A symbol (*) marks deadlines that have not appeared in a previous issue of Education Week.
Student Scholarships and Awards
*October 31—Community-spirit awards: Applications are due for the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, sponsored by the Prudential Insurance Co. of America and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. The annual awards recognize middle-level and high school students who have demonstrated outstanding initiative or leadership in their communities. One high school student and one middle-level student in each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will be named state honorees; each winner will receive $1,000, a silver medallion, and an expenses-paid trip to Washington. Ten state winners (five high school and five middle-level students) will be named national honorees; each of them will receive an additional $5,000, a gold medal, and a trophy for his or her school. Contact: NASSP, Department of Student Activities, 1904 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1537; (703) 860-0200 or (800) 253- 7746; fax (703) 476-5432; e-mail: spirit@principals.org; Web site: www.prudential.com/community/ spirit.
*Nov. 1—Gardening grants: Applications are due for the Youth Garden Grants Program, sponsored by the National Gardening Association. Gardening programs involving at least 15 children ages 3-18 are eligible to win one of 300 grants, each worth more than $750 in tools, seeds, plants, and other garden products. Contact: Garden Grants Dept., PS, National Gardening Association, 1100 Dorset St., South Burlington, VT 05403; (802) 863-5251, ext. 205; Web site: www.kidsgardening.com.
*Nov. 1—Target scholarships: Applications are due for the Target All-Around Scholarships, sponsored by Target Corp. High school seniors and graduates age 24 or younger are eligible to apply. Selection criteria include volunteer and community service. Five students will receive $10,000 each; more than 1,900 will win $1,000. Applications are available at Target stores. Contact: Target All-Around Scholarship Program, (800) 316-6142; Web site: www.target.com.
*Nov. 12—Art exhibit: Applications are due for entrants in the 30th International Children’s Art Exhibition, sponsored by Pentel of America Ltd. Applicants must have been between the ages of 3 and 15 on Jan. 1, 2000. They must submit entry forms and two-dimensional drawings, paintings, collages, or woodcut designs. Contact: ICAE Coordinator, ICAE, Pentel of America Ltd., 2805 Columbia St., Torrance, CA 90509; (800) 421-1419, ext. 269; Web site: www.pentel.com.
*Nov. 24—Photography contest: Applications are due for the Environmental Education Photo Contest, sponsored by the LaMotte Co., a provider of environmental education equipment. Students will be awarded free equipment for their schools or other educational programs. Students or teachers must submit photographs showing students working with LaMotte testing equipment, and entries must include a brief description of how students use the equipment. First-, second-, and third-prize winners will be awarded merchandise certificates worth $500, $250, and $100, respectively; honorable-mention winners will receive $50 certificates. Contact: LC, PO Box 329, Chestertown, MD 21620; (800) 344-3100 or (410) 778-3100; e-mail: ese@lamotte.com; Web site: www.lamotte.com.
*Nov. 29—Science scholarships: Submissions are due for the Science Talent Search, sponsored by Intel Corp. High school seniors are eligible to compete for up to $1.2 million in scholarships and awards. Applicants must submit reports of science-research projects. Forty finalists will each receive a laptop computer and go on a weeklong, expenses-paid trip to Washington to participate in the Science Talent Institute. The first-place winner will receive a four-year, $100,000 scholarship; second- and third-place winners will receive scholarships of $75,000 and $50,000, respectively. Contact: ISTS, c/o Science Service, 1719 N St. N.W., Washington, DC 20036; (202) 785-2255; e-mail: sciedu@sciserv.org; Web site: www.sciserv.org.
*Dec. 1—Art contest: Submissions are due for the Puffs Back-to-School Design the Box Contest, sponsored by Puffs facial tissues, a product of the Procter & Gamble Co. Students in grades K-6 are invited to create a design with the theme “What I like best about school.” The grand-prize winner will receive a $25,000 U.S. Savings Bond for college and a Gateway personal computer, along with a digital camera for the classroom. Three first-place winners will receive Gateway personal computers. Contact: Puffs, (800) 77-PUFFS; Web site: www.puffs.com.
*Dec. 1—Fire Sprinkler Association scholarships: Submissions are due for the American Fire Sprinkler Association Scholarship Contest, sponsored by the American Fire Sprinkler Association. High school seniors are invited to write essays of 700 to 1,000 words describing fire sprinkler systems and their importance to their communities. Seven regional winners will receive scholarships of $1,000 each. The first-place winner will receive an additional $3,000 scholarship; one second-place winner and one third-place winner receive additional scholarships of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. Contact: Scholarship Contest, AFSA, 12959 Jupiter Road Suite 142, Dallas, TX 75238; (214) 349-5965; fax: (214) 343-8898; Web site: www.sprinklernet.org.
*Dec. 1— Literature contest: Submissions due for the Letters About Literature 2001 essay contest, sponsored by the Library of Congress’ Center for the Book and the Weekly Reader Corp. Each student must write a letter to an author, living or dead, explaining how the author’s work changed his or her thinking about the world. The contest has two categories: grades 4-7 and 8-12. A national winner from each category will receive $500. Contact: WRC, 200 First Stamford Place, Stamford, CT 06912-0023; (203) 705-3500; Web site: lcweb.loc.gov/loc/cfbook /letters.html.
*Dec. 1—Playwrights’ festival: Submissions are due for the Young Playwrights Festival, sponsored by Young Playwrights Inc. Students age 18 or younger are eligible to write original, nonmusical plays for the festival. Several plays will be accepted for production at the festival, and 10 to 12 students will be invited to the YPI Writers Conference, an intensive playwriting workshop in New York City that culminates in professionally staged readings of the winning plays. Contact: YPF National Playwright Competition, 321 W. 44th St., Suite 906, New York, NY 10036; (212) 307-1140; fax: (212) 307-1454; e-mail: writeaplay@aol.com; Web site: www.youngplaywrights.org.
*Dec. 15Radio contest: Submissions are due for the Young Producers Contest, sponsored by Earth and Sky Radio in conjunction with the National Science Foundation. Teams of K-12 students are eligible; each team must write and record a 75-second radio show on a science or nature topic of its choice. Five shows will be chosen for broadcast on the Earth and Sky Radio series. The winning team will share a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond; each runner-up team will split a $500 Savings Bond. Contact: YPC, PO Box 2203, Austin, TX 78768; (512) 480-8773; fax: (512) 477-4474; e-mail: contest@earthsky.com; Web site: www.earthsky.com.
*Dec. 31—Investment essay contest: Submissions are due for the Young Investor Fund Essay Contest, sponsored by Stein Roe Mutual Funds. Essays on the importance of money and investing will judged on content, writing style, and writing mechanics. First-, second-, and third-place winners will be selected for each grade. First-place winners will receive $5,000 in Young Investor Fund shares. Second- and third-place winners receive $2,500 and $1,000 in shares, respectively. Contact: YIF Essay Contest, SRMF, 1 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606; (800) 403-KIDS.
Teacher Fellowships, Grants, And Awards
Nov. 1—Grawemeyer award: Applications are due for the Grawemeyer Award in Education, sponsored by the University of Louisville. The award, created to support ideas for improving education, is paid in five, $40,000 annual installments. Contact: UL, GAE, School of Education, Louisville, KY 40292-0001; (502) 852-3235; Web site: www.louisville.edu/ur/onpi/ grawemeyer.
Nov. 1—Technology grants: Applications are due for the ICPrize for Collaboration Through Technology, sponsored by the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association. Teams of school library media specialists and classroom teachers may apply for $1,000 grants for travel to a state or national conference or for the purchase of technology. Media specialists must be personal members of the AASL/ALA. Up to five prizes will be awarded based on the creativity, clarity, and completeness of the proposal and on the effective use of Internet resources in the development of a curriculum unit. Contact: ICONnect, AASL, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (800) 545-2433, ext. 4389; e-mail: ICONnect@ala.org; Web site: www.ala.org/ICONN/icprize.html.
Nov. 1—Target scholarships: Applications are due for the Target Teachers Scholarship program, which recognizes full- and part-time teachers and administrators working 20 hours or more at schools participating in the Target Corp.'s Take Charge of Education program. The company will award two $500 scholarships from each Target store and 96 $1,500 Target district awards to teachers who want to continue their education. Winners will be chosen based on their answers to two essay questions. Contact: TC, (800) 316-6142; www.target.com.
*Nov. 15—Reading and technology award: Applications are due for the 2001 Presidential Award for Reading and Technology, sponsored by the International Reading Association and TLC School, a division of the Learning Co. Inc., an educational software publisher. One grand-prize winner will receive a laptop computer and $1,000 in reading software from the company. The winner will also attend an expenses-paid trip to the IRA’s annual conference in New Orleans. Up to seven regional winners from the United States, one winner from Canada, and one winner from outside North America will each receive reading software worth $500. Individuals may nominate themselves or others; all nominees must be full-time educators who work directly with students ages 5-18. Contact: Executive Office, IRA, PO Box 8139, Newark, DE 19714-8139; (302) 731-1600, ext. 221; fax: (302) 731-1057; e-mail: exec@reading.org.
Nov. 15—Science awards: Applications are due for the 2000 Gustav Ohaus Awards for Innovations in Science Teaching, sponsored by the National Science Teachers Association and given to teachers with innovative ideas for improving science education. One $1,000 prize and one $750 prize will be awarded in each of four categories: elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. Contact: NSTA-Ohaus Awards Program, 1840 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201-3000; (888) 400-NSTA or (703) 243-7100; Web site: www.nsta.org.
Nov. 15—Women’s studies grants: Applications are due for grants from the American Association of University Women. Female graduate students completing dissertations or seeking aid for postdoctoral work are eligible for the American Fellowship, a $27,000 award given to an outstanding candidate whose work or research helps women and girls. Eighteen Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowships, worth $27,000 each, will provide one year of support for doctoral candidates in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Fifty-one Dissertation Fellowships of $15,000 each will be awarded to women in the final year of a doctoral program; special consideration will go to scholars writing about gender issues. Six Publication Grants of $5,500 each will help women preparing research for publication. Contact: AAUW Educational Foundation, Customer Service Center, 2201 N. Dodge St., Dept. 60, Iowa City, IA 52243-4030; (319) 337-1716, ext. 60; Web site: www.aauw.org.
*Dec. 1—Best-practices award: Applications are due for the national Best Practices 2001 award, sponsored by the Boyer Center, a national education resource and research organization at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. This year’s theme, “Building the School Community: Parents as Partners,” focuses on family involvement in literacy activities. Three schools will each receive $10,000. Contact: BCr, 1 College Ave., MC, Grantham, PA 17027; (717) 796-5077; e-mail: boyercenter@messiah.edu; Web site: www.boyercenter.org.
*Dec. 1— Research fellowships: Applications are due for the 2001-02 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowships for teachers’ research on improving education, sponsored by the National Academy of Education. Individuals who hold a doctorate or equivalent degree in behavioral or social sciences, the humanities, or education may apply. The degree must have been earned between Jan. 1, 1995, and Dec. 31, 2000. As many as 30 fellows will be selected. Full-time fellows will each receive $50,000 for one year; part-time fellows will receive $25,000 annually for two years. Contact: NAE, New York University, School of Education, 726 Broadway, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10003-9580; (212) 998-9035; e-mail: nae.info@nyu.edu; Web site: www.nae.nyu.edu.
*Dec. 5—Mathematics award: Applications are due for the Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by the Mathematics Education Trust of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. NCTM members who are at least 55 years old and have at least 25 years of distinguished service to mathematics education are eligible. Each application should be supported by a letter of nomination, the nominee’s résumé, and up to five letters of recommendation. Contact: MET, NCTM, 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-9988; (703) 620-9840, ext. 2113; Web site: nctm.org/about/met/lifetime.ht m.
*Dec. 15—Astronomy award: Nominations are due for the 2001 Thomas Brennan Award, sponsored by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The award honors someone whose work or teaching has had a substantial impact on high school astronomy, Candidates must have taught astronomy to high school students, organized workshops in astronomy, or developed innovative courses, curricula, and science programs aimed at the high school level. One winner will receive a $250 award, a plaque, and travel and lodging expenses to the ASP’s annual meeting in St. Paul, Minn. The winner will also write an article for the ASP’s Mercury Magazine or Universe in the Classroom newsletter describing his or her work. Contact: Marilyn Delgado, ASP, 390 Ashton Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112; (415) 337-1100, ext. 100; e-mail: mdelgado@aspsky.org.
*Dec. 15— Science awards: Applications are due for the Catalyst Award, sponsored by the American Chemistry Council (formerly the Chemical Manufacturers Association). Outstanding elementary school science teachers and secondary school chemistry teachers are eligible to receive awards of up to $5,000. Contact: Barbara Long, ACC, 1300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209; (703) 741-5101; fax (703) 741-6086; e-mail: barbara_long@americanchemistry. com; Web site: americanchemistry.com.
Other Deadlines
Open dates—Environmental newspaper:Greentimes, an environmental newspaper written by and for students, requests stories, opinions, comments, and ideas for publication. Contact: Elizabeth Gilmore, Greentimes, 55 Reservoir St., Cambridge, MA 02138; (617) 868-5760; habitat@greenscreen.org.
Open dates—History journal:The Concord Review, the only quarterly journal to publish secondary students’ academic work, accepts student essays on historical topics. Essays should be approximately 5,000 words, plus endnotes. Submissions chosen for publication are eligible for the Emerson Prize, a $3,000 award. Contact: CR, PO Box 661, Concord, MA 01742; (800) 331-5007 or (978) 443-0022; e-mail: fitzhugh@tcr.org; Web site: www.tcr.org.
Open dates—Pen pals: World Pen Pals promotes international friendship and cultural understanding between young people around the world. Students in grades 4 through college are invited to request an overseas pen pal. Teachers may request a brochure on class participation. Contact: WPP, PO Box 337, Saugerties, NY 12477; (914) 246-7828.
Open dates—Student videos: CNN Newsroom & WorldView, Turner Broadcasting’s news and features program for schools, airs student-produced videos. Students may submit reports of no more than 2½ minutes on any topic, although they are encouraged to focus on CNN’s monthly themes. Participation is open to schools enrolled in the CNN Newsroom & WorldView classroom program. Contact: CNN Newsroom Program, 1 CNN Center, PO Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30348-5366; (800) 344-6219; www.learning.turner.com.
*Dec. 1—Library grants: Applications are due for the Baker and Taylor/Young Adult Library Services Association Conference Grants, sponsored by YALSA, a division of the American Library Association. Two librarians who work directly with young adults in either a public or school library will receive grants of $1,000 each to attend the ALA annual conference in Chicago. Applicants must be YALSA members who have from one to 10 years’ experience working with teenagers and who have never attended the annual ALA conference.
