new on the net

• The road to better schools. If you're looking for solid ideas and information about school improvement, don't miss the Pathways to School Improvement Web site, a product of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and the Regional Educational Laboratory network. It's chock-full of practical summaries of best practice and research, descriptions of schools that have implemented successful improvement efforts, and collections of materials to support change. Here you'll find a rich cache of material addressing content areas, the school environment, educational leadership, professional development, students, and teaching. Informative essays make good use of internal hypertext links and multimedia elements; there even is a virtual reality component for those visitors who have a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) Web browser. This is a must-surf site.
  

• Plugged-in math and science. Where can you go to research math and science curriculum materials? Check out the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. The Clearinghouse maintains a searchable catalog of curriculum resources that support science and math reform efforts. Enter your search criteria in the search form on the Clearinghouse's Web site, and you'll get a list of matching resources in return. Each item contains a summary to help you make an informed decision about using the resource. Browse on over and try it out.
  

  There's more to math and science reform than instructional materials, of course. Happily, the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) K-12 Math and Science Project maintains a database of information about math and science reform initiatives, organizations, and conferences. This searchable database, called The Guide to Math and Science Reform, is available as a software package for Windows and Mac PCs that you can download without charge. In it you'll find concise and useful information about more than 550 projects, 160 groups, and 80 public meetings involving math and science reform. The guide is updated twice yearly.
  

• Wired weather. Want to turn your students on to science? Try talking about the weather. Better yet, sign up your school for "Disaster in the Classroom," a series of interactive satellite television broadcasts from the University of Michigan's Weather Underground project. The series is designed to help educators put the Internet's abundance of real-time weather information to use in classroom projects. The programs allow participants to ask questions and respond to information through e-mail as well as to access weather resources on the Internet during or after each show. If your school has a high-bandwidth Internet connection but no access to satellite broadcasts, you can watch the shows using CU-SeeMe Internet videoconferencing software instead. Videotapes of past shows, which have covered topics such as the Antarctic ozone hole and hurricanes, also are available. You can get more information by calling (800) 386-4141.
  

• Going to the fair. All eyes were on the future at the turn of the 20th century, when the great world's fairs showed off the brightest visions of progress. Now it's that time again, but in keeping with current technology, the Internet 1996 World Exposition exists entirely in cyberspace. Schools are participating by entering the International Schools CyberFair '96, one of the components of the virtual world's fair. Sponsored by MCI and Cisco Systems, the CyberFair is a demonstration of how schools can share the knowledge and skills of their teachers and students on a global basis. Participants are creating curriculum content based on local resources and sharing it with other students worldwide by publishing it on the Web. Participating schools and noted Internet luminaries will judge the entries based on presentation and content; the award ceremony will be held live on the Internet in June.