Education briefs News-Chronicle GREEN BAY Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium adds two schools The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, headquartered at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, is increasing to 26 members statewide with the addition of the University of Wisconsin-Superior and Wisconsin Lutheran College. The Consortium fosters the recruitment and support of students in science, mathematics and technology by funding research, student scholarships and outreach projects in a wide variety of fields related to aerospace. By adding the two academic institutions it will expand its geographic reach and provide space-related opportunities to more students. Through Space Grant-funded programs, hundreds of Wisconsin students have conducted experiments in microgravity, built and launched rockets and high-altitude balloons, learned about aviation in summer camp settings, and taken part in other learning experiences relating to aerospace. GREEN BAY Wisconsin Space Grant wins $100,000 from NASA The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium has won a $100,000 grant for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to continue student-designed satellite projects and expand into engineering rocket competitions. The Consortium received the grant through a program aimed at enlarging the “pipeline” of higher education graduates and faculty who become involved with NASA as employees, contractors, or researchers. The student satellite program will expand into two separate opportunites. The first, known as the Elijah project, gives college students the opportunity to design and launch their own aerospace missions using weather balloons that travel 100,000 feet or higher – heights considered to be at the “edge” of space. The first launches were in summer 2003. The second part of the proposed program will be a rocket competition, in which student teams will face engineering challenges. Examples of the challenges include pinpoint landing and the ability to design a rocket around a fragile payload. Participating students must design, build and launch their rockets. NASA began the Space Grant Consortium program in 1989 to fund research, education and public service projects leading to better education in aerospace science, mathematics and tecnology. The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, based at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, formed in 1991. GREEN BAY Research grants and grant-writing available at UWGB The Institute for Learning Partnership at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will award up to $70,000 in research grants to educators for conducting school-based action research projects in the 2004-2005 fiscal year. The projects must directly impact teaching and learning. Consideration will be given to classroom-specific as well as multi-school or multi-district collaborations. A team-based approach is encourged. Deadline for application submission is 4:30 p.m, March 19. For help in writing the grant application, educators may chose to attend one of two free grant-writing workshops led by UW-Green Bay education faculty. The workshops are 5-8 p.m. Feb. 3 and Feb. 10 at the CESA 8 office in Gillett. Registration is required. Call the Institute at 465-5555 for more details. Application requirements and forms for the research grants can be obtained at the Institute for Learning Partnership, Wood Hall 424, UW-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 or forms can be downloaded from www.usgb.edu/learnpart/. For more information call 465-5555. GREEN BAY: St. Philip School to to hold Parent/Tot Play Group St. Philip the Apostle School, 312 Victoria St., will be having a Parent/Tot Play group 8:45-9:45 a.m. on Wednesdays beginning Feb. 11. The group will meet for five weeks. Children between the ages 0-3 and their parent (or aunt, uncle, grandparent, babysitter) are invited. Activities are geared for this age group. It is a great opportunity for parents and children to learn and have fun. Families interested in attending may contact the school office at 468-7755. The program will be offered again in spring. DE PERE Lady Redbirds to compete at state The De Pere Lady Redbirds Dance Team placed third in the Jazz Division at the Wisconsin Association of Cheer/Pom Coaches regional competiton held Jan. 17 at Kaukauna High School. They will now advance to state competion being held Saturday at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse. The team will perform their award winning performance 7:30 p.m. Tuesday during the girls’s varsity basketball game being held in the gym at De Pere High School, 1700 Chicago St., De Pere. Members of the team are: Allison Vercauteren, Kayla Scray, Ashley Nies, Sara Smejkal, Allison Potts, Alyssa Johnson, Katie Roy, Betsy Spiering, Katie Van Remortal, Autum Zima, Chelsea Wendt, Leah Weyers. Their coach is Katie Hess. DE PERE Course for special events for fundraising offered at St. Norbert St. Norbert College Philanthropy and Development Institute is offering a “Special Events for Fundraising and Public Relations” course 4-7 p.m. Feb. 5, 12, and 26 in the Sensenbrenner Memorial Union, St. Norbert College, 100 Grant St., De Pere. The course is intended for development officers, executive directors, board members, pastors, volunteers and others representing non-profit, education or religious organizations. The course will examine systems for the management of special events, including budgeting, finding sponsors, putting together a good case for support, and marketing the events. Participants will learn to position their non-profit orgnizations through special events. Cost of the course is $139 and equals .9 CEUs. For more information or to register, call 403-3294 or visit ( HYPERLINK http://www.snc.edu/philanthropy ) www.snc.edu/philanthropy. DE PERE “Parents Night Out” planned at St. Norbert College Parents will have the opportunity to enjoy an evening out on Valentine’s Day while raising money for African schoolchildren as St. Norbert College students present the annual “Parents’ Night Out” fundraiser for the Zambia Project. Childcare will be available from 4-10 p.m. Feb. 14 on the St. Norbert College campus. All proceeds benefit the St. Norbert College Zambia Projet, which is a student service group the organizes fundraising activities to support the Zambian Open Community Schools (ZOCS). ZOCS schools in the sub-Saharan African nation provide a basic education to children whose families cannot afford the government school fees. Registration will be accepted through Feb. 7. The cost is $3 per hour per child or $20 per family for the night. A light supper will be served. For more information or to register, call Stephanie McCarthy at 403-3911. DE PERE Professor co-authors research paper James Hodgson, professor of biology at St. Norbert College, has co-authored a research paper that was published in the journal Nature in January 2004. A high point in the paper was the documentation that terrestrial carbon is very important to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The study found that matter found onshore plays a significant role in supporting the aquatic food chain. According to Hodgson as much as 60 percent of the biomass in some organisms in the food web are composed of terrestrial carbon. “Ultimately, we could say that bass are made of maple leaves,” said Hodgson. According to James Morris, program director in the National Science Fundation (NSF)’s division of environmental biology, which funded the research, the study “reveals a surprising degree of dependence of lake food webs on sources of organic matter transported into the lakes from the surrounding watershed. These findings reinforce the concept that the ecology of lake ecosystems is tightly coupled with that of the surrounding terrestrial landscape.” DE PERE St. Norbert to host “Great Decisions” Lecture Series St. Norbert College is hosting a presentation called “Borders or Barriers: Democracy in the Americas” as part of the “Great Decisions” lecture series at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fort Howard Theatre, F.K. Bemis International Center. “Great Decisions” is a national program meant to bring together local, regional and national experts in an eight week lecture series devoted to international politics, economics and culture. Mark Everingham, associate professor of social change and development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, is the presenter for the first lecture. He is a specialist on democracy and human rights in Latin America and is the author of the book, “Revolution and Multi-class Coalition in Nicaragua.” Topics of the series are selected be the Foreign Policy Association of America and are intended to provide a local forum for discussion on current political and economic issues of the day. Participants may purchase a briefing book that includes backgound information on the topics, and may visit the association’s website, www.fpa.org, to access resources, guides to each topic, and national online discussion forums. To participate in the series, advance subscriptions are availabe for the entire series for $36 per person. It includes admission to all eight lectures and the Great Decisions briefing book. Admission to individual sessions is $5 at the door, and briefing books are available for $15. For more information, call 403-3955. DE PERE Notre Dame accepting applications Enrollment applications for pre-school, kindergarten class, new students, and transfer students for the 2004-05 school year at Notre Dame School of De Pere are now being accepted. Enrollment will take place 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on school days in the office of Notre Dame Elementary School, 100 S. Huron St., De Pere. A copy of a baptismal or birth certificate and immunization record are necessary to enroll a child in the school. There is $10 new student fee and a $50 placement fee. Notre Dame of De Pere will be offering pre-school for ages 3-4 and 4-5. To enter kindergarten, children must be 5-years-old be Sept. 1, 2004. For more information call 337-1103. MADISON Public school open enrollment application period Feb. 2-20 The State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has announced that dates for open enrollment applications for the 2004-05 school year are during the Feb.2-20 application window. Parents must apply during the application period to the school district they wish their children to attend. Early and late applications are not accepted. Parents will be informed by April 9 whether their open enrollment applications have been approved or denied. The DPI has the following guidelines for parents who wish to apply for open enrollment: - Deadlines are firm. Application forms must be submitted to the nonresident school district no earlier than Feb. 2 and no later than 4 p.m. Feb. 20. Late applications will be returned. A postmark will not meet the requirment. Hand-delivery of application forms to the nonresident school district is strongly recommended. - Parents may submit applications to no more than three nonresident school districts for each child during the open enrollment period. - Forms must be filled out completely and accurately. Contact the local school district office or the DPI if assistance is needed. An inaccurate or incomplete form may result in denial of an application. - Parents may request enrollment in a specific school or program in the nonresident school district. However, enrollment in the requested school or program is subject to space and other limitations and is not guaranteed. - Most students who attended a nonresident school district under open enrolloment last year are not required to reapply for the 2004-05 school year. However, if the student will be entering middle school, junior high school, or high school in the 2004-05 school year, parents should call the nonresident school district to find out if reapplication will be required. - Parents may apply for their children to attend 4-year-old kindergarten under open enrollment only if the resident school district also offers a 4-year-old kindergarten program for which the child is eligible. - Transportation is the responsibility of the parent. However, some school districts may elect to provide partial transportation. Parents with questions about transportation should call both the resident and nonresident school district offices to find out if any transportation will be provided. Reimbursement of some transportation costs is available for low-income parents whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price-lunches under the fedearal school lunch program. Application forms may be obtained from any public school district, from the DPI or from the DPI’s website at http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/psctoc.html. More information is available from local school districts or from Mary Jo Cleaver, DPI, 888-245-2732 (toll-free) or e-mail at [email protected]. GREEN BAY-PULASKI Local schools receive Title I School Improvement Grants Fort Howard Elementary School and Pulaski High School have received $50,000 grants through the federal Title I Supplemental School Improvement program. The grants will help the schools meet their goals for improving student achievement and are renewable for two years for schools meeting their goals. The schools received the grants based on overall student proficiency in reading and mathematics and progress last year on the four annual measurable objectives used to determine adequate yearly progress under Wisconsin’s plan to meet requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The objectives are test participation, graduation and attendance criteria, and achievement levels in reading and mathematics. The grant awards must be used to supplement current school improvement efforts and are renewable for up to two additional years if a school meets its goals, whether it remains on the “Schools Identified for Improvement” list or not.