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- Title : Directions, Spring 1993 Issue
- Type : Directions
- NSF Org: OD / LPA
- Date : July 9, 1993
- File : dir9307
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- Paying Attention to the Teacher
-
- Throughout the history of education, forward-looking nations have
- sought to resolve the dilemma of how best to educate their youth.
- Yet the debate over the content, context, and methods for preparing
- young people for the future is as alive today as it was in
- Socrates' time.
-
- One might assume that after centuries of experience with
- teacher-student relationships we would by now have distilled the
- essentials of quality teaching into a formula that could guide us
- in selecting, training, and monitoring excellent teachers. This
- goal, however, has remained elusive for a number of reasonsa
- shifting target of what it means to be an educated person, the
- growing demand for universal education at higher levels of
- achievement, the increasing social and cultural diversity in our
- schools, and changing behavioral and familial norms.
-
- As the lead federal agency for mathematics and science education,
- the National Science Foundation has sought ways to provide
- mathematics and science teachers with the tools to do their jobs
- well. Teachers today must contend with a complex and growing
- accumulation of knowledge, as well as rapidly changing
- communication and information technologies. The pace of change
- places tremendous demands on a profession expected to provide
- interesting, challenging, current information to students with
- widely different backgrounds and interests.
-
- In seeking to improve the educational experience of the student,
- it is important to know the special qualities that the exemplary
- teacher brings to the classroom. Can these be infused into other
- teachers? What are the best ways to structure the educational
- experience so that the teacher's efforts offer the greatest payoff?
- Which of the array of new technologies are most useful in improving
- teaching quality? And what are the best methods for getting
- teachers to use emerging technologies to maximum effect?
-
- One way to answer these questions is to identify successful
- teachers and learn from them how they teach. Over
- the last 10 years, the Presidential Awards for Excellence in
- Science and Mathematics Teaching program has provided a mechanism
- for selecting exemplary mathematics and science teachers in every
- state and recognizing their accomplishments. But the Presidential
- Awards program does more than focus attention on teaching
- excellence. It provides a way for excellent teachers to become
- leaders in efforts to promote educational excellence in each state.
-
- Successful change in a decentralized educational environment cannot
- be accomplished without leadership at the local level. If we seek
- to raise the status of teaching as a profession, professional
- standards must be agreed upon by the teachers themselves. It is in
- returning to their local school districts that the 1,400
- Presidential Awardees selected since 1983 have had the greatest
- impact. As teachers who are competitively selected and recognized
- for excellence at the national level, Presidential Awardees gain
- credibility as local education leaders. Many have become active in
- advising state curriculum committees, taken leadership positions
- in professional organizations, become adjunct faculty in local
- universities, and served as mentors and models for countless fellow
- teachers. In addition, they are encouraged to continue their
- contacts with one another through the Council of Presidential
- Awardees in Mathematics and the Association of Presidential
- Awardees in Science Teaching.
-
- The Presidential Awards program has been so successful in meeting
- its objectives that each of the state finalists will now be
- recognized with Governor's Teaching Awards, broadening the
- recognition of excellence in teaching at the state level.
-
- Every successful scientist, mathematician, and engineer owes his
- or her career to a teacher-a teacher who somewhere along the way
- shared a spark of enthusiasm that grew into an impassioned
- commitment. The coming generations of scientists, mathematicians,
- and engineers will need as much help as we can provide, and
- expanding excellence in teaching is a critical first step. NSF's
- eventual success in achieving its mathematics and science education
- and human resources goals is inevitably tied to the success of
- individual teachers. In elevating teacher recognition to the
- national level, the Presidential Awards program has had a notable
- effect at the local level.
-
- Dr. Luther Williams is the Assistant Director for NSF's Directorate
- for Education and Human Resources.
-
-
- Innovative Teachers Lauded for Leadership
- by Lynn Teo Simarski
-
- "I take a lot of pride in this awardit validates what I do."
- "This is the culmination of my career."
- "The award is prestigious, and the fact that we're going to the
- White House sends a message that we're doing something right!"
-
- Such comments by this year's recipients of the Presidential Awards
- for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching suggest the
- excitement that was echoed and amplified when 108 outstanding
- secondary-level teachers gathered in Washington, D.C., March 9-14.
- The recipients of the decade-old citation, which is designed to
- reward and cultivate leadership in teaching reform, were at least
- as enthralled about meeting fellow science and mathematics teachers
- as with the opportunity to be congratulated by President Clinton.
-
- Four mathematics and science teacherstwo elementary and two
- secondary-are honored annually in each state and in U.S.
- jurisdictions. Later this spring, the elementary teachers were
- feted with their own celebratory week. The awards program was
- established in 1983 by the White House, and is sponsored by the
- National Science Foundation (NSF).
-
- While in Washington, the secondary teachers met with top NSF
- officials, including Director Walter Massey. They were also
- addressed by John Gibbons, President Clinton's science advisor, as
- well as by top science and mathematics researchers such as Maxine
- Singer, president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and
- Robert L. Devaney, mathematics professor at Boston University. Many
- teachers also met individually with their congressional
- representatives.
-
- During workshops to exchange favorite lessonsin which fellow
- teachers were enlisted as student stand-insthe teachers seemed to
- be vying to display the greatest inventiveness. To throw out the
- textbook is the norm in this group, commented Debra Hanson, a
- teacher at Florida's Caloosa Middle School.
-
- Mathematics teacher Kay Toliver from East Harlem, New York, dons
- a magician's cap and gown and waves a wand, drawing from a Dr.
- Seuss tale, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, to launch a lesson in
- fractions-as well as science, journalism, and public speaking.
- Appearing as the magic chef of the king in the story, Toliver
- introduces the mysterious substance called oobleck, which the
- students then analyze scientifically-delving into fractions, metric
- measurements, and the use of proportions in problem-solving.
- "Sometimes the kids ask, 'This is math class; why are we writing
- so much?'" Toliver said. "But after awhile they see that math is
- everything." Costumes are a staple in her teaching-she stars in
- another role as the "M&M Lady" and uses Sun Maid raisin characters
- to animate statistics lessons.
-
- Toliver also won the Disney Channel American Teacher Award for
- mathematics this year, and for the first time in 26 years of
- teaching, some of her students want to be teachers-a spinoff from
- her national recognition. Her fellow teachers are just as proud-
- "It's like all of us have won." Of her students, Toliver said, "I
- want them to feel all the time that they're making great
- discoveries."
-
- While many teachers at the Washington gathering cited the
- importance of field trips, Dwight Sieggreen, president-elect of
- the Michigan Science Teachers Association and teacher at Ida B.
- Cooke Middle School in Northville, Michigan, brings the world into
- his classroom, while helping to send other teachers on
- horizon-expanding ventures. Over the past three years, he has
- engineered an annual program for twenty K-6 teachers who travel on
- expense-paid Earth-watch expeditions around the globe. The teachers
- helped with research on the giant clams of Tonga, amphibians of the
- South China Sea, and lemon sharks in Bimini, among a plethora of
- other subjects. At home, Sieggreen's classroom is inhabited by
- seventeen exotic snakes, Nile monitors, Cayman lizards, and other
- beasts. Sieggreen met a teacher from Pago Pago at the Washington
- awards week who promised to send a sample of Samoan sand to augment
- his already globe-spanning collection. "The network is worth
- everything," he says. "I have friends and students who travel all
- over the world." Sieggreen sees the presidential award as "a
- vehicle to open another thousand doors."
-
- Teacher Becky Goodwin, who teaches at the Kansas State School for
- the Deaf-with students ages 3-21set up an outdoor education
- laboratory as a way to bring environmental issues home. The
- facility features a pond, bird feeder, bat house, turtle-viewing
- corner, and greenhouse. Her students wrote the field guide, which
- explains, "The lab is a place for ongoing 'real-life' research, a
- place to learn about responsibility for our planet." Goodwin said,
- "The flowers they plant there are going to multiply." In troubled
- budgetary times, "The lab has given them some sense of permanence-
- some confidence that their school won't be closed." She reported
- that the self-assurance of her students has also grown because
- their teacher's achievement has been recognized with the
- presidential award.
-
- The awardees clearly share an ability to relate school to students'
- lives. Dick Sander, a mathematics teacher from Alaska, demonstrated
- a lesson on matrices that used local animals to illustrate the
- concept of biological dominance. East Harlem's Toliver takes
- children to a busy intersection in the community to count the
- proportion of "gypsy" (illegal) taxis versus Yellow Cabs-about
- 9:1, they discovered-and she uses the ratio to teach about
- mathematics as well as social issues. Paul Cassens, a teacher in
- American Samoa, uses "fish bingo" to teach the English and Samoan
- names of reef fish in the area.
-
- "Let's stop doing labs that have outcomes and let's start doing
- experiments," one science teacher said. Another has each student
- set up a terrarium. "I never say they can't put a cactus with a
- geranium," she said, "which some of them do try."
-
- Even with limited resources, the teachers are creative at
- broadening their students' lives. Virginia Perino, who teaches at
- Stockbridge Valley Central School, New York, helps her students
- plan an itinerary for an imaginary class trip to another state,
- emphasizing visits to sites related to earth science. "My kids live
- in a valley and they don't see beyond the bounds of it," Perino
- said. "This activity does a lot to expand their horizons."
-
- Many teachers found that the week of intense synergy in Washington
- helped to breach their own isolation. "This meeting is an
- opportunity to interact with others who share your vision of what
- the future might be," said an awardee from last year, one of the
- alumni invited back to Washington as part of this year's
- activities.
-
- "Every idea I heard was something new," said Debra Hanson. Two
- teachers who met at the conference, Kathryn Hilts of rural West
- Virginia and David Wood of Washington, D.C., plan to link their
- classrooms by computer, working on joint projects and opening their
- students' eyes to a different cultural environment in the process.
- Science teacher Wilson Flight of Concord-Carlisle Regional High
- School in Massachusetts tendered an invitation to all the earth
- science teachers to stay at his bed-and-breakfast later in the
- year. During the week, teachers also had a chance to forge
- relationships with Washington organizations, at breakfasts hosted
- by scientific and mathematics societies.
-
- Each awardee's school receives a $7,500 grant. "This money is to
- be spent at the teacher's discretion to enhance science and
- mathematics teaching; it will be used in the classroom," said Rose
- Marie Smith, NSF program officer for the presidential awards. "This
- is $7,500 and nobody can say no!" said Teri Lund of Millard North
- High School in Omaha, Nebraska. "I feel like I'm rich."
-
- Many teachers are consulting with their colleagues or students on
- how to use the funds. Some awardees will send other teachers to
- professional conventions, while technology for the classroom is
- also at the top of many lists. At Neptune Middle School in New
- Jersey, where 10 science teachers now share one computer, Barbara
- Pietrucha is adding a second. Toliver is also buying a computer as
- well as an overhead projector-her first in 26 years of teaching.
-
- Addressing the teachers at the awards ceremony, presidential
- science advisor John Gibbons commended the science and mathematics
- teachers for giving their students the gift of critical analysis
- as well as a sense of wonder, "opening a whole new world of
- fascination denied to so many people." NSF Director Massey told the
- awardees, "The qualities that you bring to your work every
- day...your willingness to lead and have your voices heardare the
- best that our nation has to offer."
-
- "The charge is to become a leader, to get on the decision-making
- committees that influence science and math education," said Larry
- Dorsey-Spitz, an awardee alumnus from 1991. "It can be a lonely
- and difficult task, but if change is going to occur, it's got to
- come from the teacher."
-
- Lynn Teo Simarski is a Science Writer in NSF's Office of
- Legislative and Public Affairs
-
-
- Putting the "E" in NREN
- by Stephen Wolff and Beverly Hunter
-
- NSF is combining its mission to reform science education with its
- leadership role in creating the National Research and Education
- Network (NREN). A collaboration between two NSF directorates is
- producing a broad spectrum of projects to advance the state-of-art
- in educational networking. Some examples of these projects are
- described below.
-
- Testbeds and Collaborations
-
- Networking testbed projects are building software and know-how for
- network applications in science, mathematics, and engineering
- education. The projects support innovations in preparation and
- professional development for teachers, classroom science
- instruction, informal science education, assessment of student
- learning, project-based science learning, and state and urban
- systemic initiatives.
-
- Many innovative learning activities in science and mathematics
- require that teachers and students have access to experts, tools,
- and information. The networks help make such collaborations
- possible. For example, the National School Network testbed includes
- reform projects such as Urban Math Collaboratives, Shadows,
- MicroMUSE, Alternative Assessment, and Community of Explorers,
- "Copernicus" internet servers provide easy-to-use software for
- electronic mail, conferencing, database access, real-time
- interaction, simulation, and interactive video. In Community of
- Explorers, teachers and students share simulations, data, and notes
- among schools. Children from around the world, who are involved in
- the Shadows project, measure noontime shadows on their schoolyards,
- share their data, and use it to compute the earth's circumference.
-
- The National Geographic Society pioneered the Kids Network model
- in which students gather data on their local environment (such as
- acidity of their rain water) and, through the networks, work with
- scientists and other students to study, combine, and share database
- information.
-
- Similarly, in the Global Lab project, teachers, students, and
- global change researchers around the world are studying local and
- global ecological change using new instruments and sensors such as
- ozonometers and field data loggers. Internet servers called
- "Alice," with easy-to-use software, will support these and other
- networked science projects.
-
- In a project called Learning Through Collaborative Visualization,
- students and classroom teachers work directly with scientists on
- inquiries in atmospheric science. Using two-way audio/video
- technology being developed by Bellcore and Ameritech, this project
- joins the classrooms to scientists at the University of Michigan,
- the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the National Center for
- Supercomputer Applications in Urbana-Champaign, and Technical
- Education Research Centers.
-
- The Geometry Forum supports a community of research geometers, high
- school and college students and teachers, developers of
- instructional materials, and research in geometry education. To
- prepare new teachers of science and mathematics, Teaching
- Teleapprenticeships enable undergraduates to participate in
- network-based activities directly with K-12 students and practicing
- classroom teachers.
-
- Access to Information Resources, Instruments, and Services
-
- A clearinghouse for networked information will help developers of
- educational materials put their products and processes into a form
- that can be easily accessed by educators. Network programs such as
- "Archie," the "Wide-Area Information Server (WAIS)," and the
- "Internet Gopher" will help users find and access the data.
- The Weather Underground (University of Michigan) is testing
- computer networking systems in which secondary school students in
- inner city Detroit are using real-time weather data and tools from
- the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Middle school
- teachers in Boulder, Colorado, are studying children's
- understanding of atmospheric science concepts while they are
- working with multiple representations of the same weather phenomena
- using National Weather Service data and satellite images.
-
- Although high performance computers and sophisticated instruments
- such as telescopes are not found in typical schools and colleges,
- the networks make it possible for students and teachers, at their
- own work-stations, to access and control such equipment. For
- example, researchers in computational physics develop and use
- software models that require powerful computers to execute.
-
- Students are now accessing those models through the networks to
- develop understanding of molecular behavior. Similarly, in the
- Micro-Observatory project, students will use remote
- computer-controlled optical telescopes to undertake their own
- research projects in astronomy.
-
- General-purpose help for both novice and experienced network users
- will be provided by a new award for Network Information Services.
- Created to provide basic information on how to get connected and
- how to use the network, these customer services will be a boon to
- frustrated users who have exhausted all other sources of help.
-
- The Regional (sometimes called "Mid-level") networks of the NSFNET
- are contributing in diverse ways to the infrastructure and know-how
- for educational networking. For example, the Texas Educational
- Network (TENET), reaching all schools in Texas, is built upon and
- with the regional Texas Higher Education Network. In another case,
- the Northwest Regional Network is working with the Northwest
- Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) to provide technical and
- networking assistance to the schools served by NWREL. And, NYSERNET
- is working with state, regional, and local education agencies in
- New York to establish technical assistance infrastructure for
- educational networking.
-
- As these and other networks expand and evolve, instruction and
- opportunities for learning will reach far beyond the traditional
- classroom.
-
- Stephen Wolff is Division Director for the Division of Networking
- and Communications Research and Infrastructure, Directorate for
- Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
- Beverly Hunter is a Program Director for the Applications of
- Advanced Technologies program in the Directorate for Education and
- Human Resources.
-
- Notes In Brief
-
- NSF Joins the Navy
-
- In keeping with an increasing emphasis on interagency cooperation
- to enhance the nation's science and engineering base, the National
- Science Foundation (NSF) recently joined forces with the Office of
- Naval Research (ONR) in a written Memorandum of Understanding. The
- formal agreement promises to reinforce the informal partnership
- that already existed between NSF, ONR, and the Naval Research
- Laboratory by linking people and programs in stronger ties. For
- example, the Memorandum of Understanding encourages an exchange of
- technical staff, development of better electronic data interchange,
- joint review and funding of some proposals, and "rotational tours"
- at NSF by senior Naval Research Laboratory staff members.
-
- Thank the Fish for Seed Dispersal
-
- When streams in tropical rain forests flood, their fish populations
- often swim into the adjacent forests, in some cases for dozens of
- miles. Fish species that feed on tropical fruit seeds may then
- disperse these seeds over large areas beyond the normal stream
- boundaries. Previous studies have revealed that some fish are major
- components of this seed dispersal system. National Science
- Foundation-funded biologist Michael Horn of California State
- University at Fullerton is investigating the diet of these tropical
- fish, particularly their consumption of figs, as well as the nature
- and degree of seed dispersal into forests near streams in Costa
- Rica. Horn's study will provide important insights into a
- little-known factor in maintaining tree diversity and ecosystem
- structure in tropical rain forests.
-
- First Remote Geophysics Observatory Scans Antarctic Sky
-
- The first of six hundred unmanned geophysics observatories is up
- and running in Antarctica, watching the upper atmosphere and
- magnetosphere tens to hundreds of miles above the earth. Sited
- 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from the South Pole, the Automated
- Geophysical Observatory (AGO) will be part of a network spanning
- the lofty polar plateau by 1995. The AGOs are being built under
- the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is run by the National Science
- Foundation, and they will supplement measurements by the inhabited
- stations. An AGO can store 2.7 gigabites of data, roughly equal
- to a library of three million books, and can be left unattended for
- a year. A warm, propane-powered oasis in the polar temperatures,
- the AGO houses two magnetometers, which measure the earth's
- changing magnetic field as it is tugged by currents of the
- aurorathe Southern Lights. In addition, a radio telescope
- photographs the aurora, and an all-sky camera snaps auroral shots
- more than 700 times a day during the darkness of the polar winter.
-
- Each AGO costs roughly $400,000, but future observatories could
- cost less than one-fifth that much, now that the design stage is
- complete. The only other way to get these measurements would be to
- use a whole slew of spacecraft, which would be considerably more
- expensive, explained John Lynch, NSF program manager for aeronomy
- and astrophysics. With better understanding of the upper
- atmosphere, power and telephone companies could design systems to
- withstand the likely range of magnetic variation that now sets off
- massive power outages, Lynch points out.<R>The AGOs might one day
- be used in the Arctic as well.
-
- (These science news and feature stories were reprinted from the
- National Science Foundation Tipsheet prepared by the Media and
- Public Information Section of the Office of Legislative and Public
- Affairs.)
-
- Space Research from the Ground
- by Syun-Ichi Akasofu
-
- After the last three decades of intensive satellite-based
- exploration, the field of space physics has entered a new age of
- exploration of space around the earth from the ground. Space
- physics is an outgrowth of traditional (before the advent of
- man-made satellites) ground-based disciplines, such as
- geomagnetism, ionospheric physics, cosmic ray physics, etc. It was
- the success of Sputnik that caused a great infusion of physicists
- into these fields, establishing the new discipline of space
- physics. It is for this reason that spacecraft have been considered
- the main tools in space physics during the last three decades. As
- a result, the ground-based research was often considered to be
- supplementary to satellite projects.
-
- However, there have been three important realizations to change
- this trend during the last decade. The first is that satellites
- make only single point measurements in the magnetosphere, a vast
- comet-shaped magnetic structure around the Earth. The second is
- that with the recent advances in data processing, an array or a
- network of ground-based observatories enables monitoring some of
- the basic physical quantities at a number of points on a continuous
- basis. The third is that considerable progress in computer
- simulation studies of physical processes allows us now to combine
- both satellite-based and ground-based results in understanding
- complex three-dimensional processes in space.
-
- In spite of the great emphasis on satellite-based research during
- the last three decades, the National Science Foundation has been
- a strong, consistent supporter of space research based on
- ground-based observations, leading us to the above-mentioned
- realizations.
-
-
- My first involvement in this venture was to set up and operate an
- array of cameras and magnetometers along the Alaska-Greenland
- magnetic meridian. Begun in 1970 under the support of NSF, the
- project featured an array of cameras (perhaps the largest array of
- instruments on Earth) designed to scan the entire polar sky once
- a day and depict many important features of the aurorawell before
- auroral imagers aboard satellites confirmed them.
-
- By 1978, during the International Magnetosphere Study, six meridian
- chains of observatories were operated, again supported by NSF.
- Indeed, the Foundation has a long history of ground-based
- instrumentation and facilities which have contributed greatly to
- progress in space physics. A prime example is NSF's ground-based
- array of incoherent scatter radars. These observatories are located
- along a longitudinal chain stretching from Greenland to the
- magnetic equator.
-
- The multi-instrumented facilities are well situated for both local
- and global studies of the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
- Recently, recognizing the special importance of the polar region
- to global change in the Earth's mesosphere, thermosphere, and
- ionosphere, a plan has emerged to extend poleward the NSF-sponsored
- network. This plan calls for the Polar Cap Observatory to be
- established near the North Magnetic Pole, probably in Resolute Bay,
- NWT, Canada.
-
- Another very successful ground-based NSF program to upgrade and
- modernize instrumentation capable of remote sensing geospace is
- the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions
- (CEDAR) program, part of the Global Change Research program. The
- collection of ground-based optical instruments and radars under
- this program represents a valuable resource that has supplied data
- necessary for critical atmospheric research.
-
- In recent years, ground-based observations have become increasingly
- important in space physics and NSF continues to play a key role in
- ground-based research. This research has advanced both space
- physics and astrophysics in parallel with the National Aeronautics
- and Space Administration's focus on space-based observation.
- Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), a new program in NSF's
- Directorate for Geosciences, is a unique attempt to interrelate
- ground-based measurements and computer simulation methods to
- produce a global circulation model of the near-Earth space
- environment. The proposed NSF-STEP (Solar Terrestrial Energy
- Program) initiative would constitute an important part of the
- ground-based component of the International Solar Terrestrial
- Physics (ISTP) program of the world's major space agencies. STEP
- is the key international program for solar-terrestrial science
- under the International Council of Scientific Unions.
-
- Together, the ground-based observations represent a new initiative
- in space physics. It is an effort to integrate the satellite-based,
- ground-based, and computer modeling projects on a real-time basis.
- At present, it takes many months to a few years to assemble all
- necessary data for space physicists. However, there is no reason
- to continue such an outdated data assembly mode. At the Poker Flat
- Research Range of the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska
- Fairbanks, we have developed a system where a variety of direct
- output from ground-based instruments and results deduced by such
- data sets are displayed all together on computer screens on a
- real-time basis. This system, called the Geospace Environmental
- Data Display System (GEDDS), has established a new mode of studying
- space around Earth and is providing the common working ground for
- space scientists and theorists.
-
- The construction of an expanded version of GEDDS is now underway
- and will become a hub of the GEM, CEDAR, STEP, and ISTP activities.
- The concept of a data hub in this context is very new in geoscience
- and the space physics community has responded positively to the
- idea and supported our effort. We also envision GEDDS being used
- as an ideal classroom for training future researchers in the
- disciplinesuch a display system may prove to be an important
- supplement to textbook illustrations of space physics.
-
- Syun-Ichi Akasofu is Director of the Geophysical Institute of the
- University of Alaska Fairbanks.
-
- Congressional Corner
- by David Stonner
-
- While public attention has been focused on the larger economic
- policy debates in Washington, several bills with important
- implications for NSF have been moving in Congress.
-
- Senator Hollings (D-SC) has introduced S. 4, a major
- competitiveness bill, which with its House companion bill H.R. 840,
- would enhance NSF's responsibilities in areas of research that
- underpin technology development and application. Both bills focus
- on activities at the National Institute for Standards and
- Technology, but they also augment the ongoing NSF sponsored
- Engineering Research Centers and Industry/University Cooperative
- Research Centers. As introduced, these bills encourage NSF to
- develop activities that foster closer cooperation between
- educational institutions, industry, and NSF supported researchers.
-
- A second important element of S.4 is the development of an
- information infrastructure technology to ensure the widest
- application of high performance computing and high speed
- networking. This section of the bill is similar to H.R. 1757,
- legislation introduced by Science Subcommittee Chairman Rick
- Boucher (D-VA) that would expand NSF's role in government-wide
- research on applications for computing and networking. H.R. 1757
- specifies NSF as the lead agency for research on education
- applications, electronic data storage and retrieval, and computer
- networking.
-
- NSF would also be a lead player in assisting the states in
- developing model digital libraries, if legislation introduced by
- Senator Kerrey (D-NE), is passed into law. Kerrey's bill (S. 626)
- seeks to ensure that information useful for educational purposes
- is available electronically.
-
- Finally, in the first of many steps toward producing a budget for
- the coming fiscal year, the House and Senate have both passed a
- budget resolution that was largely consistent with the President's
- budget. This would usually be good news for NSF, particularly since
- the President's budget provides NSF with an increase of almost 19%.
-
-
- However, the budget battles in the appropriations process are just
- now heating up with the House preparing to mark up and consider
- appropriation bills before the start of Memorial Day. The
- difficultly in the process comes about because the President's
- investment proposals exceed the maximum spending allowed by current
- law by close to $6 billion. This means that if Congress is going
- to stay within the spending caps, they will have to cut that much
- out of the President's budget either from core programs, investment
- programs such as NSF or a combination of the two. This sets up a
- situation that makes Congressional approval of the NSF's FY94
- budget request far from certain.
-
- David Stonner is a Legislative Specialist in NSF's Office of
- Legislative and Public Affairs
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