(Raleigh, N.C.) North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) today announced a new statewide partnership with Time Warner Cable. The company is investing $30,000 in cash and in-kind support to NCSO as part of its Connect a Million Minds (CAMM) initiative. The NCSO, housed at N.C. State, puts on rigorous science competitions, or Olympiads, each year to help boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in North Carolina. The annual competitions, which began in 1974 in North Carolina, draw thousands of students from hundreds of schools across the state. Over the next three months, the organization will operate 23 tournaments on college campuses. NCSO also provides summer camps for elementary and middle school students and professional development for teachers throughout North Carolina. (more…)

(Winston-Salem, N.C.) Hatch®, a leading provider of technology for early learning, unveiled today WePlaySmart™, a research-based content solution for the multi-touch SMART Table™ that provides early learners with an engaging environment to build crucial social and emotional skills against a backdrop of cognition. WePlaySmart is an intuitive tool for social-emotional development, skills that are shown to directly impact long-term academic achievement, and complements Hatch’s proven-effective products for cognitive skill development – TeachSmart® and iStartSmart™ – to round out Hatch’s suite of 21st Century Classroom products for success in early learning. (more…)

(Durham, N.C.) MetaMetrics®, developer of the widely adopted Lexile® Framework for Reading, is pleased to announce that more than 100,000 educators and other individuals have registered to use its free Lexile Analyzer® to determine the Lexile measure of various classroom and personal texts. Lexile measures evaluate how complex a text will likely be for a reader to comprehend so that the reader can be matched with texts that best complement his or her unique ability level and reading goals. In the past two years alone, users have analyzed nearly one million text files. (more…)

(Durham, N.C.) MetaMetrics® has partnered with the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC) to offer two Lexile®-based resources as part of IIBC’s renewed free-membership website, TOEIC® Internet Services. The Lexile English Reading Guide and Engaging English® reading service have been added to the site to provide TOEIC test takers in Japan with online access to recommended readings that support their English reading practice and the development of language skills necessary for successful workplace communication. (more…)

(Spring Creek & Morrisville, N.C.) Montie Design, an innovative concept-to-marketplace product design and development firm, today announced it will be holding a Winter 2012 Student Design Contest for aspiring product designers in community colleges, four-year colleges, or high schools from North Carolina and Virginia. Initial submissions are due on Feb 1, 2012 with final submissions due on Feb 29, with full details available online at www.montie.com/contest. (more…)

(Chapel Hill, N.C.) Six University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The association, the world’s largest general scientific society, elects fellows to recognize their efforts toward advancing science applications that are considered scientifically or socially distinguished. The six new fellows are biochemist Henrik Dohlman, microbiologist William Goldman, geneticist Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, virologist Nancy Raab-Traub, geneticist Jeff Sekelsky and biochemist Yue Xiong. (more…)

(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) Innovative PR and media relations firm Global Media Strategies has announced a new series of informative podcasts detailing innovations and trends affecting professionals in the pharmaceutical, product design, and technology transfer market sectors in the coming year. “Trending in 2012” features three-minute interviews with noted industry professionals examining issues of substance gaining momentum in news media, speakers series, tradeshows, research organizations, hiring trends, funding, books and other publications.
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(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) A free downloadable rubric has been developed to help schools in North Carolina determine the steps needed to develop quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. This rubric was developed by N.C. State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation in collaboration with the NC STEM Community Collaborative and N.C. Department of Public Instruction, as a part of the Golden LEAF Foundation’s STEM Initiative. Local school districts, including Wake County Public School System, also provided input. All districts and schools will have access to the tool. (more…)

(Tarboro, N.C.) Jobs for the Future (JFF) and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) are introducing NASA’s cutting-edge contributions in climate change science to community college green sector curricula as part of a new project launched this month called Building a Diverse, Green Workforce. The project builds on The Greenforce Initiative, a partnership between JFF and NWF to improve green career pathways for underrepresented students and connect campus sustainability to hands-on training opportunities. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is also a partner in the new project. Edgecombe Community College in North Carolina, Wayne County Community College in Detroit, and Wilbur Wright Community College in Chicago are all piloting the new curriculum in at least nine courses, engaging up to 180 students over two years. (more…)

(Raleigh, N.C.) Governor Bev PerdueGov. Bev Perdue this week launched Career & College Promise, her program that will guarantee eligible high school age students a clear, focused and affordable path to a successful future. (more…)

(Raleigh, N.C.) North Carolina State University will use a $4 million grant to study the most efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly ways of producing biofuels from trees and from forest harvesting residue. NC State is part of the Southeast Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems, a collaboration of several universities and industry partners who will work on all aspects of the “biofuels pipeline” between the forests where the trees – the biomass feedstock – are grown and the “biorefineries” where the biofuels are produced. (more…)

(Cary, N.C.) MidOcean Partners (”MidOcean”), a leading private equity firm, announced today that it has acquired Global Knowledge, a worldwide leader in IT and business skills training. Based in Cary, NC, Global Knowledge was founded in 1995 and today employs more than 1,300 people worldwide. The company provides training solutions to enterprise and government organizations and delivers courses via its global training centers, private facilities, and the Internet. More than 250,000 students receive instruction annually. (more…)