SCAD Challenge Awards Scholarships to High School Students

/PRNewswire/ -- The Savannah College of Art and Design, the most comprehensive art and design university in the world, is seeking the next generation of talented artists and designers with its scholarship competition. The SCAD Challenge offers high school seniors and juniors an international stage to exhibit their work as well as the opportunity to be eligible for scholarships to attend the university. The competition focuses on creating projects in film, 2-D, 3-D, toy design, room design, poster design, fashion and writing.

The first competition challenged high school students to create a short film to be featured at the 2010 Savannah Film Festival. The film festival, an annual signature event hosted by SCAD, features the best in independent and innovative filmmaking from around the world. Honored guests have included Hugh Dancy, Michael Douglas, Woody Harrelson, James Ivory, Tommy Lee Jones, Sir Ian McKellen, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Renner, Isabella Rossellini and Emmy Rossum.

The SCAD Film Challenge received entries from more than 15 states and six countries. The top three senior winners were awarded artistic scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 per year while enrolled at SCAD. Students also received passes to attend the 2010 Savannah Film Festival, which presented a full range of cinematic creativity from both award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. This year's senior winners were John Kim from Vancouver, B.C., Canada; Gabe Gilden from Barrington, Illinois; and Seth Boyden from Huntertown, Indiana.

The three junior winners selected by the panel of judges will experience the university this summer with full scholarships to attend SCAD Summer Seminars, workshops designed for high school students to explore a variety of creative disciplines across the SCAD curriculum. The SCAD Film Challenge junior winners were Wes Sherwin from Cartersville, Georgia; Aaron Carter from Hawthorn Woods, Illinois; and Amanda Depperschmidt from Lawrenceville, Georgia.

"The SCAD Film Challenge proved to be an overall success," said Katrine Trantham, senior director of enrollment events and programs. "All the faculty involved were extremely impressed with the level of talent exhibited and look forward to seeing the senior winners at SCAD next year."

SCAD offers the most comprehensive degree programs in film and digital media in the United States. The university offers the only major film program in the United States integrated with an acclaimed art and design institution. Students work with current, industry-standard hardware and software, learn from faculty who are practitioners as well as mentors, and have opportunities for collaboration. SCAD film and television students and alumni produce work that receives prestigious recognition. Some of their work has been showcased at Sundance, Cannes, the Los Angeles Film Festival, the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, South by Southwest, the Palm Springs Film Festival, and many others.

To learn more about the upcoming challenges, visit www.scad.edu/scadchallenge. The SCAD Film Challenge entries can be viewed at http://filmfest.scad.edu/category/scad-challenge/.

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Moon Work Design Contest Offers NASA Internships to Winners

/PRNewswire/ -- Talented engineering students who have ideas on how future explorers might live on the moon could find themselves working at NASA as paid interns.

The 2010 NASA Moon Work engineering design challenge seeks to motivate college students by giving them first-hand experience with the process of developing new technologies. To participate in the contest, students will submit their original design for tools or instruments that can help astronauts live and work on the moon. Top-ranked students will be offered a chance to intern with a team from NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program.

The Exploration Technology Development Program develops new technologies that will enable NASA to conduct future human exploration missions while reducing mission risk and cost. The program is maturing near-term technologies to help enable the first flight of the Orion crew exploration vehicle and developing long-lead technologies needed for possible lunar exploration missions.

Winning Moon Work contestants also will have a chance to attend field tests conducted by the Desert Research and Technology Studies Program, managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The program conducts annual tests of new technologies in landscapes that are close analogs of the moon and other harsh space environments.

Students should submit a notice of intent to enter the contest by Dec. 15. Final entries for the Moon Work challenge are due May 15, 2010. All entries must be from students at U.S. colleges or universities. Although non-citizens may be part of a team, only U.S. citizens may win NASA internships or travel awards.

For complete details and to enter the contest, visit:
http://moonwork.larc.nasa.gov/

Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va., manages the student contest for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Through this and NASA's other college and university programs, the agency is developing student skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- disciplines critical to achieving the agency's space exploration missions.

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Over 3,000 Schools (and Counting) Set to Participate in The American Math Challenge as Practice Week Kicks off

/PRNewswire/ -- With a target of registering 1 million students, this is the last week for kids across the country to sign up for the American Math Challenge! Schools and students can register until November 6, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. ET by logging on to www.americanmathchallenge.com.

The Challenge, which takes place from November 9 - 16, invites middle school students nationwide, ages 9-14, to sign up free of charge to compete online against other American students of similar age and ability in real time, 60-second mental arithmetic games.

The fun officially starts today, with the American Math Challenge Practice Week, which lasts from November 2 - November 6 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Students are sharpening key strokes and practicing their arithmetic as they gear up to compete.

The student with the highest score will be declared American Math Champion and receive a Minted Gold Medal. Up to three top students will be chosen to represent the United States as Team Ambassadors on World Math Day, in March 2010.

The American Math Challenge is hosted by The MATHCOUNTS Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes middle school mathematics achievement, and powered by Mathletics, the learning platform from 3P Learning, the global leader in online mathematics education.

Best-selling author and Guinness World Record Holder as the "Fastest Human Calculator" Scott Flansburg is Ambassador for the Challenge. Flansburg earned his title for his ability to process numbers with amazing speed and calculator accuracy. He can add, subtract, multiply, divide - and even do square and cube roots - all in his head.

Now, "The Human Calculator®" (a nickname given to him by television host Regis Philbin) is using his extraordinary gift to inspire students, teachers and "non-math" people, demonstrating that arithmetic really can be as easy as "0, 1, 2, 3."

"Students compete in a multi-player game environment, inclusive of all levels of math ability, making math exciting" Flansburg notes. "Results show that participants will make significant improvement in their mental arithmetic skills and have fun in the process. All school children and homeschoolers are invited to participate."

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Lexus and Scholastic to Award $500,000 in Grants and Scholarships

/PRNewswire/ -- Since launching in 2007, the Lexus Eco Challenge has inspired and empowered more than 8,500 middle and high school students to learn about the environment and take a stand to improve it. From educating the community about the benefits of solar ovens to producing bio-fuel from used fast food oil, students across the country have tackled a wide range of topics and issues. Students are once again invited to participate in the third annual Lexus Eco Challenge for a chance to win part of $500,000 in grants and scholarships.

The Challenge has two distinct elements:
-- Standards-based supplementary educational materials - encourages
teachers to integrate creative lesson plans into their classrooms to
help teach students about the environment.

-- Competition to reward environmental action - helps young people apply
what they've learned in class through the program and empowers them to
make improvements in their community by participating in the
environmental team challenges.

"We're anxious to see what this third year brings," said Mark Templin, Lexus group vice president and general manager. "The competition is getting tougher as we see the teams working harder to plan and implement innovative, creative and effective programs. It's clear that the Lexus Eco Challenge is making a difference, and it's encouraging to know that we're inspiring the next generation to become responsible stewards of the environment."

The Challenges and Rewards

The Lexus Eco Challenge registration opens on Sept. 28, 2009, and will conclude with the announcement of the first-place and grand-prize-winning teams during Earth Month, April 2010. Middle and high school teams, comprised of 5-10 students and one teacher advisor, are invited to participate in one or both of the two initial challenges, each addressing different environmental elements - land/water and air/climate.

For each of the challenges, teams will define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report the results. Submission deadlines are: Challenge #1 (Land/Water) - Nov. 6, 2009 and Challenge #2 (Air/Climate) - Jan. 19, 2010.

Each of the challenges will have 16 winning teams - eight middle school and eight high school teams. The winning teams will each receive a total of $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among the students, teacher and school. In addition, the winning action plans will be featured on a special Web page to inspire other students to take action in their communities.

In mid-February, the winning teams from the first two challenges will be invited to participate in the Final Challenge. Teams will be asked to reach beyond the local community and inspire environmental action around the world through innovative ideas that are communicated to a wide audience. From the Final Challenge entries, 14 first-place teams and two grand-prize-winning teams will be selected. Each of the 14 first-place teams will receive a total of $15,000 in grants and scholarships, and the two grand-prize-winning teams will each receive $30,000. The money will be shared by the students, their teacher advisors and their schools.

Judging Criteria

All entries for the initial two challenges will be judged on a variety of criteria, including the overall action plan and team effort, the quality of writing, and supporting materials. A select panel of judges will consider questions such as: does the action plan show the team's clear understanding of the environmental issue; does the action plan clearly describe the results; does the action plan communicate a persuasive argument; and does the action plan communicate team effort?

Full program information including rules and entry details can be viewed at www.scholastic.com/lexus .

Teaching Tools for the Classroom

The Lexus Eco Challenge educational materials developed with Scholastic are designed to align with national teaching standards for science, social studies, civics and language arts.

In addition to providing teachers with the information necessary to participate in the challenges, the Web site (www.scholastic.com/lexus) also has extensive tools for them to use in their classrooms. For each challenge, the Web site has lesson plans and teacher instructions including questions to help guide a discussion about the current challenge topic, facts about the topic, and guidelines for a specific classroom project.

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750 Student Teams Wanted for World's Largest Rocket Competition

/PRNewswire/ -- Registration for the world's largest rocket competition, the Team America Rocketry Challenge, is open to 750 student teams in grades 7-12 from any U.S. school, home school or non-profit youth organization. Registration for the 2010 spring contest is open now through November 30.

The annual rocket contest, sponsored by AIA, challenges teams of three to 10 students to design and build a rocket that will climb to 825 feet with a raw egg payload and stay aloft for 40 to 45 seconds. The payload must then return to earth unbroken. The 2010 contest rules and registration information are available at www.rocketcontest.org.

"The Team America Rocketry Challenge is fostering the next generation of engineers by sparking an interest in math and physics in a fun, team-based environment," said Marion Blakey, AIA president and CEO. "The students are often mentored by real-world engineers and scientists and many teams are sponsored by AIA member companies. TARC is truly an invaluable educational experience."

AIA sponsors TARC with the National Association of Rocketry, NASA, the Defense Department, the American Association of Physics Teachers and AIA member companies. The contest is in its eighth year and is proving to be the needed catalyst to generate interest in students with the sciences. According to a survey of TARC alumni:

-- 83 percent became more interested in science and math as a result of
TARC.
-- 81 percent gained a better understanding of how math, science, and
technology are used to solve problems in the real world.
-- 70 percent became more interested in a STEM career as a result of
TARC.
-- 67 percent intend to choose a STEM major in college.

The top 100 TARC team finalists are notified on April 9 that they have earned a trip to the competition May 15, just outside of Washington, DC. Student participants compete for $60,000 in prizes, scholarships and a trip to the 2010 international air show in London for an international "Fly-Off" with student teams from France and the UK.

The aerospace industry is actively looking for young people to join its ranks. The industry is facing a future workforce shortage as many employees will reach retirement age in the next decade. A recent Aviation Week and Space Technology survey found that almost 40 percent of the workforce is over the age of 50. For more information on careers in aerospace, visit www.launchintoaerospace.org.

Founded in 1919, the Aerospace Industries Association represents the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military, and business aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, space systems, aircraft engines, materiel, and related components, equipment services, and information technology.

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Chancellor Davis: State of University System Strong but Challenged

In his annual “State of the University System” address today, Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. noted that in tough economic times, it was important to send the message that the University System of Georgia (USG) is not a cost to, but an investment in, the state of Georgia and its future.

“We are an answer, not a question; a solution, not a problem; a part of state government where the decisions made today have the capacity to demonstrably improve the future we, our children, and our children’s children, will all live,” Davis said in his remarks to the Board of Regents. “We must not sacrifice the important for the urgent. We must preserve the historic legacy in this state of public higher education as a clear public good that adds value to the lives of all residents across Georgia.”

Reviewing the University System, Davis noted a number of strengths, including strong leadership at the board and presidential level, outstanding faculty and staff and a growing student enrollment, which hit a record high of 283,000 in fall 2008.

Davis cited both Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia’s continuing presence on U.S. News and World Report’s annual list of the top 20 public universities in the nation and growing recognition of the USG’s other institutions as independent measures of the excellence of leadership, faculty and students in the System. “The core mission of our institutions – teaching, research, and public service – not only endures, but thrives, thanks to our faculty and staff,” he said.

But the System’s strengths are being tested and challenged, Davis noted, “perhaps as never before.” He cited five key challenges: the academic preparation of entering students, faculty salaries, institutional missions, access versus quality, and public support.

While enrollment is at a record high, Davis said, too many students still enroll who are academically unprepared for college. He cited USG figures that the percentage of first-time, full-time freshmen requiring learning support, while dropping from 30.5 percent in 1995 to a low of 20.9 percent in 2001, has steadily increased to a current percentage rate of 25 percent. “This trend line is headed in the wrong direction,” Davis said.

The challenge is to continue to align guidelines and requirements between the University System and the State Department of Education to better prepare K-12 students for college. “This is a long-term process, and while all of us recognize that the current situation is very tough, hard times do not absolve us from our responsibility to plan for the future,” he said.

Another challenge Davis cited is to remain competitive regionally and nationally in terms of recruiting and retaining needed faculty. While on a pure percentage basis USG faculty salaries have increased since 2000, when held constant in 2000 dollars, the average faculty salary in the University System’s four-year institutions has decreased 3.7 percent since 2000, compared to a 4.4 percent increase in the 16-member Southern Regional Education Board states (SREB). At Georgia’s two-year colleges, the decrease in constant 2000 dollars for faculty salaries since 2000 is even more marked, Davis said, falling 16 percent, compared to a 6.1 percent increase in the other SREB states.

Today, Georgia ranks 8th among the 16 SREB states in average faculty salaries for four-year institutions, falling from 6th place in Fiscal Year 2007, and the state ranks 10th in faculty salaries at two-year colleges, the lowest level since data started being collected in 1989. “We cannot maintain our competitiveness and our core academic quality indefinitely unless we can address some of these salary challenges,” Davis said.

Another challenge to the System, Davis noted, relates to calls for mergers of some USG institutions. “We are not a cookie-cutter system; all our institutions do not look alike,” Davis said.

Davis cited the System’s response to the call for greater efficiencies through its Shared Services project, which is combining back office operations throughout the System. “This (shared services) is preferable to blurring the missions of distinct institutions,” Davis said. “Students do not choose to attend a generic college or university; rather, they choose a USG brand name, which offers the program they need and the environment in which they can excel.”

One of the biggest challenges to the System is maintaining the balance between access and quality, Davis said. To date, Davis said, in general enrollment caps have not been needed in order to preserve academic quality, thanks in large part to the strong stewardship of college and university presidents. But Davis warned that a continuing trend of rising enrollment and falling resources would challenge the System’s ability to continue to maintain both access and quality. “We will not allow this to happen – if necessary, we will restrict access first before we degrade quality,” Davis said.

Turning from specific challenges to more general attitudes concerning the overall benefit and value of public higher education, Davis noted the increase in “national voices questioning whether higher education is a public good, worthy of public support.” Davis said that the University System and its supporters must be vocal in countering fears given credence by tight budgets that public higher education is a private gain and thus public support should be reduced. “This is a classic – and potentially dangerous – example of sacrificing the important for the urgent,” Davis said.

The University System of Georgia enrolls more than 283,000 students, employs 40,200 faculty and staff, serves more than one million Georgians through public service, administers the state’s 61-member public library system, and contributes annually more than $11 billion to the state’s economy – all on current fiscal year appropriation of $2.3 billion that has been reduced by 8 percent, or $182 million, since August 2008.

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National Middle School Green Competition Urges Kids to Change Their Communities In 2009

/PRNewswire/ -- Now in the final months for entries, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is encouraging middle school students across the United States to kick off 2009 by "going green" and implementing environmental change in their local communities. The website for this entirely web-based challenge, http://www.wecanchange.com/, is host to lots of kid-friendly activities such as virtual interactive labs, an eco-footprint game, an environmental IQ quiz, online journals, video clips-plus many more resources for both students and adult advisers.

Teams of two to three students in sixth through eighth grade, under the mentorship of a teacher or adult supervisor, will identify an environmental issue in their community, research the issue using scientific investigation, and create a replicable green solution using web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education.

Teachers and adult supervisors are invited to participate in any of Discovery Education's January online webinars, which will provide additional information about the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. Webinars will be offered Tuesday, January 13, at 4:30 PM (ET); Wednesday, January 14, at 5:30 and 6:45 PM (ET); and Thursday, January 15, at 5:30 PM (ET). To register, go to https://discoveryed.webex.com/ and click on "Events Center" at the top, then click on "List of Events" at the left and scroll down to "Other Events." Lastly, click on a "Register" link for your preferred webinar.

Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge submissions from middle school students will be accepted through March 15, 2009. A total of 51 teams representing each state and the District of Columbia will be selected as state finalists and an additional 50 teams will be eligible for honorable mention awards. Three of the state finalist teams will be selected as national finalists, and one of those will be named the inaugural grand prize-winner. State finalist and national finalist teams will be announced in Spring 2009.

All student teams entering the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will receive prizes for their participation. Top-performing teams, as judged by a panel of environmental experts and science educators, will earn cash, teacher education materials and unique "Discovery Experience" trips. The grand prize-winning team will receive a comprehensive prize package, which includes an appearance on Planet Green, Discovery's 24-hour eco-lifestyle network and a once-in-a-lifetime Discovery Adventure Trip, accompanied by a Discovery TV personality.

The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have partnered on the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge to educate, empower and engage students, teachers and communities to become "Agents of Change" in improving their communities nationwide. The initiative expands to elementary schools in 2009 and to high schools in 2010.

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