It’s official! The Minor Planet Center announced on November 2, 2012 that the Main Belt asteroid discovered by Texas Regional Collaboratives Teacher, Denise Rothrock, has been officially named MadisonvilleHigh. Denise who teaches physics and astronomy at Madisonville High School in Madisonville, Texas discovered the asteroid while teaching middle school.

Research shows that providing hands-on approaches to real-life processes engages students in active and purposeful learning. This is the model that the Texas Regional Collaboratives (TRC) provided to 55 South Texas teachers, facilitators, coaches, and administrators at the annual Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology Education Conference (HESTEC) at The University of Texas Pan American, September 24-28, 2012.

The TRC hosted a week long PDA in June for teams of high school geometry and construction science teachers. Contextual Learning Concepts provided the training on how to infuse math into the Career and Technical Education courses, where students can readily identify the relevance of mathematics.

Texas teachers looking for engaging lessons centered on design-based learning have a new web resource from IBM called Teachers TryScience that just may fit the bill.

The Physics Instrumentation PDA held February 13-14th, 2012 in Austin, Texas by the TRC–in partnership with the Texas Education Agency–took the TRC’s PDA concept to a whole new level.