The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through 12th-grade mathematics or science teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. This program authorizes the President to bestow up to 108 awards each year. The National Science Foundation administers PAEMST on behalf of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  The online application system will open for 2009 applications, for secondary teachers (grades 7-12), on or around Nov. 1, 2008.

The Allstate Foundation supports national and local programs that fit within three focus areas. Proposals for program support must address needs within one of the three focus areas to be considered for funding: safe and vital communities, economic empowerment, and tolerance, inclusion and diversity.

Through this award, the Verizon Foundation hopes to increase the literacy and educational achievement of award recipients.

Classrooms throughout the U.S. are invited to enter this contest, in which all entering classrooms will receive coupons and discounts for fresh produce, sample lesson plans with fun fruit and veggie activities, discounts on nutrition books and curricula, and Produce for Kids goodies for the classroom.

Students submit an essay topic based on their grade level at Vantage Learning’s Contest Web site. Each topic deals with an issue surrounding a candidate, party platform, or the election as a whole.  Students submit through Vantage Learning’s IntelliMetric technology and receive instant feedback on a six point holistic scoring scale in the areas of: focus, organization, development, mechanics, grammar, voice, and language use, and upon submitting, receive suggestions on how to improve their writing overall.  The winner receives $250; second place, $150 and third place, $100. Additionally, each winner will receive a one year subscription to MY Access! Home Edition, a one-year license of CorrectEnglish Personal Edition, and 30 licenses of the online writing tool, MY Access! School Edition, to help other students in their school with writing.

Teachers and educators who are members of AVerMedia’s Teacher forum now have an additional opportunity to win a document camera by referring others to the forum. Users are encouraged to refer interested parties to the site. At the end of every month, the forum user with the most referrals will win a new AVerVision document camera.  This contest will run along side AVerMedia’s Forum Contest, launched in June, where active forum participants are randomly chosen once a month to win a document camera. Current Forum member contestants are allowed to refer as many new forum users as they wish within the contest timeframe and all relevant referrals are valid for that month only. New registrants will be asked which forum user referred them to the AVerMedia site in their online registration form. The first Refer a Friend award will be announced on September 30, 2009. Each month the referral counts start from zero.

Beginning Oct. 6, every Monday teachers in K-8 schools in the continental U. S. can test their knowledge by answering online Classroom Jeopardy! StandardsLink questions.  Hosted by ETA/Cuisenaire, the nation’s premier educational publisher and pioneer of manipulatives-based education, the contest allows teachers to go online and answer questions in math, science, and literacy.  Each time a teacher answers a question correctly, their name is entered into a prize drawing.  The more times a teacher plays, the greater the chance they have to win.  Prizes are awarded throughout the contest, and at the end of the contest, one grand prize winner will be announced.  The grand prize is a Classroom Jeopardy! StandardsLink Game Event held at the winner’s school. 

Participants of this contest are asked to create a short music video demonstrating how classes currently use or would like to use technology to enhance instruction.  Winners will receive a complete classroom makeover, which includes an interactive whiteboard, student response system, software licenses, and more.  The contest will name one winner from the following three grade level: Kindergarten through fifth; sixth through eighth; and ninth through 12. In addition, all participants who submit a video will receive a free copy of Workspace-ExamView Edition LE, and the 15 finalists will also receive a software package including our ExamView Assessment Suite, PuzzleView and Quiz Show, allowing winners to present content in a puzzle or game show format.

Using an innovative range of new and traditional means, this challenge hopes to inspire third to sixth graders to discover a well-kept secret: science is cool. The first 1,000 entries will receive free science activity kits. Downloadable entry forms are available online at kidsciencechallenge.com and Whyville.net, and online entries may be completed on imbee.com.

The competition is open to all U.S. middle school students between grades 6-8. Teams will be made up of two to three students and a teacher or adult advisor. The initiative will expand to elementary schools in 2009 and to high schools in 2010. Teams will be judged by a panel of environmental experts and science educators on their ability to create a positive, measurable solution to a local environmental problem or issue using scientific methodology and how well they explain how the solution can be replicated by other communities.