Welcome to Region 3

One of the most popular online resources supported by the U.S. Department of Education recently received an extreme makeover that has put hundreds of teaching and learning resources easily at the public's disposal.

The redesign of the FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) Web site - available at http://free.ed.gov - helps users to better navigate more than 1,500 resources from more than 35 federal agencies that range from an interactive program picturing phases of the moon from the National Science Foundation to video narratives by Holocaust survivors from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It organizes these resources according to academic subjects, using an appealing display of photos and illustrations for easy identification.

In addition, the new design adds a subject map on the home page that organizes the online collection according to eight categories: language arts; math; science; U.S. history; U.S. time periods; world studies; arts and music; and health and physical education.

Each category follows with a subgroup that helps to fine-tune the search for resources. For instance, U.S. history covers ethnic groups, famous people, movements and wars. The science category explores applied, earth, life, physical and space sciences, while the math group looks at algebra, data analysis, geometry, measurement, and numbers and operations.

And, for observances celebrated in the classroom, the site - which is updated weekly - includes resources for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Sept. 11 as part of its special collections.

The redesign was the first since the FREE Web site was created in 1998.

Q&A - WHAT FEDERAL GRANTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS?

To meet the growing need for improved math and science instruction, President George W. Bush recently signed into law two new grant programs for college students: the Academic Competitiveness Grant and the Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant. The president has budgeted $790 million for the 2006-07 academic year, and $4.5 billion over five years, to provide financial aid to college students who are: 1) eligible for federall Pell grants; 2) United States citizens; and 3) enrolled full-time.