Physics Today's Web Watch

http://www.nsf.gov/od/osti/
The Office of Science and Technology Infrastructure of the National Science Foundation has recently posted solicitations on its Web page for the Major Research Instrumentation Program and the Science Technologies Centers: Integrative Partnerships Program. The MRI Program has a 30 January 1998 deadline and is open to a variety of US institutions, including universities, nonprofit research institutes and research museums. The STC program is open to US academic institutions. Notice of intent to submit a preproposal to STC must be e-mailed by 6 January 1998 to stc@nsf.gov, which is also the address for general inquiries about STC. MRI inquiries should go to mri@nsf.gov. For both programs, proposals must be submitted by way of the NSF's FastLane home page.

http://www.nas.edu/rise/
RISE (Resources for Involving Scientists in Education) has recently launched a Web site to further its goal of helping scientists, engineers and other technical professionals to play an effective role in improving science education from kindergarten to high school. Newcomers to such activities can start by clicking on "roles" to find out which role would suit them best: Working directly with students? With teachers? Developing instructional materials? "Examples" provides descriptions of a diverse array of programs, including BEAMS (Becoming Enthusiastic About Math and Science) at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and OPPS (Operation Primary Physical Science). "Background" includes information resources and essays on topics such as "Understanding the Culture of K-12 Schools" and "What Is Systemic Reform?" RISE is a project of the National Research Council's Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education.

http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/starpages.html
StarPages is a large collection of searchable resources related to astronomy and space. It consists primarily of three databases: StarWorlds, a directory of about 6000 organizations, companies and so on connected with astronomy and space sciences; StarBits, a multilingual database of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols, with expansions or meanings for more than 110,000 entries; and StarHeads, with links to the personal Web pages of about 4000 astronomers and space scientists. StarPages is coordinated by André Heck of the Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory.

Compiled by Graham P. Collins