Advanced Technological Education .

Welcome to the ATE Central Connection! Published the first Tuesday 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: Bio and Chemical Technologies

From Building the Cell Therapy and Flow Cytometry Workforce:

Multicolor Antibody Staining of T Cells

atecentral.net/downloads/35885/SOP%20-%20Multicolor%20Antibody%20Staining%20of%20T%20Cells%20.pdf

This 13-page resource, from Frederick Community College is a standard operating procedure (SOP) for multicolor panel antibody staining of T Lymphocytes. The SOP outlines the purpose, scope, definitions, references, safety measures, responsibilities, materials and equipment involved in the procedure. Step-by-step procedures are provided for assessing the presence of a panel of antibodies on the surface of CD3 Jurkat cells to understand lymphocyte expression profiles accurately. Procedure steps include: confirming the cytometer is on and calibrated, preparing the sample, compensation control preparation, sample staining, setting the acquisition parameters on the cytometer, creating sample gating strategy on the cytometer, sample acquisition, data analysis, and exporting the data.

From InnovATEBIO National Biotechnology Education Center :

2023 Advanced PCR Techniques Webinar Series

www.innovatebio.org/presentation/2023-advanced-pcr-techniques-webinar-series-part-1-presentation

In this 2-part webinar series, provided by InnovATEBIO, experts in digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) applications discuss integrating PCR into research and classroom instruction. This video features two presentations. In the first presentation, Abiodun Bodunrin, application scientist at Bio-Rad, provides an introduction and overview of conventional PCR, qPCR, and ddPCR. Bodunrin compares and discusses each type of PCR and gives an overview of the instruments used in PCR. In the second presentation, Joshua Steele, microbiologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, discusses using ddPCR to measure beach water in quality monitoring programs. Finally, molecular biologist Beth Boedecker provides suggestions for incorporating these applications of PCR into classroom instruction.

From A Bridge to Bio-Link's Future:

Biotech-Careers.org: A Resource for Building Career Awareness in Biotechnology

atecentral.net/downloads/35892/Biotech-Careersorg-S-Porter.pdf

This article, published by Digital World Biology, provides an overview of Biotech-Careers.org, its pathways for career exploration, and the results of a study on college students who have used the site. Biotech-Careers.org was created to address the needs of biotechnology employers for qualified employees by offering a resource for students to learn more about biotechnology careers and their requirements. The article goes over the four main ways to search the site for career exploration: alumni profiles, interactive maps displaying employer location, business area subjects, and job listings. Additionally, the results of a study examining the impact of Biotech-Carrers.org on college students' awareness and interest in Biotechnology careers is discussed.

Community Connection

Enhancing Accessibility at Conferences: A Guide for Presenters

With summer conference season in full swing, including the upcoming HI-TEC Conference, it's crucial for presenters to ensure their sessions are accessible and impactful for all attendees. ATE Impacts has put together a guide with essential tips to help conference presenters prepare and deliver inclusive presentations.

  • Start by organizing your presentation with a clear outline, considering the diverse needs of your audience.
  • Practice to fit within a 45-minute session, including time for Q&A, and prepare for potential questions. On the day, arrive early to set up, track your time diligently, and ensure all elements of your presentation are accessible—caption videos, use clear and descriptive audio, describe visuals, read slides aloud, and use a microphone.
  • Keep your slides simple and share your contact information both verbally and on your slides.

To further enhance accessibility, share your slides via cloud services or QR codes. Explore comprehensive resources like W3C WAI’s checklist for accessible events and AccessATE’s tips for creating accessible presentations and read the full guide on ATE Impact’s blog page.

ATE Success Tips: Websites

Minimizing Your Website's Bounce Rate

Google uses AI to process its search results, ranking search listings by consulting metrics such as the amount of time users spend on a site and page bounce rate to determine visitor interest and content relevance. Bounce rate captures the number of visitors to your website who land on a page and then leave without clicking through to other pages on the site. Ideally, your site and all its pages should have a low bounce rate, meaning that the majority of visitors are moving throughout the site, rather than only viewing the landing page.

Reasons your site's bounce rate might be high include:

  • There is a technical issue preventing user access.
  • Your website is not loading quickly, causing frustration.
  • The site content does not meet visitor expectations.
  • Site design is creating an undesirable user experience (UX).

Technical Issues
To avoid the first two issues, be sure to regularly check your site for technical hangups and use a free website speed test to determine your site's current speed. Once you have ruled out a tech problem, you can optimize site content and design to decrease your bounce rate further.

Better Content
Relevance and quality are the two pillars of strong content. Your site content should always be well written, credible, and directed at your target audience. Another factor that may influence search listing placement is content freshness. Regardless of the rankings impact, keeping your website up-to-date and regularly adding new content is a great way to ensure you are getting visitors to engage with your content and return.

Better Design
To improve UX, optimize your site design with a few easy strategies. First of all, be sure to use effective internal linking. Links that direct users to other pages of your website are called internal links. These can be effective ways to connect related content and suggest relevant resources, but it is important that they do not disrupt the UX.

Another helpful element for directing users is strong use of headers and subheaders to guide readers through dense text. This is key for making relevant sections easily identifiable and helpful when used in combination with internal linking on pages that index other parts of the site. Overall, clear navigation and search features will keep users from getting lost and promote movement throughout the site.

New ATE grantees interested in creating a free website to showcase their work should check out ATE Central's Microsite Service for more information.

Did You Know?

About 2.3 million students stopped attending college between January 2021 and July 2022, a 2.9% increase from the year prior, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That brings the total of the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population under 65 to 36.8 million.

Select STEM Education Resources

A few online STEM resources from outside of ATE, that you may find of interest:

National Center for Biotechnology Information: PubChem

pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), "PubChem contains the chemical structures of small organic molecules and information on their biological activities. It is intended to support the Molecular Libraries and Imaging component of the NIH Roadmap Initiative." PubChem users can search the chemical structure database by chemical properties, structural similarity, and descriptive terms. PubChem utilizes three connected databases--PubChem Compound, PubChem Substance, and PubChem BioAssay--all of which operate inside the Entrez/PubMed information retrieval system. In addition, the site offers the PubChem Structure Search tool for quick similarity searches. The site also links to contact information for the Structure Group research staff, and selected online publications.

Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics

www.rcsb.org

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) is a non-profit group "dedicated to improving our understanding of the function of biological systems through the study of the 3-D structure of biological macromolecules." The goal of RCSB is to provide free public resources and publications to further the fields of bioinformatics and biology. RCSB members include the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and the Biotechnology Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Web site provides links to nine protein and nucleic acid databases, dozens of downloadable software packages for use in molecular structure determination and analysis, four online courses, and a community service link that includes Internet resources not maintained by the RCSB.

National Center for Biotechnology Information: Web Tutorials

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/tutorials/

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) does a number of educational outreach programs, and their tutorials come highly recommended. In the "Web Tutorials" area, visitors will find nine different resources that cover DNA manipulation and the identification of disease genes. A good portion of these materials are collected from publications. Publications include "Comparative Genomics" and other documents, and they are available in their entirety via the "Bookshelf" section of the site. Moving on, the detailed "Problem Sets" are taken from other NCBI publications, and they cover disease genes and 3D protein structures. Finally, the "Video Tutorials" section of the site offers tutorials on how to quickly obtain specific materials from the NCBI website and PubMed.

Do you have some great STEM resources you'd like to share with ATE Central? Email us with your ideas at info@atecentral.net.

ATE Events

Upcoming Events
– Eng GRRATE Summer Institute - Starke Starke, FL
– Info Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity Educators Online
– Info Whatcom Community College Gencyber Camp Bellingham, WA
– Mfg Weld-Ed Summer Training - Fundamentals of GMAW Waveforms, Visual Inspection, and Ultrasonic Testing Williamsport, PA
– Mfg Weld-Ed Summer Training - Fundamentals of Welding Metallurgy - Aluminum & Welding Robotics - Cobots Ogden, UT
– Ag/Env 48th ASEV-Eastern Section Annual Meeting Cleveland, OH
– Ag/Env 2024 STEM Solar Institute Madison, WI
– Eng ASE Instructor Training Conference Minneapolis, MN
– Info Microsoft Azure Open AI Fundamentals Online
– Eng GRRATE Summer Institute - Alachua Alachua, FL
– Eng GRRATE Summer Institute - Keystone Heights Keystone Heights, FL
– Ag/Env Summer 2024 STEM Educator Energy Institute Pittsboro, NC
– Mfg Weld-Ed Summer Training - Surface Inspection NonDestructive Testing Chattanooga, TN
– Mfg NACAT Conference Plainfield, IN
– Eng Battery Electric Vehicle Sumer Institute Dayton, OH
– Ag/Env Summer 2024 STEM Solar Plus Storage Institute Madison, WI
Gen Strategies and Insights into Evaluation Plans for NSF ATE Proposals Online
Bio/Chem AI in the Classroom: Talks with Q&A Online
Bio/Chem AI in the Classroom: Workshop Online
– Gen HI-TEC 2024 Kansas City, MO
– Bio/Chem BIOTECH Pathways: Summer Institute Bel Air, MD
– Gen UDL-Con: International Sacramento, CA
– Gen Experience STEAM Bloomington, MN
– Bio/Chem Society for Industrial Microbiology Conference Annual Meeting Boston, MA
– Nano REU Convocation Lincoln, NE
– Nano 2024 NACK Hands-on-Site Workshops University Park, PA
– Eng University of Washington MATE FLOATS! Summer Workshop Seattle, WA
– Bio/Chem Antibody Engineering Hackathon August 2024 Online
– Mfg 2024 MTTIA Conference Brainerd, MN
– Mfg Weld-Ed Summer Training - GMAW /FCAW Processes Marysville, CA
– Mfg Edge Computing Educator Workshop Tampa, FL
– Info AWS Cloud Workshop Online
– Gen Rally Innovation Conference 2024 Indianapolis, IN
– Gen Journal Writing Workshop Online
Mfg Autonomous Nation Conference West Fargo, ND

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.

News & Reminders

Dear Colleague Letter: Supplemental Funding Requests for ATE

The National Science Foundation's Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) invites current ATE program recipients to submit requests for supplemental funding to support scholarships for students eligible under the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM). This initiative aims to address the ongoing high attrition rates among STEM undergraduates in the U.S. by providing financial assistance to academically talented, low-income students pursuing degrees in STEM fields. Detailed instructions for preparing these requests are provided on the NSF website, including requirements for institutional context, potential scholars' demographics, retention and graduation rates, scholarship amount determination, and existing support structures. Funding will not exceed 20% of the original ATE award and must be submitted with prior NSF approval.

ATE Central's LinkedIn Page

Visit ATE Central's official LinkedIn page! ATE Central amplifies the impactful work of the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education community. The ATE community is dedicated to elevating the skills of technicians and their educators and ATE Central’s LinkedIn page provides a gateway to the full spectrum of the ATE achievements. Follow the LinkedIn page to stay updated, access valuable resources and events, and connect with like-minded professionals shaping the future of technological education.

ATE Impacts 2024-2025 Book Promotes Technical Education and Celebrates 30 Years

The ATE Impacts 2024-2025 book showcases the work of the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education Community. This edition includes a foreword from National Science Foundation Director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, and features the work of 24 centers and 35 projects across the seven ATE areas, as well as applied research. By highlighting the ATE community's successful and innovative work, the book encourages broader participation in the ATE program by academic institutions, educators, and industry partners. Dissemination of the ATE Impacts book advances understanding of the importance of technician education and its role in supporting the high-tech industries that drive the United States' economy More information on the book can be found on the ATE Impacts website.

ATE Central Outreach Kit

The ATE Central Outreach Kit was developed as a tool to assist ATE Principal Investigators (PIs) and staff in effectively planning, monitoring, and executing outreach activities.

ATE Central has given the Outreach Kit a refresh with a new design and content, accompanied by a downloadable Template. The new kit is designed to guide you through a step-by-step process and helps you explore how to identify your primary audiences and stakeholders, determine the partners and resources that can support your efforts, and start considering aspects such as branding and messaging.

By utilizing the kit and template, you will make significant progress towards developing a comprehensive plan that enables you to achieve the objectives of your grant, effectively communicate your outcomes and impacts, and showcase the valuable work of your project or center to a diverse range of stakeholders.

The Outreach Kit can be found on ATE Central's website, under the Resources tab.

New Tool - Calendar Feed

The ATE Central Calendar Feed is an easy to customize tool that enables calendar feeds from the ATE Central Events Calendar to quickly be added to either the Outlook or the Mac Calendar app, and will then automatically display upcoming events of interest based on the keywords you include. You can use the feed to populate your personal calendar or to add lists of upcoming events to your ATE center or project website. For WordPress-based sites, free plugins like ICS Calendar will allow you to use a calendar feed to display a list of upcoming events on your WordPress site. You'll need to sign in to your ATE Central account to create a feed - and it's easy to change your selection of keywords to add or subtract areas of interest over time. We look forward to hearing from you as you utilize this new service and as always, we'd love to get your feedback or comments. Don't hesitate to reach out to the team with any questions at info@atecentral.net.

Follow ATE Central on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with all things new at ATE Central and in the ATE Community as well as in the world of STEM Education.


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