45 



dnllship, which provides a unique opportunity to interact in the intense scientific environment 

 of the long ocean drilling legs 



In addition to the doctoral fellowship program, the ODP has sought to integrate education 

 through several other programs For the past five years, ODP has offered a Distinguished 

 Lecturer Series designed to bring the results of the program's research to students at both the 

 undergraduate and graduate levels, and to the general earth sciences community. In 

 addition. ODP has developed an interactive, multimedia CD ROM which describes, and 

 involves students in, the research activities on the drilling ship. The CD, accompanied by a 

 teachers manual, provides interactive laboratory exercises for primary education students to 

 complete with the guidance of the scientists aboard the drilling ship NSF's total investment of 

 almost $200,000 in these two programs has been very successful in teaching students about 

 Earth System Science and bringing ODP science results to the general public 



Facilities: The NSF supported facilities directly contribute to the education and training of science 

 and engineering students, and enhance the public awareness of science and the goals of 

 scientific research. 



• NSF's nurturing and support of NSFNET, now expanded into the global Internet, has had a 

 profound impact on science, education, and communication worldwide. A natural evolution of 

 the ARPAnet, NSFNET was a Foundation-supported nationwide computer network that 

 enabled almost instantaneous communication between researchers and educators in all fields 

 and served as an experimental platform for high speed networking. As more sites were 

 connected to the network, better communications tools were developed, such as Mosaic (the 

 precursor of today's websurfing software), which was created at the NSF-supported National 

 Center for Supercomputing Applications The combination of vast stores of information 

 available on-line and simple yet effective tools for accessing this information led to 

 exponentially increasing demand by the public for access to Internet services. The Internet 

 has now moved beyond servicing the research and academic communities and has 

 blossomed into an entire industry supplying an indispensable educational service to society 

 that is used by millions daily. 



Education and Training: In addition to the training of the next generations of excellent scientists, 

 NSF strives to enable U.S. students to become well-informed, scientifically and technologically 

 literate citizens. 



Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSI). SSI is a major effort to encourage improvements in 

 science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) education through systemic changes in the 

 education systems of the states Initiated in FY 1991, NSF has invested over $275 million in 

 24 states and Puerto Rico, an investment matched by $200 million from other sources SSI 

 has touched more than 2,900 school districts, over 13,000 schools and has involved over 

 100.000 teachers who instruct more than 5 million students SSIs use a wide combination of 

 reform strategies involving broad partnerships in the development of goals, solutions, and 

 actions For example: 



The Connecticut SSI (Project CONNstruct) has worked for four years with communities, local 

 school districts, state agencies, and other partners to institutionalize improvements in all 

 students' learning of science, mathematics and technology Other Federal, foundation, and 

 corporate sources have tripled NSF's $8 million contribution to the Connecticut SSI effort 

 More than 130 of the state's 166 districts are now participating in this systemic initiative 

 Course taking and test scores in SME. the proportion of high school graduates who continue 

 their education, and the amount of teacher education that is being restructured have all 



