Posted by Rena Pederson, Communications Director of the National Math and Science Initaitive:

Nature museum partners with Dallas schools to enhance science classes

The world's No. 2 golfer wants America to be No. 1 in science.

Posted by John Winn, NMSI National Program Officer:
U.S.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan singled out progress being made by the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) in a major address Thursday (July 15) to the annual meeting of the AP National Conference, which is the largest professional development gathering of educators participating in Advanced Placement programs. We are gratified the Secretary acknowledged the remarkable achievements of students participating in our program. These achievements prove the amazing capacity within students and teachers that, when properly tapped, produce great learning.

NEW YORK – College women majoring in math and science got personal encouragement this summer from Fortune 500 executives on how they can bridge the “gender gap” in their fields by becoming leaders themselves and then reaching out to the next generation of students.

Posted by Rena Pederson, NMSI Communications Director:

The current issue of Glamour magazine features an interesting list of inventions by women.

Posted by Tom Luce, NMSI CEO:
Here is the excellent profile published July 5 in the Austin American Statesman about Peter and Edith O’Donnell that prompted the positive Letter to the Editor:

Posted by Tom Luce, NMSI, CEO-
Glad to see this positive letter in the Austin American Statesman about Peter O’Donnell, one of the founding board members of NMSI.  We agree: What starts with Peter changes the world. 

Posted by Tom Luce, NMSI CEO:

Congratulations to the enterprising 9-year-old Carrollton student, Divya Viswanathan, who showed great skill and creativity in putting together aspreadsheet that showed where local high school valedictorians and salutatorians were planning to attend college and their major fields of
study.

It was encouraging to see the top choices of the students for college majors were mostly math and science fields:

Biology, undecided (23); Business, engineering (16); Pre-med, biomedical engineering (13); Psychology, math (11);Mechanical engineering
(10);Biochemistry, nursing (9); Chemical engineering, computer science (7); Neuroscience (6);Aerospace engineering, economics, physics,
electrical engineering (5);Musical theater (4).

Perhaps we can expect to see the Carrollton student on that list in a few years.

Here is the full story in The Dallas Morning News:

Talk about making constructive use of summer vacation.

A 9-year-old Carrollton girl, Divya Viswanathan, recently heard her family talking about where her older brother, Aditya, should attend college, and what he might study. They wished they had some data on what smart kids were doing these days.

This was about the time The Dallas Morning News published its annual list of area high school valedictorians and salutatorians.

Divya had an idea.

"She said, 'Hey, Daddy, I was looking at the report,' " recalls her father, Ram. " 'I can put a table together.' I said, 'Hey, OK, if you're interested.'

"She does stuff like that."

So Divya, with guidance from her dad, spent two days typing in the college choices for 375 salutatorians and valedictorians, as collected by The News. Her family sent the results to the newspaper, in case other readers might be interested.

Then Divya, a straight-A student, went back to other summertime pursuits: studying for a spelling competition coming up in August and practicing dance and music.

Her brother, who is headed for the Texas Academy of Math and Science at the University of North Texas this fall, is spending his summer there studying molecular properties.