Diversity and inclusivity are important goals of the ATE program; projects and centers--along with STEM educators, industry, and other community partners--work diligently to ensure the full participation of women, persons with disabilities, Veterans, underrepresented minorities, and others, as these groups pursue STEM education, workforce development training, and employment in STEM fields.

In this month’s From the Archive blog post, we highlight the work of three ATE projects and centers that are addressing the challenge of engaging female students in STEM disciplines. The resources below include one college’s plan to increase enrollment and retention of women in their engineering program, a best practices guide for recruiting and retaining girls, as well as a few case studies about successful strategies and practices. For additional resources about women in STEM, check out the ATE Central Resource Portal.

Seethal Meda, a graduate of the biotechnology certificate program at Montgomery County Community College, points to test results confirming deletion of the frataxin gene during a process she conducted for her research internship.

Seethal Meda’s poster summarizing the discoveries she made during a biotech internship illustrate both her biotechnology skills and the power of synergy within the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.

The poster she presented during the student showcase at the 2018 ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference featured dazzling photos of differentiated cells illuminated with immunofluorescence as they responded to the “knock-out gene” that a start-up company agreed to have Meda investigate. Her slides and the text descriptions of procedures she executed in the lab at Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, provide prospective employers with evidence of her advanced biotechnology skills.

The complex laboratory tasks that she carried out and described in the poster’s text can be traced back to ATE investments in curriculum and faculty development. And, now the standard operating procedures that Meda developed to conduct her research project are part of one of the modules accessible via the Instructor’s Portal that the Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative (NBC2) offers as a free resource for high school and college educators.

A special thanks to Rachel Flynn for contributing this month’s From the Archive blog post. Rachel is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool.

Many ATE projects and centers extend the scope of their reach by developing materials to be used in K-12 classrooms. These STEM-focused materials teach students a variety of concepts related to science, technology, engineering, and math; many of the materials that are made available through the ATE Central Archive can be used and adapted to fit a variety of classroom settings. In this month’s From the Archive blog post, we’re highlighting the work of three ATE projects and centers that support the education of middle school students in STEM. Resources featured include a workbook about energy, an assortment of lesson plans, and an activity designed to teach middle school students about manufacturing. For more information, explore the links provided below. To find more resources in the Archive geared towards middle school students, try browsing ATE Central by Education Level.

Three National Science Foundation (NSF) program directors are encouraging ATE principal investigators to become involved in The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) and Harnessing the Data Revolution—two of NSF’s Ten New Big Ideas for Future Investment—because they have the potential to overlap with technician education.  

At the first convening of the Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work (PTFOW) project on December 13 in Washington, D.C., Jordan Berg, a program director in the Division of Civil, Mechanical & Manufacturing Innovation (ENG/CMMI),  said NSF program directors would “very, very much like to see people who have their sleeves rolled up and their arms plunged in to education playing major roles in the intellectual merit and research component of these proposals.” 

Berg and two other program directors—Robert Scheidt and Stephanie August—presented information about these funding opportunities to the 26 ATE center principal investigators who the PTFOW project had gathered as an ATE Leadership Caucus to help inform its work over the next four years. The project led by Principal Investigator Ann-Claire Anderson, vice president of special projects at the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD), seeks to enable the ATE community to collaborate regionally and across disciplines with industry partners to transform associate degree programs to prepare US technicians for the future of work.  

The project’s 10 industry advisors also attended the meeting. At the meeting the ATE educators and industry advisors identified the following technologies as drivers of transformative workplace changes: artificial intelligence, the internet-of-things, cybersecurity procedures, advanced robotics, digital design, and prototyping.  See http://preparingtechnicians.org  for more information about the ATE Leadership Caucus meeting and the project’s podcasts, regional convenings, and workshops.

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Part of our focus at ATE Central is to create pathways to information and experts that can support and strengthen the work of ATE grantees. ATE Central recently sat down with Farra Trompeter, VP of Big Duck, a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits based in Brooklyn NY, to discuss how branding and marketing can enhance the work of projects and centers.

Please tell us a little bit about Big Duck and your role there.

Big Duck (www.bigducknyc.com) develops the voices of determined nonprofits by creating strong brands, campaigns, and teams. We specialize in working with nonprofits experiencing significant growth and change. I’ve been a member of Big Duck’s team since 2007. As Vice President, I guide organizations through major brand overhauls, fundraising campaigns, and much more. I also speak around the country, training nonprofit professionals on marketing, online fundraising, and donor engagement. You can learn more about me here and connect directly via Twitter via @Farra.

What exactly is branding and why should ATE grantees be concerned about branding their project/center work?

A brand is your project or center’s voice. It’s what your audiences hear, see, experience, and feel—and the impression that is formed as a result of their experiences with you. Your voice may be disjointed, murky, and barely louder than a whisper. Or your voice can ring out, differentiate, and reverberate.

A strong brand isn’t just a temporary fix or a website update. It’s built for the long haul, often to embody a new strategic plan, the vision of a new leader, or other seismic shifts. Rebranding means expressing that vision deeply and authentically, internally and externally.

For a project or center, a strong brand can help you reach and engage with students, faculty, program partners, and other key audiences. It can also help you build relationships with funders and donors for programmatic sustainability.

Colleen Day (second from right) and Caryn Truitt (far right) presented results from their survey of cybersecurity students during the student poster session at the 2018 ATE Principal Investigators Conference. Day earned an associate degree at Highline College and is now teaching at Renton Technical College. Caryn Truitt is a student in the cybersecurity bachelor’s degree program at Highline. Amelia Phillips (first on left), professor of computer information systems and computer science at Highline College, and Simone Jarzabek (second from left), computer information systems instructor at Highline, shared information about the International Collegiate Cyber Defense Invitational (ICCDI) Competition during the ATE conference’s showcase session.

Three years after enrolling in Highline College’s networking associate degree program, Colleen Day is teaching networking as a tenure-track faculty member of Renton Technical College in Renton, Washington.

The mid-career change is still a bit of a surprise to Day who was initially seeking an associate degree. She thought this credential would help her get a networking job with a medium or large business. She had taught herself networking skills while running several small businesses, but other employers were not convinced she had information technology skills.  

Amelia Phillips, professor of computer information systems and computer science at Highline College in Des Moines, Washington, noticed Day’s computer skills and teaching talents during her first semester at Highline in 2015. “She was in my Networking Intrusion Detection class and my Linux Administration class, and she was helping the other students. That’s what it was. I could see. She would figure it out, and then she would figure out what the other students needed … students help each other, but not at that level,” Phillips said.

A special thanks to Rachel Flynn for contributing this month’s From the Archive blog post. Rachel is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool.

Daniel Burman had a prosperous career in real estate but was left unhappy and unfulfilled. In his ATE Success Story, Burman explains how he went to school to obtain an associate degree in applied science for photovoltaics. This, in turn, enabled him to make a career change that allows him to work in the renewable energy sector, make a good living, and find a fulfilling career as a solar energy contractor.

In this month’s From the Archive blog post, we’re highlighting the work of three ATE projects and centers that support the education of technicians working in the renewable energy industry. Resources featured include a webinar that discusses the employment trends in clean energy jobs, a report that considers the educational needs of technicians working in the renewable energy industry, and a renewable energy technology curriculum that trains students in four different certificate programs. For more information, explore the links provided below. To find more resources in the ATE Central portal related to education and careers in renewable energy, try browsing by ATE Area: Agricultural and Environmental Technologies -- Energy technologies.

Veterans enjoy Saddleback College graduation ceremony.

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From October 24-26 the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), with support from NSF, will hold the 25th National ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The annual conference offers a chance to share, collaborate, learn, and meet with other innovative members of the ATE community, including PIs, select project and center staff, and NSF program officers. ATE Central is particularly excited about this year’s meeting; after all, ATE only turns 25 once!

Along with other projects and centers, ATE Central is gearing up to host and assist with a number of events at this year’s conference. In getting ready to head to DC, many of us will be double checking website material, creating handouts or workshop material, and generally making sure that our project and center information is up to date. A number of ATE Central services and tools may be helpful in your efforts, as you get ready for the 2018 Conference:

• ATE Impacts 2018-2019: 25 Years of Advancing Technician Education. This year the new ATE Impacts book launch was received by the community with an exorbitant amount of enthusiasm. Whether you received free copies of the book to promote your project or center’s efforts and need more, or you never got around to ordering some but would like to push them out on your campus or to industry partners now, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Visit the order form on the ATE Central site to place your order, or stop by booth #002 to pick up extras at the PI Meeting. 

Environmental health and safety technicians practice with simulated hazardous materials during ATEEC environmental education programs.

As the Advanced Technological Education program marks 25 years of existence within the National Science Foundation, three community college educators who were among the first cohort of ATE principal investigators (PIs) were asked to reflect on the program’s evolution and their experiences as STEM leaders.  

The three ATE program veterans—Ellen Kabat Lensch, Elaine L. Craft, and David Harrison—urge all community college STEM educators to utilize the many instructional resources and professional development opportunities created and offered by ATE projects and centers. (Visit ATE Central for program-wide information and links, and to access the database of ATE materials for use in specific fields and technologies.)

The principal investigators also encourage two-year college faculty members to consider how their ideas for improving STEM technician education align with their institutions’ strategic goals, and then explore the ATE program solicitation (http://nsf.gov/ate) to see if their ideas meet the criteria for ATE funding.

There is not much time before this year’s October 15 deadline for proposals. But it is never too early to begin preparing a proposal for next year. ATE proposals are next due October 3, 2019 and October 1, 2020.