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We are looking forward to seeing everyone from the ATE community October 23-25 in Washington DC at the 2019 PI Conference.  For up-to-date information on the Conference, follow @ATECentral and @Comm_College on Twitter or visit ATE Central staff at Booth #001 during the showcases on October 23^rd and 24^th!

As always, we are pleased to announce the release of the 2019 ATE PI Conference mobile app. The app and companion website are designed to help you make the most of your conference experience. Use your phone, tablet, or Internet browser to create a personal schedule, stay up-to-date with the agenda and speaker lineup, search the attendee directory, and more! The app is available for iPhone or iPad and Android devices. To download the app, search your app store for “ATE PI 2019" or simply follow the appropriate link from your mobile device.

Equity & Excellence: Access in Higher Education logo

Many in the ATE Community are well-versed in the importance of accessibility when it comes to higher education, but even the most experienced among us may benefit from new perspectives. Those looking to further develop their resources and skills in this area should take note of this unique professional development opportunity provided by the DeafTEC Resource Center in partnership with the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD).

The Equity & Excellence in Higher Education Conference will give participants the chance to discuss “challenges that they face in working with students with disabilities and how they can collaborate to overcome these challenges.” Participation and sharing are encouraged, with a focus on teaching and supporting “students with disabilities, particularly deaf or hard of hearing students and student veterans with hearing loss.”

Teams from up to 20 community colleges will be selected to participate in the conference. Each team will consist of a STEM faculty member and a staff/faculty from disability services. All team member will receive a $1,650 travel stipend to attend the conference.

The conference will take place in Palm Springs,...

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Are you a woman in STEM? If so, you may be interested in attending the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annual conference. The organization, which focuses on "members' success and continu[ing] to evolve with the challenges and opportunities reflected in today's exciting engineering and technology specialties," boasts "the world’s largest conference and career fair for women in engineering and technology."

Attendees can choose from over 300 events, with categories like Education, Colegiate Competition, and K-12 Student Program. Keynote speakers for 2019 include: Carol Malnati, a vice president at Medtronic; Rachel Hutter, a senior vice president at Disney; and Jayshree Seth, a corporate scientist and chief science advocate at 3M. The conference also features two days of career fair opportunities.

This year, the conference takes place in Anaheim, CA from November 7-9, 2019. Those interested in registering to attend can do so here.

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Media plays a huge role in most educational and training settings so it's important to make sure that everyone, including students, staff and faculty with disabilities, can easily access and use the media you create. Whether you are posting informative photos and diagrams or creating a short video, there are tools and techniques that can help support making accessible media for use in a variety of settings. 

Join partners from the NSF funded AccessATE project on Tuesday, October 8, 1:00 pm EDT for a free one-hour webinar to learn more about captioning tools, image description, and audio description.  Presenters Madeleine Rothberg from WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) and Rachael Bower from AccessATE will focus on practical tips and techniques with plenty of time for questions and comments from participants. 

Click here to sign up for the Making Your Media More Accessible webinar!

Illustration of a diverse group of women above text reading "BREAK THE CYCLE of Low Female Enrollment Numbers in STEM/CTE."

Those in search of an assessment tool focused on gender equity may be interested in the WomenTech Gender Equity Self-Assessment Tool, developed by the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science to help schools see “the gap between their current practices and potential evidence-based strategies proven to broaden participation.”

The assessment is free, easy to complete in 20 minutes, and allows institutions to assess their "readiness to recruit and retain women in your STEM/CTE career pathways." Those interested in filling out the form gradually can also save their progress and return to complete it at a later time.

The EvaluATE center has also contributed to refining the assessment and is partnering to disseminate the tool.

Some big takeaways from the tool's evaluation results to date include:

• 93% of respondents have rated the assessment as “Excellent” or “Very Good”
• 80% have reported this tool raised their awareness of factors that affect gender equity in STEM/CTE programs and helped them understand what their school could do to improve
• 53% said that taking the assessment significantly helped them see the gap between what their schools are...

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Sign up now and join ATE Central on Tuesday September 17, from 1:00-2:00 pm EDT for a free webinar on archiving with ATE Central's Kendra Bouda and Rachael Bower. Presenters will share tips on organizing your materials for archiving, using the archive submission form, and tracking your submissions online. See what happens with your submissions behind the scenes, as ATE Central staff process your materials, add metadata, and make your resources discoverable to the ATE community and beyond. Participants are encouraged to come prepared with archiving questions and seek advice on navigating the archiving process.

Voluntary Framework Accountability (VFA) logo

Community colleges in search of a method to assess student progress and outcomes, as well as the effectiveness of institutional procedures may be interested in participating in the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA). This accountability framework, developed by community college leaders, “gauges student progress and outcomes including pre-collegiate participation (such as developmental education and Adult Basic Education), academic progress and momentum, completion and transfer measures, and workforce outcomes for career and technical education.”

Those interested in contributing to the on-going development of the VFA can select from two tiers of participation. The first tier is free with 2019 AACC membership. A second tier, providing additional data and reports, is also available for $1,000.

Institutions that would like to register to participate can do so here.

ATE PI Conference 2019 Banner

The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Principal Investigators’ Conference, co-sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), is a national professional development and networking event for ATE project and center grantees and their project partners. The conference is by invitation only and brings together approximately 850 people—representing NSF ATE grants from across the country—to focus on the critical issues related to STEM technician education.

This webinar serves as an orientation to the conference and highlights why you and your ATE grant team should attend, what you can expect, how you can best prepare to participate in the required showcase sessions, and how you can maximize your time to get the most out of the conference and its many networking opportunities. It will be presented by Elaine Craft, principal investigator, Mentor-Connect and Ellen Hause, program director for academic and student success, AACC.

The webinar will take place on Friday, September 6, 1:00 - 2:30 pm EDT. Those interested in participating can register here.

Opening Pathways to Technical Careers conference banner

Instructors of deaf students teaching biology curriculum may benefit from attending the October 13-15, 2019 Opening the Pathways to Technical Careers conference offered by DeafTEC and BioQUEST. This event is aimed at secondary and postsecondary instructors, as well as interpreters, and will center on “using case studies, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, and teaching in ASL to enhance student success in biology.”

Registrants can attend the conference for free and can get travel expenses covered by the NSF ATE grant money. To receive these benefits, participants must apply by the September 6, 2019 deadline and receive an offer to attend. 

More information about the conference and a link to the application are available here.

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The showcase sessions are a highlight of the PI conference, with opportunities for projects and centers to share and display their work and learn about what others in the community are doing. It's also a great opportunity to connect with NSF program officers.

This year, showcases will take place in two sessions, the first on Wednesday, October 23, and the second on Thursday October 24. When reserving their slot, participants can select their preferred session. Showcase booths will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

First-time ATE grantees will share a booth with other new grantees and are asked to prepare a poster and/or one-page handout for display and sharing purposes. Other ATE projects and centers, whose funding is not new as of the FY19, will each be assigned their own booth. Booths will have electrical access and non-new grantees can also request a flat screen monitor.

All projects and centers are required to have a display at the showcase sessions, so don't forget to fill out your showcase submission before the September 19th deadline!