Monday, April 5, 2010

California Science Teachers Association teaches students the art of making ice cream�|�Daily Titan

California Science Teachers Association teaches students the art of making ice cream

By JUANITA VASQEZ
Published: April 04, 2010

Students learn the science behind making ice cream from the California Science Teacher's Association Photo By Juanita Vasquez/Daily Titan Staff Writer

It’s cold. It’s sweet. It’s creamy. And that burst of vanilla mixed with the satisfying thought that the ice cream is your own creation is incredibly refreshing.

During The Science of Ice Cream, an event sponsored by the student chapter of the California Science Teachers Association (CTSA), students learned to make their own ice cream – with science.

Around 10 students, not all members of CSTA, gathered in a sixth-floor classroom in McCarthy Hall March 25 to create the creamy frozen treat.

“It’s a science experiment,” said Megan Tommerup, the faculty adviser to CSTA, as students poured ingredients into bags. “If it doesn’t work one way, then try it another!”

It seems that the highest quality ice cream has the fewest ingredients. Besides cream, ice cream has just a few essential ingredients, mainly: sugar, milk and vanilla.

After students placed the liquid ice cream mixture into small Ziploc bags, they were placed inside a larger bag filled with ice cubes and rock salt. Then came the 10 minutes in which they rocked, massaged, kneaded and rolled their ice-filled bag until the contents of the smaller bag solidified.

Christine Tirona, 28, said she heard about CSTA in one of Tommerup’s classes. Although she had never made ice cream before, but she had made butter with the special education students she works with in Garden Grove.

Tirona said she liked her ice cream, but “the process was really cold.”

A fact sheet provided by Tommerup explained the function salt plays in the making of ice cream. When salt comes into contact with ice, the freezing point of ice is lowered, creating and an environment in which the milk mixture can freeze at a temperature below the freezing point of water.

When the kneading was over and the frozen contents of the bags was poured onto plates, students decorated their ice cream with toppings, green cherries being the cause of some commotion, and indulged in their frozen creation.

Ruth Prendez, a child and adolescent studies major and co-president of CSTA, said that they had been

News: Clearing a Path for Latino Scientists - Inside Higher Ed

Clearing a Path for Latino Scientists

April 5, 2010

Whether by choice or by necessity, community colleges are the dominant institution for Latino students: Nearly three in five Hispanic students in postsecondary education attend a two-year college, a far greater proportion than for any other racial or ethnic group.

So to the extent that Latinos are underrepresented among bachelor's degree recipients in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, increasing the flow of STEM students from community colleges to four-year institutions -- and better ensuring the success of those who go on to Hispanic-serving institutions -- is likely to be the best way to attack that deficit, a new report argues.

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The study, "Improving Transfer Access to STEM Bachelor’s Degrees at Hispanic Serving Institutions through the America COMPETES Act," is the latest of a series of a reports prepared by the University of Southern California's Center for Urban Education. It is part of a three-year projectfinanced by the National Science Foundation aimed at helping the NSF carry out a provision in the America COMPETES Act directing it to develop a Hispanic Serving Institutions Undergraduate Initiative. The report was prepared by Alicia C. Dowd and Elsa E. Macias, of the Center for Urban Education, and Lindsey E. Malcom, an assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside.

The study shows that while the number of Latinos earning bachelor's degrees has increased over the last decade, the growth has occurred disproportionately in non-science fields and in the social sciences and

New Education and Health Care Laws Benefit Students - Daily Nexus

New Education and Health Care Laws Benefit Students

By Saffron Zomer

Published Monday, April 5, 2010

Issue 99 / Volume 90

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Alicia Crismali / Daily Nexus

We witnessed historical reform on two critically important issues this week: health care and education. But young Californians could be forgiven for thinking it had little to do with them: almost all the public discussion of health care reform focused on older people’s issues while student loan overhaul was barely discussed. They couldn’t be more wrong - in fact, there are few demographics which have more to gain from the new laws. This time, Congress and the Administration really did deliver on their commitment to young Americans.

On average, students borrow $23,000 in loans to pay for college. There’s good reason for it: a college degree increases a graduate’s lifetime earnings by over $1 million, and opens doors to all kinds of career opportunities. Most of the fastest growing sectors of the job market require some kind of post-secondary education. But while college costs have soared, financial aid has remained stagnant, leaving students to make up the difference with loans, and often to graduate with crushing debt.

The new student loan laws will increase funding for the Pell Grant program, which provides financial aid to millions of needy students. This funding will prevent 500,000 low- and middle-income students from losing their grants, and another 8 million from seeing their awards cut by 60 percent.

Students will also benefit from income-based loan repayment, under which college graduates with federal loans who have low incomes will never be required to send in a payment higher than 10 percent of their monthly salary and can see their loan completely forgiven after 20 years. Best of all - this historic investment in students won’t cost the American taxpayer a cent. It’s all covered by savings generated by eliminating wasteful subsidies paid by the federal government to banks like Sallie Mae, which package federal loans for students.

Health care is often presented as an older person’s issue, but in fact Americans aged 18-24 are the most likely demographic in the country to lack health insurance: of those between the ages of 18 and

California’s kids count on their fingers, but could graduate with a 6.3

San Diego Government - School Districts

BY DAVID KING

SUNDAY, 04 APRIL 2010 16:47

San Diego Unified will have no

part of Obama and Duncan's reforms, or their cash.

SDNR Commentary

According to the US Dept. of Education, last year California’s eighth-graders ranked 46^th in the country in math. Good thing we can cushion the blow and look down upon Alabama, Mississippi and the District of Columbia. But, it sure hurts when kids in Bogalusa, Louisiana tell jokes about how Californians can’t count.

There are three types of people in this world—people who can count and people who can’t count.

California’s math weakness is reinforced by a system consistently producing reasonably-educated kids who graduate high school with GPA’s inflated to meaningless levels like 6.3, who then go on to mediocre colleges and earn B’s and C’s.

In fact, California’s high schools send a lower proportion of graduates to college than all but three other states.

According to philanthropist Eli Broad, the problem is rooted in our dysfunctional education governance, with elected school boards made up of “wannabes and unions,” and the fact that California has the most powerful and “most regressive” teachers union in the nation.

Over the past decade, the California’s Teachers Association (CTA) has blasted roughly $210 million in political expenditures—more than any other group in the state. The CTA is the biggest donor to the state Democratic Party, but it spends money on initiatives as well. The CTA outspent advocates of reform to defeat a ballot measure for school vouchers (which would have helped California’s most disadvantaged kids) and one to reform teacher’s tenure rules (with sickening transparency in preservation of teachers’ job security to the detriment of students).

According to Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, DC education think tank, the CTA has caused California to maintain quality control among our educators using “laughably easy teacher tests.”

Although education is the largest part of California’s budget, spending per pupil is also 46^th in the nation, and at 23.4 students per class, we suffer the largest

ASSU executive: Cardona and Wharton | Stanford Daily

ASSU executive: Cardona and Wharton

Monday, April 5th, 2010 | By Phillip Klimke and Zoe Richards | Edit

With their “One Stanford” campaign underway, Angelina Cardona ’11 and Kelsei Wharton ’12 are hoping to clinch the ASSU executive seats on a promise of unifying students and stakeholders — balancing vast goals with specific student life issues.

Both international relations majors, the pair became friends while they were team leaders for the Foundations for Education (F4Ed) math tutoring program.

Kelsei Wharton (left) and Angelina Cardona. (ELIZABETH TITUS/The Stanford Daily)

Though they joined the race at the tail end of the petitioning period, the two have gained significant traction with the student body, bagging endorsements from seven major student groups: the Student of Color Coalition (SOCC), the Queer Coalition, California College Democrats, the Women’s Coalition, the Green Alliance for Innovative Action (GAIA), The Stanford Progressive and the Stanford Daily Editorial Board.

Cardona and Wharton are no strangers to campus politics, and are the only undergraduate slate with major ASSU experience.

Cardona, currently a freshman resident assistant in Trancos, served as dorm president in Branner her freshman year and was selected as chair of mental health and later as co-chief of staff under former executives Jonny Dorsey ’09 and Fagan Harris ’09.

Wharton, who is currently the deputy chair of the Undergraduate Senate, was previously a Frosh Council representative and served as Ujamaa dorm president. Outside the political realm, Wharton is involved in Volunteers of Latin America (VILA) and the Haas Center’s Public Service Leadership

Students write, run to rescue education

April 05, 2010, 03:30 AM By Heather Murtagh Daily Journal Staff

Michael Costa/Daily Journal
Fourth grade student Zia Moore, 10, writes a letter for Run For FUNds at the San Carlos Charter Center.

“Dear Leeland Yee,” 9-year-old Kendall Mantoani wrote on her lined piece of paper.

“I am concerned about the money that goes into children’s education,” the fourth grader at the San Carlos Charter Learning Center continued.

The little girl has reason to worry. Budget cuts coming down from the state have resulted in the loss of programs, layoffs of teachers and larger class sizes. Less funding is leading schools and often school districts, to fundraise to keep what’s important. This year schools are joining forces. In May, the San Carlos Charter Learning Center and John Gill Elementary in Redwood City will both be taking part in fundraisers to support the schools financially while encouraging physical fitness.

Those from the San Carlos community will be taking part in a 150-mile run from San Carlos to Sacramento called Run for FUNds. At the same time, John Gill will host a move-a-thon. Both will use the fitness-based activities to raise money. But that’s only part of the game plan. Children from both schools are writing letters to legislators about their concerns and inviting the elected leaders to see the impact of budget cuts on schools.

“We would like them to see how larger classes make it hard to learn and teach,” said Christopher Mahoney, director of the San Carlos Charter Learning Center. “An up-close view of the safety and health hazards caused by crumbling buildings is important, too. They also need to look at the kinds of difficult choices that face principals everyday.”

Both schools are also collecting letters from those in their communities who have concerns to share.

“We recognize lawmakers are struggling with the budget, but dedicating a day to a school is the only way they will truly know how to set their priorities,” said John Gill Principal Amanda Kemp.

Children are supporting the effort in a variety of ways.

Eleven-year-old Julien Levy, a sixth grade student at the Charter Learning Center, will be running in Run for FUNds. Last year he was able

Tufts Daily - Editorial | Internships not an excuse for unpaid labor

Editorial | Internships not an excuse for unpaid labor

Updated: Monday, April 5, 2010

In an increasingly competitive job market, it seems that internships are becoming an essential facet of every qualified candidate’s résumé. As such, college students as well as a number of recent college graduates are jumping at the chance to take advantage of the ever−growing number of unpaid internships offered. Recently, however, there have been questions raised about the legality of certain unpaid internships, specifically whether interns are being treated more as free labor as opposed to being given the learning experience and training that internships are supposed to offer.

For an internship to be unpaid, it must comply with the conditions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which includes the stipulations that the employer gains no immediate advantage from the work of the unpaid intern (or “trainee”), that the trainee does not “displace regular employees,” that “the training is for the benefit of the trainee” and that the aforementioned training is akin to the type of education one would receive in a vocational school or a formal academic setting. If the internship fails to meet these regulations, it is required that the business pay the intern at least minimum wage for his or her work.

With these guidelines in mind, it is not hard to see how some internships, especially ones in which interns spend more time doing menial labor than learning the ropes of their chosen profession, are pushing the boundary between unpaid, résumé−building experience and exploitation. Especially in light of the country’s current economic state, it is tempting for companies to take advantage of unpaid interns, and young future professionals in today’s job market often feel that they have little choice but to accept these internships to bolster their work experience.

Under the current system, some companies have increasingly begun to see interns not as future professionals in search of training but as a source of free labor to fill menial jobs that offer little insight into the professional world many interns are hoping to break into. This not only means that interns are not receiving any training that would help them to gain valuable skills that would assist them in the working world, as is required by FLSA, but also that their work is of

Once burned, states may shy from aid contest - New York Times - Starbulletin.com

Once burned, states may shy from aid contest - New York Times - Starbulletin.com:

Once burned, states may shy from aid contest

By Sam Dillon / New York Times

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 05, 2010

A dozen governors, led by Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado, sat with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a hotel ballroom in Washington a few weeks back, praising his vision and gushing with enthusiasm for a $4 billion grant competition they hoped could land their states a jackpot of hundreds of millions of dollars. But for many of those governors, the contest lost some sizzle last week, when Duncan awarded money to only two states -- Delaware and Tennessee.

Colorado, which had hoped to win $377 million, ended in 14th place, and now Ritter says the scoring by anonymous judges seemed inscrutable, some Coloradans view the contest as federal intrusion and the governor has not decided whether to reapply for round two.

"It was like the Olympic games, and we were an American skater with a Soviet judge from the 1980's," Ritter said.

Colorado is not the only state where the initial results of the Obama administration's signature school improvement initiative, known as Race to the Top, have left a sour taste. Many states are questioning the criteria by which winners were chosen, wondering why there were only twoand criticizing a last-minute cap on future awards.

Besides Colorado, a string of other states -- including Arizona, California, Nebraska, South Carolina and South Dakota -- say they have not yet decided whether to keep participating.

"There's a serious conversation going on here about whether it makes sense to put all that time and effort in again to reapply," said Rick Miller, who as deputy schools superintendent led California's state's round one Race to the Top effort, but has since left state government.

Officials from several states criticized the contest scoring, which favored states able to gain support from 100 percent of school districts and local teachers unions for Obama administration objectives like expanding charter schools, reworking teacher evaluation systems and turning around low-performing schools.

Marshalling such support is one thing for a tiny state like Delaware, with 38 districts, they said, and quite another for, say, California, with some 1,500.

Administration officials say they consider last week's outcome a splendid success. By awarding only $100 million to Delaware and $500 million to Tennessee, Duncan retained $3.4 billion to dole out to up to 15 winning states in September, weeks before

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Latinos outpace whites in grad rates at Western Oregon University | OregonLive.com

Latinos outpace whites in grad rates at Western Oregon University

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

April 04, 2010, 8:44PM

Doug Beghtel, The OregonianCristal Sandoval of Woodburn will be the first in her family to get a college degree when she graduates in June 2011 from Western Oregon University.
Cristal Sandoval says she's on course to become the first person in her family to earn a college degree, in part because of the financial support, tutoring and guidance she's received during her years at Western Oregon University.

"They taught me how to prepare with study skills and how to organize my time," said the 21-year-old senior. Western's support programs for Latino students, she said, "are definitely key to my success."

They also help explain why the college completion rate at Western, unlike at most colleges and universities in Oregon and the nation, is higher for Latino students than for their white peers. Nearly 49 percent of the Latino students at Western graduate within six years, compared with 45 percent of white classmates, according to a study last month by the American Enterprise Institute.

The study, which averaged graduation rates from 2005, 2006 and 2007, found that at most colleges and universities, no matter how selective, Latino completion rates lagged those of their non-Latino white peers.

The lag in Oregon ranges from 4 percentage points at the University of Oregon to 15 points at Willamette University, the report found. Those percentages, however, do not account for students who graduate after

Israeli youth spread message of peace with Portland peers

by Larry Bingham, The Oregonian

Twenty-one Israeli youths -- 15 girls and six boys primarily in middle-school grades -- are spending roughly two weeks in the Portland area spreading a message of peace. They come from a school in Jerusalem that integrates Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Schools Matter: Broad Alumni Making It Big in Corporate Takeover of American Education

Broad Alumni Making It Big in Corporate Takeover of American Education

Eli Broad's Superintendents Academy is paying big dividends for the corporate takeover of American education and the crushing of the teaching profession. In Kansas City a plan developed byBroad's lawyers and Broad Alum, John Covington, will close half of Kansas City Schools with large numbers of corporate charter replacements. In Delaware Broad Alum, Lillian Lowery, will lead the RTTT funded initiative to use test scores to decide who

Humboldt State may cut entire programs | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Humboldt State may cut entire programs

ARCATA, CA (AP) -- Humboldt State University is preparing to eliminate a number of academic programs as the campus seeks to offset state budget cuts.

After months of discussion, the Academic Senate is expected to make recommendations for program cuts to HSU Provost Bob Snyder by April 20.

Snyder will then make recommendations to President Rollin Richmond, who will make the final decision.

Representatives from the 14 programs targeted for possible elimination are expected to plead their cases to the senate on Saturday.

The senate is expected to vote Tuesday on which programs to recommend to cut, with the goal of saving at least $1.3 million.

Among the programs that could be eliminated are chemistry, computer science, fisheries biology, nursing, philosophy and physics.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Fremont H.S. teachers say, enough is enough

Fremont H.S. teachers say, enough is enough

Posted by Mike Klonsky at 4:01 PM

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, April 5, 2010

California Science Teachers Association teaches students the art of making ice cream�|�Daily Titan

California Science Teachers Association teaches students the art of making ice cream

News: Clearing a Path for Latino Scientists - Inside Higher Ed