Welcome to the ATE Central Connection! Published the first
Monday of each month, the ATE Central Connection is meant to
disseminate information to and about
ATE centers and
projects, providing you with up-to-date
ATE news, events,
reminders, as well as highlighting new centers, projects, and resources.
In addition, we will also highlight an educational topic with
complementary resources found within
ATE Central to help illustrate how
ATE resources can
be used in the classroom.
We want the ATE Central Connection to be a valuable tool; please
e-mail info@atecentral.net with
any suggestions about how to make the ATE Central Connection more
useful for you or to suggest any information you would like to see in an
upcoming issue.
The National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) is an
integrated partnership of thirteen user facilities providing
opportunities for nanoscience and nanotechnology research. The
Network provides extensive support in nanoscale fabrication,
synthesis, characterization, modeling, design, computation, and
hands-on training in an open, hands-on environment, available to
all qualified users. On its site, visitors will find information
about member organizations, the Network's nanotech tools, research
result abstracts, the Social and Ethical Issues in Nanotechnology
portal, and the NNIN Educational Portal.
This inquiry lesson teaches students about the properties of
materials, specifically they will learn about
superhydrophobic-coated materials in contrast to uncoated
materials. This contains a teacher's preparatory guide with lesson
diagrams, pictures, material lists, and detailed procedures.
Additionally, there is a student work sheet to guide students
through preparing and completing the lab. There is also a document
containing scanning electron images of lotus and magnolia leaves
that could be used in an instructional presentation.
The Atlas of Nanotechnology is a "super-ontology" of nanoscience,
nanoindustry, and nanoeducation. The goal of the Atlas of
Nanotechnology is to link nanoindustry work skills to nano
curriculum and training for intelligent design and management of
workforce development efforts. The central terminology or domain
topic map ensures that the entire space of nanotechnology is
mapped, including both foundational subjects as well as technology
specific areas, such as nanobiotechnology, nanoelectronics, and
nanomedicine.
The objective of this learning activity is to "create an awareness
of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and how their use in future applications
within the field of nanotechnology can benefit our society." This
will be achieved through the use of hands-on models that explore
bonding and molecular geometry. Furthermore, the creation of
carbon nanotubes from carbon sheets will be demonstrated using
folded sheets of paper. This sixteen-page document explains the
Materials and Equipment Needed, Module Procedure, Assessment, and
Teaching Resources necessary for this activity.
Community Connection
Preparing for the ATE PI Conference:
-, 2014
For projects and centers old and new, the annual
PI
conference offers a chance to share experiences, collaborate,
learn, and meet other members of the ATE community. While the
actual conference will not take place until October, now is a
great time to make sure you're prepared. Keep in mind that
registration and hotel reservations are due
.
ATE Central is here to help! As you're getting ready to attend,
here is some information you may find useful:
Resource/Project/Center Records.
Now is a great time to look at the description of your project
or center and its resources on ATE Central. Let us know if you
have new resource URLs, a new project description, other social
media outlets, or a website we should know about. We can best
support and amplify your efforts when we have up-to-date
information about your project or center and its deliverables.
Activity Reports.
ATE Central sends out quarterly
Activity Reports
that communicate data about project and center presence and
usage of project and center deliverables on the ATE Central
site. You are free to use this information however you wish. It
is our hope, however, that the Activity Reports will support and
inform your ongoing outreach efforts.
Events.
Now is a great time to update your upcoming events. In addition
to posting these on your website or through various social media
outlets, make sure all your events are on the ATE events
calendar. If you notice your event does not appear, please
submit it here.
Archiving.
The ATE Central archiving service is available to all ATE
projects and centers as part of the support provided to the ATE
community in executing data management and digital curation
efforts. Having an archiving plan in place means that your hard
work will have longevity beyond the course of your project or
center’s funding period. We are committed to working with
projects and centers to help with plans that work for everyone
and encourage you to contact
info@atecentral.net to
develop an archiving plan tailored to your needs.
Outreach Kit.
The ATE Central Outreach Kit can help projects and centers come
up with an outreach plan or some specific outreach ideas.
Leading up to the PI meeting, the Communication section of the
Outreach Kit might be particularly helpful: it includes tips on
creating a mission statement and designing key messages so you
can get the word out about your project or center.
ATE@20 Books.
Last year the ATE@20 Book + Blog launch was received by the
community with an exorbitant amount of enthusiasm. Whether you
received free copies of the ATE@20 book to promote your project
or center’s efforts and need more, or you never got around to
ordering some but would like to push them out on your campus or
to industry partners now, please don’t hesitate to get in touch
with us. Just send an email to
ate20@atecentral.net
and we are happy to help you spread the word.
PI Meeting App.
Plan which sessions to attend and track your PI meeting
experiences with the annual PI meeting app. This year's app will
be available in October, so keep an eye out for it on the ATE
Central PI
Conference page.
Please contact us at
info@atecentral.net and
let us know how we can support your ongoing efforts. We look
forward to seeing you in DC!
Spotlight on ATE Central Services: Sustainability Workshops and Webinars
ATE Central regularly connects with the community to better
understand the impacts and challenges of being an ATE grantee, and
to ensure that the services and tools created as part of ATE
Central are useful to ATE projects and centers. In response to
surveys
and interviews in which PIs named sustainability as their
number one challenge and the number one area they’d like support
in, ATE Central is conducting a series of sustainability
workshops and webinars over the next four years.
This month, please join Nancy Maron, Program Director of
Sustainability and Scholarly Communications at Ithaka S&R
(sr.ithaka.org), and
Rachael Bower, Director and PI of ATE Central
(atecentral.net), for a kick
off webinar that provides an overview of sustainability issues of
interest to ATE projects and centers. Key topics include the
importance of defining what sustainability means in relation to
your specific project or center deliverables and goals, how
understanding your audience relates to sustainability planning,
and why measuring the impact of what you’re doing is critical to
the process.
Additionally, the first workshop in the series will be held on
at the
PI meeting – sign up when you register for the meeting. We look
forward to having you be part of this critical ongoing discussion!
Did You Know?
A recent
report issued by the National Center for the Analysis of
Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) suggests that
employers show no preference for job applicants who have attended
for-profit colleges over those with community college credentials.
Along with many other great benefits of community college education,
the lower cost of attendance is further proof that community colleges
are a much better bargain than increasingly expensive for-profits.
For more events, please visit the
ATE Central Events page
or, if you have any upcoming events that you would like
posted on ATE Central or in the
ATE Central Connection, please
submit them online.
To add a continuously-updated list of
ATE and
STEM
education events to your website, use the
ATE Event
Widget.
News & Reminders
Is your project/center on Facebook, Twitter, or another social
media site?
If so, please make sure we've found that site and added it to the
ATE
Social Media Directory. Having your social media presence
linked through the directory will help ensure that interested
parties can find you online. In addition, if you currently publish
a newsletter, please let us know, as we will be adding links to
newsletters to the information available on ATE Central.
Follow ATE Central on
Facebook and Twitter
to keep up with all things new at ATE Central and in the
ATE
Community as well as in the world of
STEM
Education
Can
CWIS
software help support your project goals?
CWIS
is open source software, created with
NSF funding, that
can help your project or center showcase resources online. It's
free and very easy to use. The latest version
(CWIS
3.0.2) was released on
and is
available for download on the
Scout site.
Please email cwis@scout.wisc.edu
if you have any questions or would like a quick tour of its
features!
Find out more about ATE Central
For information about ATE Central and how your project or center
can take part and benefit from ATE Central's portal and services
you may want to download the
ATE Central Handbook at
https://atecentral.net/handbook.
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info@atecentral.net.
