Projects
NESA sponsors and administers several education projects, most of which are supported by funding from the Overseas Schools Advisory Council (OSAC) and/or the US State Department's Office of Overseas Schools (A/OS). Among our most recent projects are:
NESA Virtual School
A cooperative venture between NESA and A/OS, this future-oriented project provides a powerful vehicle for students and teachers, within and among the 18 participating school communities, to learn about and benefit from an online academic environment. Read the latest project update, or contact NESA, nesa@nesacenter.org.
NESA Virtual Science Fair
Read updates in the Spring 2008 NESA NEWS
The NESA Virtual Science Fair, which began at the American International School in Israel in 2004/05 has now expanded to 12 middle schools of which 10 are in NESA, one in AISA and one in EARCOS. The NESA Virtual Science Fair (NVSF) allows students to shift from the traditional science fair, which is totally physical in nature, to a hybrid science fair which allows for virtual modes. Using "Blackboard", which is currently used in many NESA schools, as the platform to create virtual communities of schools and virtual regions lends to a more transformative view wherein students can use the power of e-learning to enhance their “hands-on” science skills above and beyond the realm of the lab by sharing and interacting with both other students in other schools and with experts in science, academia and professional life (known as e-mentors).
This middle school-based program, with the help of BlackBoard, has become a very successful project that crosses geopolitical borders in the Middle East and allows students from over 60 countries to participate in a scientific research and multi-cultural exchange project. At the end of the 2006/07 competition, almost 900 students in nine schools interacted with 350 virtual e-mentors from over 50 U.S. universities including additional science education faculty in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In the Spring of 2007, the NVSF also expanded vertically by creating the NVSF 5th Project, for students in grade five. This group ran a beta test with three NESA schools and then was awarded a seed-grant through the U.S. State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools to expand the project by providing training, curriculum development and support for fifth grade teachers. The NVSF 5th Project has expanded to seven schools for the 2007/08 year. The e-mentors in this project are recruited from high school classes, and these students collaborate online with fifth graders at different schools. The NVSF continues to break new ground in the areas of collaborative online education.
Read updates in the Spring 2008 NESA NEWS
Project AERO (American Education Reaches Out)
This long term, collaborative worldwide project began in the late 1990’s and to date has developed instructional standards in English/language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, world languages, the virtual arts and music. Bounded in an “adopt, then adapt” concept, AERO standards have been used by more than 75 schools around the world. They are also posted on the website of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). For complete information on this project, along with recent news, visit the AERO website www.projectaero.org
Project Hamlet (An American Overseas Schools Facilities Development Handbook)
Alton Hlavin, an A/OS special consultant, worked with several members of the NESA Board of Directors to develop a handbook to assist American/international schools with major construction/renovation projects.
You may download this project in PDF format. For complete appendices, contact NESA: nesa@nesacenter.org.
NESA/NWEA “MAP” Project
Responding to requests from a group of schools, the NESA Center approached A/OS for the funding of a three-year pilot project to investigate the appropriateness and effectiveness of the computer-based, summative and formative “Measure of Academic Progress” (MAP) assessment instrument from Northwest Evaluation Associates. This pilot includes students in three grades from ten member schools. It was beta-tested in the spring of 2007; the project itself began in September, 2007, and will run for three school years. www.nwea.org
Updates will be posted on the NESA website.
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