare Letters of Intent and proposals for the upcoming deadlines, will be held Feb. 15, 16, and 21, respectively. The deadline for registration is Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. The program seeks to encourage talented STEM majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers.
Attention, STEM majors. The nation needs more middle and high school science teachers — and there are several new initiatives to encourage you to sign up for training. Indiana’s Valparaiso University, for instance, just received a $500,000 federal grant to train science undergraduates as educators. The program will include paid summer internships and student-teaching stints. 
Science and Engineering Indicators, from the National Science Board, provides a broad base of quantitative information on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. Its Education Timeline provides statistics and data for every step of the education process that are helpful for students, faculty, parents, and more.
The Art of Science Learning explores ways in which the arts can help improve how people of all ages learn the sciences. Using hands-on, imaginative approaches to science education, the Art of Science Learning is convening scientists, artists, educators, business leaders, researchers, and policymakers in three conferences in Spring 2011.
The PhET project, which creates online STEM-based simulations for free use, has received new grants totaling in $2.5 million from the National Science Foundation and the Dallas-based O’Donnell Foundation. These grants will allow the University of Colorado at Boulder project to expand to a key area of need: middle school science.
