Omaha Public Schools (OPS) – the largest, most diverse school district in Nebraska – serves more than 47,000 students through a range of educational opportunities that include magnet schools, elementary schools with Academy Programs, and seven high schools that give all students the choice of a high school to fit their academic needs and personal interests.
The Nebraska Center for Virology (NCV), an NIH-supported Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, fosters collaboration among virology researchers at Nebraska’s major biomedical research institutions: University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), and Creighton University. NCV researchers pursue an understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which HIV, herpesviruses, and human papillomavirus establish persistent infection, interact with the host, are transmitted, and cause disease.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) – the state’s designated health sciences center – provides research, education, and public service emphasizing biosecurity and biopreparedness; biostatistics; environmental, agricultural, and occupational health sciences; epidemiology; ethics; health disparities; health policy analysis, health services administration; health services research; health promotion and disease prevention; rural health; and toxicology.
The University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) is a leader in the area of informal science education, with projects that include World of Viruses (funded by NIH), the award-winning Wonderwise Women in Science series (funded by HHMI and NSF), the NSF-funded Explore Evolution project, and Engaging Antarctica (funded by NSF).
NET is an umbrella organization that includes Nebraska’s public television and radio networks and an interactive media production group. NET’s recent productions for PBS include NOVA (Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land, 2004; Buried in Ash, 1994) and the American Experience episode “Monkey Trial” (2002), which received the George Foster Peabody Award and the Writers Guild of America Award. NET is producing a NOVA documentary for Engaging Antarctica, an NSF-funded project developed in partnership with UNSM.
Soundprint Media Center, Inc. (SMCI) has a long track record developing innovative formal and informal education projects for public broadcasters, schools, and community groups. SMCI has produced Web sites for several special series and created digital libraries and dynamic online databases. The Soundprint series has received many major radio broadcasting awards, including the Prix Italia, the Peabody, the Gracie Awards from the American Women in Radio and Television, the International Festivals, and Corporation for Public Broadcasting awards.
UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications (CoJMC) is well-known for its outstanding educational programs (advertising, broadcast, and news-editorial) and depth reporting capabilities that have taken students to Cuba, Sri Lanka, France, and Germany. CoJMC’s student-produced magazines and documentaries have won major awards and accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a Student Academy Award.
Department of Psychology and the School of Education and Social Policy’s Institute for Educational Research, Northwestern University (NW). Institute researchers investigate how people perceive and understand the world around them, approaching their studies from a developmental perspective. Their research has important implications for education: they strive to understand what makes certain educational programs and tools effective in the light of cognitive theories and processes.
