[NAEP] MPES Newsletter

[Dawn Wiseman]

		January 21, 2008
 
		Volume 1,  Issue 1

			MPES NEWSLETTER

Happy New Year!

At MPES we've been rethinking our listserv, and 
we are pleased to launch this new version in 
January 2008. Once every two weeks we'll be 
sending out our new electronic newsletter, with 
links, ideas and resources for bringing math and 
science to your students.

All this information comes to us through various 
listservs we subscribe to, our research and our 
users. So if you have something relevant to share 
with other members of the listservs feel free to 
send it along and we'll include it in a an 
upcoming issue. All submissions should be sent to 
dawn at nativeaccess.com.


International Year ofŠ
The United Nations has declared 2008 the 
International Year of Planet Earth, Sanitation, 
the Reef and the Potato (yes, the potato). 
International Years bring a focus to areas of 
global interest and concern. Each focus has its 
own web page with links to research, data and 
(often) teaching tools.

International Year of Planet Earth
http://yearofplanetearth.org/index.html

International Year of Sanitation
http://esa.un.org/iys/

International Year of the Reef
http://www.iyor.org/

International Year of the Potato
http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html


From NASA Space Weather
This is a good time of year to see Orion the 
Hunter: the constellation rises in the east at 
sunset. Watching Orion ascend, you may experience 
the little-known "constellation illusion." The 
idea is the same as the Moon illusion; 
constellations viewed near the horizon look 
abnormally large. Go outside tonight and look. 
Can you believe your eyes?


The Whale Hunt (a Visual Experiment in Storytelling and New Media)
http://www.northernwaterways.com/blog/?p=104

New media and old traditions blend in a unique 
style to invite the viewer to participate in the 
hunt, and share the story of this vital 
subsistence practice for the Barrow community. 
The work is a collaboration between New York 
based media artist and computer programmer 
(http://www.number27.org/) Jonathan Harris, 
Princeton University visiting lecturer, 
cinematographer, and photographer 
(http://andrewlmoore.com/) Andrew Moore, and the 
people of Barrow, Alaska.

With photographs at least every 5 minutes from 
1:20 AM (May 1, 2007) until 12:30 PM (May 07, 
2007), the site (http://thewhalehunt.org/) 
documents traditional Inupiat life and a local 
hunt for two bowhead whales at Barrow, Alaska. 
The site is designed so that each users visit 
will be unique.

Thanks to Pamela Bumsted. For the link.


Upcoming events
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, UT
April 9-12, 2008

Our good friend Florence Glanfield (University of 
Alberta), who many of you will have met at 
DreamCatching events, is the conference chair for 
NCTM's upcoming national meeting in Salt Lake 
City.

Sharon Nelson-Barber from WestED will be one of 
the featured speakers with her talk, 
Strengthening Mathematics Education Through 
Indigenous Knowledge and Ways of Thinking


Next issue
The next issue of the MPES newsletter is due out 
in two weeks. If you have any information you'd 
like to share with colleagues please email it to 
dawn at nativeaccess.com.