Advanced Technological Education ·

Welcome to the ATE Central Connection! Published the first Monday of each month, the ATE Central Connection is meant to disseminate information to and about ATE centers and projects, providing you with up-to-date ATE news, events, reminders, as well as highlighting new centers, projects, and resources. In addition, we will also highlight an educational topic with complementary resources found within ATE Central to help illustrate how ATE resources can be used in the classroom.

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In This Issue

Featured Resources in Nanofabrication

From SCME:

SCME Kit Activities

http://scme-nm.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=59&Itemid=225

This page from the Southwest Center for Microsystems Education features the kits that are available to instructors who are planning to incorporate micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) Technology into their classroom. The instructor and participant guides are available after the user creates a free account but the kits themselves must be ordered from SCME. Kit topics include Pressure Sensor Model Activity, MEMS: Making Micro Machines DVD Kit, Dynamic Cantilever Activity, and Crystallography Activities.

From NetWorks:

Stanford Nanofabrication Facility

http://snf.stanford.edu/

The Stanford Nanofabrication Facility is a state-of-the-art, shared-equipment, open-use resource. The laboratory serves academic, industrial, and governmental researchers across the country and around the globe. The SNF is a vibrant community of researchers with lab members from a wide variety of disciplines, conducting research in areas of optics, MEMS, biology, and chemistry, as well as process characterization and fabrication of more traditional electronics devices. The lab is especially committed to supporting use of Micro- and Nanofabrication technologies in non-traditional research applications.

From the National Center for Manufacturing Education (NCME):

Nanofabrication Workshop for Educators and Industry

http://www.cneu.psu.edu/edOutreachPD.html

These workshops explore the world of nanotechnology and are offered several times per year by the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU). Participants learn about the growing applications of nanotechnology in many industries including biotechnology, MEMS, optoelectronics, chemical, and nano-electronics. The fundamentals of nanofabrication processes and tools are covered and practiced through processing labs in 10 cleanrooms of the Penn State Nanofabrication Facility. Each workshop runs three days with the time broken down into daily morning lectures by nationally recognized Penn State researchers and engineering staff, and afternoon lab sessions in nanofabrication. The intended audiences for these workshops are high school and college educators, administrators, guidance counselors, career counselors, etc. A previous knowledge of micro or nanotechnology is not required. Upcoming workshops can be found on the website within the Events section.

ATE@20

ATE@20 Book

ATE@20 Featured Blog Post and Survey Results

Last week on the ATE@20 Blog, Madeline Patton provided an update on the overall reception of the ATE@20 book + blog project. She also provided a look at the results of the usage survey to which so many of you graciously responded. While we hope you’ve had a chance to read through the post yourselves, here is a brief review of what you can find on the site:

  • Released at the 20th National ATE Principal Investigators Conference last October, ATE@20: Two Decades of Advancing Technological Education offers a glimpse into the discoveries and opportunities generated by Advanced Technological Education projects and centers during the past two decades.
  • A recent survey of readers found that in the four months after the book was released at the ATE Principal Investigators Conference in October 2013, its content has been reused and shared to reach key audiences beyond the ATE community. ATE Central will continue to gather feedback in the coming months, and Principal Investigator Rachael Bower encourages anyone who has read the book to participate in the survey at https://atecentral.net/ate20survey.
  • Student innovations and successes are a pivotal indicator of ATE’s impact on community and technical college education throughout the past 20 years. To highlight these accomplishments, the book contains human interest stories about several ATE program graduates.
  • Nearly half of the people who responded to the ATE@20 usage survey (which was sent in February to people who requested and received copies of the book) reported that they had used portions of the book in presentations, promotional materials, social media posts, newsletters, or blogs.
  • Most of the respondents (65%) are ATE project or center principal investigators. Others who participated in the survey include community college educators who do not have ATE grants, community college administrators, ATE project or center staff members, high school guidance counselors, and a member of an ATE national visiting committee.

For the full story, including an overview of the ATE@20 book and comments shared by survey respondents, check out the ATE@20 blog!

Community Connection

Gears

5 Resources to Help Support Your Evaluation Efforts

Evaluation is a key component of the ATE experience, providing critical data that can help steer the direction of projects and centers, showcasing the impact and effectiveness of work, and helping NSF understand the successes and challenges faced by grantees. To support your evaluation planning and execution, here are some tried and true resources and sites:

  1. EvaluATE: Evaluation Resource Center for Advanced Technological Education

    The Evaluation Resource Center for Advanced Technological Education (EvaluATE) promotes the goals of the ATE program by partnering with projects and centers to strengthen evaluation knowledge and expand the use of evaluation best practices. The Center provides ATE grantees and evaluators with support to design, conduct and report credible, useful improvement and accountability-oriented evaluations. Explore this website for a variety of resources, ranging from webinars on logic models to instruments for assessing undergraduate research experience.

  2. NSF User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation

    This handbook was developed to provide project directors and principal investigators with a basic guide for evaluating NSF’s educational projects. This is a great find for those who need to learn more about both the value of evaluation and how to design and carry out an evaluation, rather than those who already have a solid base of experience in the field. It builds on firmly established principles, blending technical knowledge and common sense to meet the special needs of NSF and its stakeholders.

  3. University of Wisconsin – Extension: Enhancing Program Performance with Logic Models

    Many members of the ATE Community use logic models as a way to visually present the sequence of actions that describe what a program is and what it plans to do. Here’s a great site from the University of Wisconsin Extension Program that will help orient you to the challenges and benefits of using and creating your own logic model.

  4. Online Evaluation Resource Library

    The purpose of the Online Evaluation Resource Library (OERL) is to collect and make available evaluation plans, instruments, and reports for NSF projects that can be used as examples by Principal Investigators, project evaluators as they design proposals and projects. OERL’s resources include instruments, plans, and reports from evaluations that have proven to be sound and representative of current evaluation practices.

  5. The University of North Carolina, Greensboro – Program Evaluation Resource Center

    This site from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro provides a range of resources for individuals seeking accessible information about program evaluation concepts and applications. It provides a general overview of key terms as well as various theoretical approaches to program evaluation. This is a great site for initial consideration in the evaluation process.

Did you know?

Nanofabrication grew out of semiconductor microelectronics "chip" manufacturing. Today it is used in information storage, opto-electronics, sensors, micro-electro-mechanical (MEMs) devices, power semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, bio-medical applications, and, of course, in microelectronics.

ATE Events

Ongoing Events
– Integrated Geospatial Education and Technical Training - Remote Sensing Online
– Photonics Faculty Development Course: Fundamentals of Light and Lasers Online
– Advanced Manufacturing PBL Newsletter Online
– Emergency Training Workshop Online
– American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Convention Washington, D.C.
– The United States Fab Lab Network Symposium Linthicum Heights, MD
– Nanotechnology Course Resources I: Safety, Processing, and Materials State College, Pennsylvania
Upcoming Events
– SAE 2014 World Congress & Exhibition Detroit, MI
– Teaching at Scale: Effective strategies for higher order learning in large courses Online
Grape Planting Workshop Paola, KS
Preparing Technicians for Careers in Advanced Mobility Online
Supply Chain Technology Education Webinar Online
– NIMS Credentialing Workshop for Metalworking Instructors Daytona Beach, FL
10th Annual Community College Program Chicago, IL
National CyberWatch Center: National Cybersecurity Student Association Online
Industry Partners for Your Nano Program Online
Weights and Measures and Scale Albuquerque, New Mexico
Spray Workshop Topeka, KS
Project Access Workshop at California School for the Deaf, Riverside Riverside, CA
CAAT Annual Conference: You Can't See the Future in the Rearview Mirror Warren, Michigan
– 2014 Digilent Design Contest Brooklyn, NY
– Inside Missouri Cooperage Seminar St. Louis, MO
– Craft Beverage Expo San Jose, CA
– Manufacturing 4 the Future Hartford, CT
– 2014 Florida Energy Systems Consortium (FESC) Workshop Gainesville, FL
– Hands-on Introduction to Nanotechnology for Educators University Park - State College, Pennsylvania
– STEM Forum & Expo in New Orleans Integration for Innovation New Orleans, LA
Electrospinning Webinar Online
– National Association for Workforce Improvement Annual Conference Portland, OR
Formative Assessment Systems for ATE Webinar: Making a Logic Model that Works for You Online
– 10th Annual VESTA Curriculum Retreat Santa Fe, NM
Supply Chain Technology Education Educators' Workshop Dayton, Ohio
National CyberWatch Center: National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework 2.0 Online
– Genomic Approaches in BioSciences: STEM Faculty Workshop! Lexington, Kentucky
– Summer Working Connections North Appleton, WI
– 16th Annual Summer Fellows Forum Berkeley, California
– CNF Short Course: Technology & Characterization at the Nanoscale (CNF TCN) Ithaca, NY
– Micro Nano Tech Conference 2014 – Taking Micro-Nano Tech Education to New Heights Albuquerque, NM
– Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics San Jose, CA
– GeoEd `14 Conference Louisville, Kentucky
– STEM Guitar Project Dayton, Ohio
– LEGO Mindstorms Workshop & Curriculum Integration Emphasizing CCSS Tampa, FL
Introduction to Viticulture for High School Instructors Springfield, MO
– Bahamas Field Expedition for Teachers Online
– WASTC Regional Academy Conference Pomona, CA
– Summer Student Nanotechnology Institute San Antonio, TX
– STEM Guitar Building Institute Lynnwood, WA
– Summer Working Connections South Jacksonville, FL
– Biofuel Train the Trainer Academy Greensboro, NC
11th Annual Community College Program at BIO 2014 San Diego, CA

For more events, please visit the ATE Central Events page or, if you have any upcoming events that you would like posted on ATE Central or in the ATE Central Connection, please submit them online.

To add a continuously-updated list of ATE and STEM education events to your website, use the ATE Event Widget.

News & Reminders

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Can CWIS Software Help Support Your Project Goals?

CWIS is open source software, created with NSF funding, that can help your project or center showcase resources online. It's free and very easy to use. We'd be happy to provide you with more information about CWIS and give you a quick tour of its features — please e-mail cwis@scout.wisc.edu to get started!

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