ADHD and Inclusity Workshop

ILAVESNP presents "Inclusion: Teaching to Embrace Every Student" and "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Understanding and Working with Those with ADHD in the Classroom" on March 26 at Illinois Central College. The presenter will be Julia Ann Oglesby, Special Populations Coordinator at Wilco Area Career Center. Visit the ILAVESNP website for more information and to register.

Pennsylvania College Expanding Sustainable Energy Technology Certificate Program

Luzerne County Community College is planning to expand its Sustainable Energy Technology certificate program in the fall. "The one-year, 32-credit program provides a foundation of college math and science, but expands to specific technical areas about technologies used in the industry. The program is better than going to a trade school because it trains for more than just a single job, said Mark Rutkowski, an engineering technology professor."

For more information, click here.

Obama Announces "Educate To Innovate" STEM Training Initiative

President Obama launched his $250 million "Educate to Innovate" campaign "to train math and science teachers and help meet his goal of pushing America's students...to the top of the pack in those subjects in the next decade." According to the President, "teacher quality is the most important single factor" influencing students' success or failure in STEM subjects. Educate to Innovate, he added, "will help train more than 100,000 teachers and prepare more than 10,000 new educators in the next five years." The AP listed "Intel Corp., the National Math and Science Initiative, PBS and the National Science Teachers Association" as investors in the initiative. Obama also "called on the 200,000" scientists employed by "the federal government to help by speaking at schools and participating in hands-on projects to help stoke a youngster's curiosity in science."

For more information, click here.

$250 Million Initiative For STEM Instruction Announced.

President Obama "will announce a $250 million public-private effort Wednesday to improve [STEM] instruction, aiming to help the nation compete in key fields with global economic rivals." The effort "seeks to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science schoolteachers over five years and provide on-the-job training for an additional 100,000 in science, technology, engineering and math." The Post points out that "it's unclear how much federal spending can grow in a time of rising budget deficits." For this initiative, however, there has been "mobilization on several fronts," with "high-tech businesses, universities and foundations" contributing. The Intel Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, UTeach, NASA and PBS are all contributing in some respect.

For more information, click here.

Women in Green: Opportunities in Environmentally Responsible Occupations

On March 9, 2010 and again on June 2, 2010 the Illinois Center for Specialized Professional Support, in partnership with the Illinois Community College Board, the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, and the Illinois State Board of Education will examine the programs and initiatives which are in place to support the development and advancement of green occupations in Illinois. Please join us for as we explore the unique role of women in “greening” many existing careers and examine examples of effective practices in “going green.”

To learn more and to register visit http://www.icsps.ilstu.edu/services/pd/green/index.html

Success at Every Step: How 23 Programs Support Youth on the Path to College and Beyond

This publication is designed to help policymakers and practitioners learn about effective programs supporting college- and career-readiness. These programs help diverse youth to improve their academic performance, identify career aspirations, build employer-desired skills, plan for postsecondary education, and develop the personal resources necessary to achieve their goals. Twenty-three program
evaluations are briefly summarized to give policymakers and practitioners an understanding of the research findings on effective programs along with a description of why the programs work. The 23 initiatives summarized in this publication clearly do not represent the universe of programs that are successful in helping youth progress along the pathway to postsecondary success; rather, they are the ones that had recent, high-quality evaluations. This review was limited to programs that serve older youth, primarily in middle school, high school, and postsecondary education.

For more information, click here.

Getting Girls Interested in Engineering Webinar

Project Lead The Way® (PLTW®) is joining forces with Engineer Your Life (EYL), to increase the participation of girls in Gateway To Technology® (GTT®) and HS engineering courses by offering a free webinar.

WEBINAR DETAILS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
WHEN: Thursday, October 22, 4:00 pm EST, 1:00 pm PST
WHERE: To register, go to:
https://wgbh.webex.com/wgbh/onstage/g.php?d=666235096&t=a
EVENT PASSWORD (case sensitive): Engineer2009
HOSTED BY: PLTW and WGBH

EYL is a national campaign to showcase engineering as an exciting and rewarding career choice for high school girls. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of girls who are familiar with the EYL web site report engineering as their number 1 job choice. Join us for this one-hour webinar and you will receive the tools you need to increase your participation of girls in your program. If you can’t attend this webinar live, register and you will receive the links for the achieved webinar and free resources.

Nontraditional and STEM Careers by Career Cluster

Wondering how nontraditional and STEM Careers fit into Career Clusters and Pathways? Three handy and attractive Guides crosswalk nontraditional and STEM Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes across Cluster and Pathway. One Guide is for female nontraditional careers, one for male nontraditional careers, and one for STEM careers. These guides are based on the December 2008 Version of Table 3: CIP-Nontrad-Cluster-Pathway and developed by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity. That table is one source for these crosswalks. The STEM-Related Career Cluster document created by the STEM Equity Pipeline Project, a National Science Foundation initiative, was the source for the STEM Nontraditional Careers by Career Cluster Guide. All three Guides were created by Lisa Matejka of Illinois Center for Specialized Professional Support.

MWGCP Kick-Off Conference

Register now for the Midwest Girls Collaborative Project (MWGCP) Kick-Off Conference!

Date: Friday, April 17, 2009

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Place: Northern Illinois University Conference Center
1120 E. Diehl Rd., Naperville, IL 60563

What: This workshop will assist you in finding resources and funding to create STEM activities for young women. Learn about the National Girls Collaborative Project, a partnership between the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (PSCTLT), the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Supporting STEM: Nanotechnology

Register now for Supporting STEM: Nanotechnology


Presented by: Joe Muskin, Educational Coordinator for Nanotechnology Programs at the University of Illinois

When: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Where: Crowne Plaza, Springfield - Plaza I a pre-session to the Connections Conference

What: A hands-on workshop to supply teachers with exciting projects to introduce students to the latest advances in the emerging field of nanotechnology, and spark their interest in CTE careers

Upcoming seminar on Dyslexia!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Double Tree Hotel & Conference Center
10 Brickyard Drive
Bloomington, IL 61701
(309) 664-6446

At the end of this seminar the participant will be able to:
• List and describe five areas of the brain where learning problems may hide
• List the types of dyslexia and their effect on an individual’s learning performance
• List the characteristics of dyslexia and other hidden learning problems
• Describe methods for identifying the three most common types of dyslexia
• Discuss and define various research-based interventions for the clinical and classroom environments
• Develop and implement strategies and accommodations to help an individual with dyslexia learn

See flyer for more information.