Start the new year off right by joining presenters Rachael Bower, Director/PI of ATE Central and Farra Trompeter, Vice President of communications firm Big Duck, for two upcoming free, live webinars held in January and February. In these webinars, the presenters will share ideas for how to create descriptive yet simple mission statements and tactics for optimizing your project or center’s outreach strategies.  

Tell a good story: Crafting Mission Statements and messages for your ATE project or center

Tuesday. Jan. 29, 1-2 pm ET

In this live webinar, Rachael and Farra will discuss how mission statement elements and messages from your project or center can be created to more effectively engage students, partners, funders, and other key external audiences. Read more about this webinar and enroll here. 

So many choices, so little time: Setting strategies to guide your tactics

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 1-2 pm ET

Rachael and Farra will discuss how your project or center can optimize social media and communications channels, in addition to how to craft an outreach strategy while staying focused on which tactics are worth your time. Read more about this webinar and enroll here. 

Great Minds in STEM, a non-profit that promotes STEM education and careers to underserved communities, recently announced that the U.S. Army RDECOM Competition deadline has been extended to January 15, 2019, and specifically invites students attending Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities, and historically Black colleges and universities to enter the competition. 

Students entering the competition can submit design proposals in two categories: Small UAVs and UAVs from biologically-based materials. Two design proposals are allowed per eligible institution and each team must be comprised of three to eight students.

For more detailed information, including key dates, awards, and information required in the proposal, visit the announcement on the Great Minds in STEM website. 

Read the complete solicitation and guidelines here.

The National Science Foundation will be running a social media campaign - #MySTEMspark - until Dec. 7, which seeks to energize the STEM community around the importance of STEM education and is asking its partners, stakeholders and anyone who has a passion in science to share the moment that sparked their curiosity about or interest in science, technology, engineering or math.

#MySTEMspark stories can be shared on Twitter and Instagram; for those who don't use either of those social media platforms, you can email your story to tellus@nsf.gov. Don't forget to tag NSF! @NSF

If you're needing some ideas or inspiration for what to share, check out the #MySTEMspark Toolkit, which contains graphics and templates. 

Check out NSF Director Dr. France Cordova's #MySTEMspark story here!

An exciting partnership has formed between the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) and the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). Through this collaboration, community and technical college faculty will have the opportunity to earn credit toward ACUE’s Certificate in Effective College Instruction through new online and face-to-face “seminars” offered jointly by NISOD and ACUE. 

Seminars are credit-bearing and those who participate in the courses will be recognized at the annual NISOD conference. Those who are interested in taking seminars through this collaboration can expect to see more information in the coming weeks. 

“We formed this collaboration given our mutual strengths and complementary work, as we’re always looking for additional ways to support faculty,” Dr. Penny MacCormack, ACUE’s chief academic officer, said. “Both NISOD and ACUE aim to ensure every faculty member is supported and every college student receives the best education possible.”

To learn more about this announcement, visit the official press release. 

If you haven't done so already, now is a great time to order copies of the new ATE Impacts book, which highlights the impact of ATE centers and projects and also celebrates the 25th anniversary of the ATE program. Copies of the book are freely available and are a great resource to use for a variety of outreach activities.  The publication can be useful in engaging many stakeholders - helping industry partners understand the breadth of ATE activities, helping potential students and their parents get excited about STEM and ATE, or finding potential partners and collaborators.