NEWS 2006

Great Things are Happening in Texas

December 12, 2006

There are now 41 GLOBE Partnerships in the state of Texas. Texas has a very unique science education organization called the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Teaching (TRC) that provides sustained and high intensity professional development to K-12 teachers of science across the state. Housed at The University of Texas at Austin, this state office is also a GLOBE Partner and will serve as the Texas TRC GLOBE Coordination site.

There are 35 regional collaboratives throughout the state that work with thirty seven institutions of higher education and collaborate with education service centers, school districts and business partners. The TRC has a 15-year record of designing and implementing exemplary professional development using research-based methods, materials and best practices. Over one million students across Texas have benefited from TRC instruction to enhance performance of participating teachers. (See the Regional Collaboratives Map.)

This year, the TRC is focusing its professional development initiatives on earth and environmental sciences for K-12 teachers. An exemplary program currently educating students and teachers in 109 countries, GLOBE was chosen to be implemented. At the beginning of the 2006-07 academic year, 67 educators attended the first GLOBE Train the Trainer session at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Training Session 1: 27-30 August 2006

Each of the 35 collaborative sites has applied and is now a GLOBE Partner. That means that there are now 35 new partnerships in Texas! These new GLOBE Partners will train the K-12 science teachers they serve throughout their respective regions. By the close of the 06-07 academic year, the TRC expects to have 1,000 new GLOBE teachers certified.

Training Session 2: 30 August - 2 September 2006

The TRC GLOBE network, consisting of 33 GLOBE Partnerships, is working closely with the 9 original GLOBE Partners in Texas to highlight special student research projects that are relevant to Texas, further facilitating students and their teachers to select areas of investigation with which they would like to be involved. Updates and new information on the Texas GLOBE Program can be found at http://www.thetrc.org/globe.

Texas Globe Partners Meet at CAST

December 8, 2006

During early November, science teachers and administrators from across the state met in Wichita Falls, Texas for the 49th Annual Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching.  Participants had opportunities to attend short courses, field trips, workshops and listen to nationally recognized keynote speakers.  There was even a special event for the Texas GLOBE partners.

Debbie Raddin, with Forestry Suppliers, was very gracious and sponsored a breakfast for all the GLOBE partners and their trainers.  The attendance was great with two-thirds of the partners in attendance.  During the breakfast, Teresa Kennedy, Director of International/U.S. Partnerships and Michael Odell, GLOBE International Advisory Committee Representative for the North American Region presented an overview of the GLOBE Program and expressed their excitement about Texas being involved with many new initiatives starting in 2007.

Dr. Kennedy proudly informed the attendees that there are now 42 active partnerships in the state of Texas and 150 partnerships in the country.  She and all the staff at GLOBE headquarters are very proud and excited about our involvement with GLOBE.

Dr. Odell, from The University of Texas at Tyler, invited the group to GLOBE’s International Conference to be held in San Antonio the end of July.  Some of the local partners will help host by providing volunteers at the conference.