Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Building Your Future: Georgia Engineers Week

Engineers Week 2004 is February 22-28 and the Georgia Engineers Week Committee has a number of outreach activities planned for middle and high school students throughout the state.

2004 Introduce a Girl to Engineering Luncheon.
This is Georgia's fourth year of involvement in the National "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Program." The committee combined efforts with prime sponsors IBM, Georgia Tech, Street Smarts, and Willmer Engineering Inc. to host a special luncheon at the Georgia Tech Bill Moore Student Success Center. Sixty top female math and science students from middle and high schools throughout the Metro Atlanta area and thirty women in the engineering profession will be special guests at the luncheon, designed to promote engineering as a career choice for female students.

Education Outreach in Local Schools and Student Groups.
Engineers and technology professionals interacted with elementary, middle, and high school students to share their career experiences and to promote engineering as a career choice. Schools were offered the opportunity to receive educational and promotional materials related to Engineers Week as well. Many of these outreach activities continue throughout the year. Several firms also sponsor their own activities, such as CH2M Hill's multi-school outreach activities, Johnson Spellman & Associates- Partner in Education relationship with Chattahoochee Elementary School in Forsyth County, and Street Smarts- "Around the World in 80 Days and 80 Ways" program.

E-Week Websites.
The National Committee's website at www.eweek.org is worth checking out. It has information on national programs that local organizations and firms can participate in, as well as profiles of engineers and educational information for students and the community. The Georgia Engineers Week website has current information on activities within the state. You may also contact Jamie Collins at 404-521-2324 for more information about Georgia Engineers Week activities.

Georgia Public Broadcasting Education is supporting awareness about Engineers Week by airing two very special programs on Channel 420. Building a Sound Foundation in Mathematics and Science Education with Dr. James W. Wagner encourages students with an inclination toward math and science to begin preparing for a career in engineering as early as middle school. Building Bridges, INSERT INFORMATION. See the Listings for air dates and times.

Monday, February 16, 2004

Learn About the Science of Sweets with CANDY UNWRAPPED

Journey into a tasty and informative world -- a world full of candy. From February 7th to May 9th, bring your taste buds to SciTrek for a "sweet" exhibition -- Jelly Belly® presents CANDY UNWRAPPED. Interactive and tempting, this new exhibition exposes the science of sweets -- and sours -- with the biology, chemistry, physiology and psychology of candy at 20 interactive exhibits. CANDY UNWRAPPED is an exhibition that satisfies your mind even as well as your taste buds.

This sweet exhibit experience includes:


A Bar is Born: Chocolate has been around for thousands of years in different forms and in some cases, different uses. This exhibit follows chocolate through the ages from the discovery of the bean to the modern chocolate bar.

Crystal Mountain: Take a walk across an enlarged sugar crystal. Learn of the beauty of sugar's chemical design, the stages of crystal growth and about the final commercialized product.

Delectable Delights:
Would you eat a termite if you knew it would taste like a potato chip? Well, how about scrambled eggs and bacon? Discover the startling taste similarities between insect treats from around the world and some of your favorite North American foods.

The Doctor is In: What is a lifelike arm with an open wound doing in an exhibition about yummy things? Take a quiz with Dr. Donna to determine which sweet products can be used to heal a wound.

Energy Burn:
Jump on the energy burn bike and peddle away for one minute to determine how much of a sugar cube and how many calories you can burn off in 60 seconds. Learn about the way your body creates and uses energy and which types of food energy work best for your body.

Extreme:
When you hear Torture Scorchers, Mega Warheads, Viper Venom and Toe Jam, do you think "Yum" or "Yikes"? Extreme will allow visitors to visit the past and present of the ultimate in extreme candies from the 40's to the 90's. See how candy companies continue to push the envelope in trying to out-gross, out-gore, out-shock, and out-sour each other to create the ultimate extreme candy.

It's a Tasty World:
What is yummy to some is yucky to others. Some cultures add chili peppers to their sweets and others add tamarind. Have you ever tasted a puff-puff? Discover the stories behind 12 countries to learn how wonderfully different tastes can be and why these candies are so popular in their respective countries.

It's a Wrap: Do you have what it takes to design a product? Sit down and test out your creativity, use bold colors, think of a cool name for your product, and let your imagination go wild.

Pucker Up:
Can you handle the challenge? Taste a super sour candy in front of a camera and watch your face appear on the big screen as you pucker up. After your super sour experience, learn why we make funny faces when eating sour foods or candies.

Sugar Stack: View a giant stack of sugar bags and marvel at just how much sugar an average American consumes in a lifetime. Explore various products where sugar is consumed including refined sugar, sugar substitutes and natural sources of sugar.

Sugar Works: If you think sugar is only good for eating, think again. Find out which products contain sugar and which products don't. Learn about all the surprising uses of sugar. Sugar is everywhere and can do many things from thickening ceramics to biodegrading garbage bags to making your car a safer place to be.

Sweet Memories: Take a walk down memory lane?.take in various smells and discover what memory it evokes. Share your memories with other visitors and find out why smell is the strongest trigger for emotional memory.

Taste Bud Tango: Jump on the oh-so cushy giant tongue and learn about taste buds, where they exist, the incredible sensory complexity of the human tongue, and the different types of taste receptors that allow different taste experiences.

ATTENTION EDUCATORS:
Experiencing this exhibit certainly doesn't begin and end with the physical environment of the museum floor. SciTrek offers a Teacher's Guide with flexible pre-visit experiments and activities for classroom use that are sure to surprise, delight, and prepare students as well as provide post-visit investigations that extend the learning experience. In addition, SciTrek is also offering a hands-on candy workshop during the exhibit's length of stay. Students will get more than they bargained for while learning about one of the world's most appealing topics - candy!

To make a reservation to explore the science behind the delicious and engaging world of candy and other yummy treats, please contact our group sales coordinator, Kristy Parker, at 404-522-5500 x231 or send an email to reservations@scitrek.org.

Sunday, February 8, 2004

Helping Teachers Teach Economics

How do you teach economics and get more than a blank stare? Know the material. Relate it to the real world, and make it hands-on.

This may be easier said than done for teachers with no formal training in economics or how to teach it. The Georgia Council on Economic Education fills that gap, helping teachers boost their comfort level with teaching economics or incorporating economics into other courses.

The vision of this nonprofit that serves teachers is that students will leave Georgia schools prepared for their economic roles as workers, consumers, and citizens. Thanks to the generosity of businesses, foundations, and individuals, most of the Georgia Council's materials and workshops are offered at no cost to any teacher in any public or independent school in Georgia.

GCEE is a teacher's portal to proven strategies to help introduce economic concepts to students of all ages and learning levels. Just a few of the programs:

* Mini-Society, where elementary students learn economic concepts by creating their own society.
* The Georgia Economic History Project and the Wide World of Trade to show economic motives in middle school social studies topics.
* The Stock Market Game to introduce students from elementary through high school to a range of economic topics.
* Extensive support, curriculum, and classroom materials for teachers of the required high-school economics course.
* Basic training for teachers of high school Advanced Placement economics.

Call the Georgia Council at 404-651-3280 or visit www.gcee.org to order materials, register for workshops, or ask questions on a message board moderated by award-winning teachers.

Saturday, February 7, 2004

A Notice About Copyright

Many educators have expressed an interest in Standard Deviants, a topic-based video series designed for use in teh classroom to teach important concepts ranging from math and science to literature and foreign language. Please note that PeachStar only has rights to broadcast this series two times per school year - that means that you will need ot be sure to record Standard Deviants when it is scheduled to air because we will not be able to rebroadcast it via Video On Request. Look for broadcast dates and time sfor this series, which will air on Channel 420, on page 12 and don't miss your chance to add it to your video library!

Monday, February 2, 2004

Smart Start Georgia Grants Nearly $1 Million to Georgia Educators to Help Improve the Quality of Early

During the early years of development, it is important that young children form and maintain strong attachments to caregivers. Research from the National Center for the Early Childhood Work Force shows that every year, 40 percent of child care workers leave their jobs. This turnover has a detrimental effect on children during the formative years from birth to age three. However, programs such as Smart Start Georgia's INCENTIVE$ have helped Georgia achieve a low nine percent turnover rate among providers.

Through INCENTIVE$, Smart Start Georgia rewards early learning professionals for increasing their education and continuing their work in the field by supplementing salaries. This quarter, 2,040 early learning professionals in 124 Georgia counties collectively received nearly $1 million from Smart Start Georgia's INCENTIVE$ program. Of those, 288 INCENTIVE$ recipients are at Head Start centers and 726 INCENTIVE$ recipients are at Office of School Readiness Pre-K centers.

"Smart Start Georgia fosters quality early learning experiences so that each child in Georgia is ready to succeed by the time he or she enters kindergarten," said Sharen Hausmann, director of Smart Start Georgia. "Smart Start Georgia encourages early learning providers to achieve higher levels of education, which in turn helps our children achieve future successes in life."

Since its inception in April 2001, INCENTIVE$ has distributed nearly $3.5 million to more than 2,000 recipients in 124 Georgia counties.

"Research shows that children who experience quality early learning are less likely to drop out of school, repeat grades, need special education, or get into future trouble with the law than similar children who did not have such exposure," said Marsha Moore, executive director of Georgia's Office of School Readiness. "Initiatives such as Smart Start Georgia's INCENTIVE$ program help promote the high-quality, stable learning environments needed for children to succeed later in life."

For additional information on Smart Start Georgia programs or how to become involved, please call 1.877.STARTGA or visit www.smartstartga.org.