Are you interested in recycling and environmental education, and looking for ways to contribute in the community? Volunteer to become a Master Recycler.

How would you like to nab one of more than 190,000 jobs created in the ecotourism industry in North Carolina?

Do you know if flushing a dead fish down the toilet hurts the environment? Or how about when the first solar panel was made? If you're interested in learning or even providing the answer, you can do just that at Greenanswers.com.
 

Devices the size of TV remotes allow students to answer questions, giving instructors instant feedback on whether anyone is learning anything.

Equipped with a $200 router and a $60 monthly contract, some lucky Arizona school kids have a rolling internet cafe.

Knightdale 100 is gearing up and has the promise of being a very effective organization in Eastern Wake County.

I use the term "organization" even though Shannon Hardy who moderated Tuesday's forum the group sponsored refers to it as a movement for quality education in Knightdale. The group wants to be for everyone in Knightdale, Hardy said.

 Knightdale 100 has plans to hold another forum at Knightdale Town Hall Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.

The group already has a presence on the web and can be followed by going to knightdale100.blogspot.com.

A striking feature of Knightdale 100 is how it started in the first place. It had its birth in PTA meetings, at neighborhood swim clubs meets, during visits with friends. If indeed a movement, it's certainly a grass roots movement.

There are 494 students assigned to attend Knightdale High School who opt to go to magnet schools in Raleigh. Scholastic Aptitude test scores and end of grade test scores at Knightdale High School lag behind others in Wake County. And it is plagued by low graduation rates.

These parents and education supporters know it doesn't have to be this way and they are out to change it.

Some schools show Obama; others want parental consent

The Raleigh nonprofit that provides high-speed Internet access for educational use is seeking $28.1 million in financial aid from the federal stimulus package.

MCNC plans to use the money to add more than 600 miles of fiber-optic cable in rural areas that include portions of Wake County and Johnston County. Formed in 1980, MCNC provides communications services for public schools, community colleges and universities.

The additional networks will improve Internet access for schools and colleges that already have access, said MCNC chief executive Joe Freddoso. It's needed because in large part because more and more students rely on distance learning that increasingly requires video transmissions.

"They have access, they need more capacity," Freddoso said. "We need to deliver to these schools in the next three to four years, basically, unlimited bandwidth."

We've gotten a number of letters recently about issues before the General Assembly that were simply too long to run. One writer would like the state to rethink its expenditures on computers in schools, one offers his take on whether judges should be appointed rather than elected, one takes issue with the idea of Sunday blue laws, one offers a real-life experience that reflects on the Marriage Amendment and another takes on the annexation issues in the state.

Education talk is the subject of the (probable) last installment of soundbites from the editorial board meeting with Gov. Beverly Perdue this month. Perdue lamented coming cuts in the state's education budget and talked of one program she will never cut: early college credits for high school students. She also talked of her decision to shift the power in the state's education hierarchy from the elected superintendent of public instruction (June Atkinson) to her appointed CEO and board chairman (Bill Harrison).