During the year, many educational organizations conduct special celebrations that draw awareness to facets of life and learning. These usually take the form of a special week, with events and activities centered around a specific theme. These celebrations are national or international in scope. The sponsoring organization often publishes free materials for teaching and learning; often there is a specific website as well. The website usually contains an archive of past celebrations and materials. The activities need not be confined to the designated week&endash;learning can be celebrated all year long! In this sense, the materials are quite applicable to adult literacy programs, whose structures and participants often do not lend themselves to sequential, long-term curricula. The purpose of this page is to alert the adult literacy community to these special science celebrationsNational Chemistry Week (NCW): November 7-13, 1999
This event, sponsored by the American Chemical Society, is "…designed to enhance public awareness of the contributions chemistry makes to society and our everyday lives." This year's theme is "Celebrating Polymers." This website has links to hands-on activities that enhance the theme, such as "Super Soakers&endash;Just How Super Are They?" http://www.acs.org/ncw/polymer.html#. Also useful is the article "What is a Polymer", http://www.acs.org/ncw/polymer99.html
The NCW director and staff are helpful sources of information about events for this celebration. NCW is celebrated on the state and local level. It is possible to invite chemists to classes and learning centers for science demonstrations and other events. Speakers often bring all the supplies necessary to conduct experiments. Contact information for your local NCW section coordinator can be obtained by calling 1-800-227-5558, ext. 6097 or ext. 6078. You may also send an e-mail query to ncw@acs.org.
National Engineers Week: February 20-26, 2000:
This event is celebrated yearly in the week that contains February 22nd, the birthday of George Washington, the nation's "First Engineer". The celebration is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers. In addition to the general website listed above, there is a new website with activities developed for students and teachers.
http://www.discoverengineering.org/eweek/default.aspOne component of National Engineers Week is "Discover E", an outreach program sending engineers into classrooms and learning centers. Engineers introduce hands-on activities that allow learners to discover practical applications for math, science, and technology. Three such activities can be found at http://www.eweek.org/1999/DiscoverE/actvindex.html
Other programs vary from locality to locality: some technology centers and engineering project sites have open house tours of their faciilities. In other places there are model bridge-building contests. One can find out about local programs for National Engineers Week through the website http://www.eweek.org or by calling 703-684-2852.
Yearlong Events and Ongoing Celebrations National Health Observances:
The National Health Information Center (NHIC) is the health information referral service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NHIC puts health professionals and consumers who have health questions in touch with those organizations that are best able to provide answers. Here you will find a monthly calendar of health observances and events. Information is given about the sponsoring organization, contacts, and links to websites. There is tremendous variety here: depending upon the topic, one may get the latest news on local programs, legislation, clinical trials, and self-assessments to determine risk factors.
This site also provides links to Healthfinder, the gateway for consumer health and human services information. http://www.healthfinder.gov/ and the Health Information Resource Database.
http://nhic-nt.health.org/index.htm#Referrals