NASA Announces 2014 Innovations in Climate Education Tribal Awards

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NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) has awarded nearly$3 millionin new cooperative agreements to four Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) acrossthe United Statesto enhance learning through the use of the agency's Earth science resources.

The award is made through the NASA Innovations in Climate Education-Tribal (NICE-T) activity. The selected institutions are:

-- College of Menominee Nations,Keshena, Wis. --Turtle Mountain Community College,Belcourt, N.D. -- Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College,Cloquet, Minn. --Salish Kootenai College,Pablo, Mont.

The awards, which have a 3-year period of performance and range in value from approximately$413,000to$1,009,000, support tribal colleges and their partners as they improve teaching and learning about global climate change on their campuses.

The winning proposals illustrated innovative uses of NASA content to support elementary, secondary and undergraduate teaching and learning. There is a strong emphasis on engaging students using NASA Earth observation data and Earth system models, as well as providing climate-related research experiences for teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, particularly in the TCU community.

NASA Langley Research Center inHampton, Va., provides management and administration for the NICE-T activity. NICE-T supports NASA's goal of engaging students in the critical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and inspiring the next generation of explorers.

The cooperative agreements are part of NASA's strategic emphasis on engaging the Tribal community. For a list of selected organizations and projects' descriptions, click on "Selected Proposals" and see the entry for "2013 NASA Innovations in Climate Education -Tribal (NICE-T)," visit:http://nspires.nasaprs.com

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/education

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NASA Announces 2014 Innovations in Climate Education Tribal Awards

'Education Spring' in the Middle East

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BEGINNING March 2, Professor Hossam Haick will teach the first massive open online course, or MOOC, on nanotechnology in Arabic.

What's more interesting, though, he explained to me the other day over breakfast is some of the curious email he's received from students registering for his MOOC from all over the Arab world.

Their questions include: Are you a real person? Are you really an Arab, or are you an Israeli Jew speaking Arabic, pretending to be an Arab?

That's because Haick is an Israeli Arab from Nazareth and will be teaching this course from his home university, the Technion, Israel's premier science and technology institute, and the place we were having breakfast was Tel Aviv.

His course is titled Nanotechnology and Nanosensors (https://www.coursera.org/course/nanosar) and is designed for anyone interested in learning about Haick's specialty: "novel sensing tools that make use of nanotechnology to screen, detect, and monitor various events in either our personal or professional life".

The course includes 10 classes of three to four short lecture videos -- in Arabic and English -- and anyone with an Internet connection can tune in and participate for free in the weekly quizzes, forum activities and do a final project.

If you had any doubts about the hunger for education in the Middle East today, Haick's MOOC will dispel them.

So far, there are about 4,800 registrations for the Arabic version, including students from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and the West Bank. Iranians are signing up for the English version.

Because the registration is through the Coursera MOOC website, some registrants initially don't realise the course is being taught by an Israeli Arab scientist at the Technion, said Haick, and when they do, some professors and students "unregister". But most others are sticking with it.

(MOOCs have just started to emerge in the Arab world via Coursera, edX, Edraak, Rwaq, SkillAcademy and MenaVersity -- some with original content, much still translated.)

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'Education Spring' in the Middle East

Calendar: Feb. 20 to 23

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Thursday

Energy:Bob Inglis will discuss market solutions to climate change and answer questions with a Law Center faculty member from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Hilton UHs Waldorf-Astoria Ballroom.

Auditions: Student Video Network will host an open casting call for students interested in acting in future commercials, shows, movies, short films and other productions from 6 to 8 p.m. in the New UC North, Room N221.

Lecture: A law faculty member will discuss energy production and development in the talk Allocating Energy Governance from noon to 1 p.m. in the UH Law Center, Room 240 BLB.

Music: A faculty flute recital for Peggy Russel featuring works by Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Toru Takemitsu and other composers will be held from 4:30 to 5 p.m. in the Moores School of Music Choral Recital Hall, Room 160.

Art: An art film by filmmaker Vincent Grenier will be screened from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Blaffer Art Museum. Grenier experiments with perception, natural world and film as poetry.

Friday

Seminar: Gender-based violence in South Asian communities and the structures that support such violence will be discussed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Rockwell Pavilion located on the second floor of the M. D. Anderson Memorial Library.

Theater: Our Countrys Good, which is set in 18th-century Sydney, will have its season debut from 8 to 10 p.m. in the School of Theatre and Dances Jose Quintero Theater. Student tickets are $10.

Saturday

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Calendar: Feb. 20 to 23

Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine

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Duke University Health SystemDr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System

Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System and chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, has been appointed to a six-year term as the next president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), effective July 1, 2014. Dr. Dzau will take over the lead role from Dr. Harvey Fineberg, who served in the position for twelve years.

Dr. Dzau began his career in medicine as a cardiologist, having previously taught at Harvard Medical School and served as chair of the department of medicine. He also worked at Brigham and Womens Hospital as the director of research. His ongoing award-winning research has been key in the development of cardiovascular drugs, as well as techniques to repair tissue damage from heart attacks and heart disease using stem cell therapies.

Dr. Eugene Braunwald, often called the father of modern cardiology and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has known Dr. Dzau for more than 40 years and worked with him at many different stages of his career at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Partners Healthcare. In an interview Wednesday he called the upcoming IOM president a force of nature.

He is what I would call a talented, quadruple threat. A great physician, inspiring teacher, and a very creative scientist, said Dr. Braunwald, who trained Dzau when he was a resident at Brigham and Womens and continued to work with him on cardiovascular research when Dr. Dzau became chief resident, and then faculty at Harvard Medical School. The quadruple threat is that he also sees the larger picture. Hes interested in areas of medicine that most academic physicians have stayed away from. His work and ideas in global and community-based medicine have left an important heritage at each institution where hes worked.

After nearly a decade at Duke, Dr. Dzaus leadership has been credited with the launch of a number of innovative and global-focused medical institutions, including the Duke-National University of Signapore Graduate Medical School, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke Institute for Health Innovation, Duke Cancer Institute, as well as the Duke Translational Medicine Institute.

Im deeply honored to become the next president of the IOM and recognize the critically important role that the IOM will have in improving the health of the nation at a time of extraordinary evolution in biomedical research and health care delivery, Dzau said in a press release from Duke University Health System. The explosion of new data resources, novel technologies and breathtaking research advances make this the most promising time in history for driving innovations that will improve health care delivery, outcomes and quality.

As the health sciences extension of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is known for its leadership in advancing health sciences and objective medical research nationally as a nonprofit academic research organization. The outgoing IOM president, Dr. Harvey Fineberg (previously Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health) has lead the nonprofit for twelve years. His focus and research have centered around public health policy and an improvement in informed medical decision making.

This leaves the medical community wondering what Dr. Dzau will bring to the Institute.

As a former chairman of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), Dr. Dzau advocated for the innovative transition of academic medical and health centers into institutions that can survive the rapid transitions in the health care industry. In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Dzau discusses the uncertain future of academic medical centers. He argues that industry pressures and cost restraints from the Affordable Care Act limit the research and education-based missions of teaching hospitals.

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Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine

Fort Chaffee Donates Land to Osteopathic Medical School in Fort Smith

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The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday donated 200 acres to a project that aims to open an osteopathic medical school there by fall 2017.

The Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation said its board of trustees had voted to move ahead with plans for the school at the Chaffee Crossing development in southeast Fort Smith. The proposed name of the school is theArkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The foundation board approved more than $58 million to the project. It also voted tocreate positions for a college CEO and dean.

"Our mission clearly states that we have a responsibility to fill gaps in health care and provide care for the medically underserved," said Kyle parker, board chairman, in a news release. "We've been working on the feasibility and relationships necessary to make this health care solution a reality for more than a year. It's not about building a school, it's about recognizing needs in our area, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and across the U.S., and using our resources to fulfill that need."

Arkansas is ranked 48th among states in physicians per capita based on a 2010 study by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Center for Rural Health.There are 30 osteopathic medical colleges in the country.

The Arkansas Osteopathic Medical Association is supporting the project. Osteopathic medicine encompasses the entire scope of modern medicine, according to the AOMA, and focuses on a holistic, hands-on approach to providing health care.

"The AOMA is extremely excited about the development of the proposed Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine to be located in Fort Smith," said AOMA president James Baker. "We will continue to develop, partner with and support those providing state-wide resources to help advance the Fort Smith Regional Healthcare Foundation's mission of establishing the school."

Partnerships for clinical rotations and residency education have been made between the foundation and local health-care providers Mercy Health System, Sparks Regional Medical Center,Cooper Clinic, the Choctaw Nation Health Services Authority and Community Health Centers of Arkansas.

Arkansas State University is alsoconsidering creating its own osteopathic medical schoolin Jonesboro. Earlier this month, the school releaseda study it commissioned that found that an osteopathic medical school in Jonesboro would help meet a demand for primary-care physicians in the Delta and inject $70 million into the region.

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Fort Chaffee Donates Land to Osteopathic Medical School in Fort Smith