PROJECT IDEA EXCHANGE “PIE” MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2002 VOLUME 1: NO. 4 http://pie.mcvts.net reade@mail.mcvts.net erreadiii@aol.com PROGRAM OF THE MONTH The February Program of the Month features an educational effort designed by Shirley Read of East Brunswick High School, New Jersey, USA. Shirley was selected as a 2001 Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar and as a result of her selection, visited and studied Japan during October 2001. Her Fulbright action plan, a three-segment program, focused on the exchange of science ideas between schools and others in Japan and the United States.  The first segment focused on a study of historical and geographic incidents of tuberculosis in Japan and the United States. Segment two focused on communications between Japanese and Americans students and others to provide first hand information for a comparative analysis of diet styles in each country. The third segment of Shirley’s program is the study of the affect of tea on cancer cells, reflecting a five-year study currently being conducted by Professor Chung S. Yang of Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. Shirley’s Anatomy & Physiology students are currently contacting Professor Yang as well as students and educators at Ichinomiya High School, Nagoya University and Tokyo University and others in Japan. Shirley invites all interested PIE members who would like to learn more about her science projects or to become active participants (especially PIE members in countries other than the United States) to please email her at sreadski@aol.com. A detailed description of her programs will shortly be posted on the PIE Website (http://pie.mcvts.net) MESSAGE FORUM/SCIENCE PROJECTS and listed under INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. Visit the PIE Website to learn more about these exciting and valuable educational efforts. MEMBER NEWS International communications between students of PIE members have been established. Natasha Kruglova’s (kruglova_natasha@hotmail.com) students at the Sunhill English School of Solnechnogorsk in the Moscow region of Russia and Ernie Read’s (erreadiii@aol.com) students at Perth Amboy Tech High School in New Jersey, USA have begun direct email communications. A total of eighteen students in each school are currently involved and each student is very excited (as well as their teachers) about the opportunities that all involved will have to learn more about their counterparts on the other side of the globe while at the same time practicing and improving their communication skills. Similar programs between Perth Amboy Tech and Deborah Choplin’s (choplin_deborah@homail.com) students at the JF Paulsen School in Teaudun, France along with Gerlinde Schmitt’s (hs-ebern@t-online.de) students at Hauptschule Ebern School in Ebern, Bavaria, Germany are also in the beginning stages. If you are interested in joining or creating similar student email communication programs, simply contact any of the participating schools or the PIE Director at reade@mail.mcvts.net. PIE “TIP OF THE MONTH” This month there are two tips that I would like to share with all PIE Members. Both of these programs are free and are quite educationally and professionally beneficial. First I would like to strongly recommend that every PIE members register for TechLearning News, a wonderful online bi-monthly newsletter published by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and Technology & Learning. Each issue contains numerous extremely valuable educational topics and related websites that you can access to learn more about the topic in question. I have found TechLearning News to be a tremendous source of information when considering technology related educational efforts to enhance student learning and keeping current with trends in applying technology effectively to education. To subscribe to TechLearning News, send a blank message to: join-techlearning-newsletter@lyris.mfi.com or go to http://www.techlearning.com/content/resources/newsletter.html. Second, are you interested in a free, interactive bridge building software download? As part of the celebration of their respective anniversaries, The United States Military Academy, in conjunction with the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), have created and made available an exciting, exceptionally user-friendly bridge building package entitled The West Point Bridge Designer. This is part of a bridge building contest that is currently taking place, open to students K-12 from the United States. To access the download site and learn more about their program, simply go to http://bridgecontest.usma.edu, click on DOWNLOAD and follow the simple directions. It is public domain and may be downloaded onto to numerous computers, as long as the download is not used for commercial or construction purposes. But I strongly suggest that you hurry. The contest ends February 28th and I do not know if the software will be available for downloading after that date. Special thanks go out to PIE member Terry Reagan (Perth Amboy Tech HS, New Jersey, USA) who is the teacher who shared this program with me so that I can share it with you. Terry is currently making great use of the Bridge Designer with his students. Thanks Terry! DIRECTOR’S NOTES I apologize for the fact that PIE Membership Listing has not been recently updated. Hopefully this is only a temporary situation that will be quickly corrected. To keep all PIE members up to date, I will be sending each member a full listing of all members via email. If you do not receive the Membership Listing within one week or if you have any questions or corrections, please contact Ernie Read (reade@mail.mcvts.net) immediately. Again I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion that this situation may create. One last thought. It is often very time consuming to approach education in a “different” manner. You may wonder whether or not the extra time that you spend on a designing and implementing a different approach is really worth the effort. Please remember that the world is rapidly changing, and we must assist our students and others by preparing them to meet the new challenges that they will face. Keep in mind that I am always available to assist you with developing any type of educational effort, especially one that can be implemented using the PIE concept. If I can be of any assistance, please contact me without delay at erreadiii@aol.com or reade@mail.mcvts.net. Be Well, Happy and Safe! Ernie Read PIE Director