| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 15, 2011 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 20, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1104045 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Virginia Carter
vccarter@nsf.gov (703)292-4651 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2011 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $200,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $200,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3000 WAYNE MEMORIAL DR GOLDSBORO NC US 27534-8212 (919)739-7010 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3000 WAYNE MEMORIAL DR GOLDSBORO NC US 27534-8212 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Advanced Tech Education Prog |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Wayne Community College (WCC) is partnering with the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education (SC ATE) National Resource Center and Bristol Community College (BCC) to create Project-based Learning (PBL) Scenarios for a new sustainability technology program. This project addresses the educational needs of two-year community college students, underrepresented secondary students, and high school and community college faculty. The project provides secondary and post-secondary faculty with professional development activities and gives them the opportunity to develop, test, and implement PBL scenarios. The project is based upon WCC's previous success, new curriculum, expanded partnerships, increased student interest, and local industry support. Grant objectives are that 80% of the PBL cohort is retained and successfully completes the sustainability technology program. The intellectual merit of the project is that students are learning workplace readiness by using real work scenarios. Topics are broadly relevant to sustainable technology; career assessment, professional ethics, critical thinking, problem solving, and tools for engineering computations. The broader impact of the project is that this curriculum is the first of its kind in North Carolina. Project scenarios are incorporated into WCC and BCC's curriculum as well as the SC ATE Technology Gateway. Deliverables are also included within the nationally recognized and broadly disseminated SC ATE curriculum, the North Carolina Community College System and the North Carolina Learning Object Repository.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Project Based Learning (PBL) for Sustainability Curriculum project was intended to fulfill the need for graduates to have more real-world problem solving experiences. This deficiency was originally identified by Progress Energy/Duke Progress officials along with other local industries on our Advisory Board. We were steered towards the national model of Project-Based Learning housed at the SCATE Center in Florence-Darlington, SC and subsequently joined their efforts to disseminate PBL more broadly. Working with our industry and education partners our goals were to train more faculty in the implementation of PBL as well as to empower them to create PBL scenarios for any materials to be taught. Our models for this professional development were concentrated in the sustainability arena because their is a noted lack of PBL materials concerning this subject. We have been successful in helping to lead this change towards contextualized, meaningful curriculum products for our students and for others having access to NSF-supported materials. We have broadened our relationships with other colleges using this approach and become part of the community of practice that is PBL. We have also strengthened our ties with local high schools in order to better support k-12 educators in providing effective instruction that prepares students for the advanced problem solving necessary to be successful in higher education and career applications.
High school and college faculty worked together with assistance from industry members to develop 4 scenarios based around sustainable manufacturing principles and these scenarios were pilot-tested and refined at both levels. Local industry were extremely impressed with the problem-solving, leadership, and independent working skills that students developed and a record number of industry representatives (53) participated in our last Advisory Board meeting in May, 2016. Graduates of our programs are in high demand, with 100% securing employment in the field within 2 weeks of graduation, and sought after from industries outside of our service area as a result of industry understanding what our project goals were and how we were meeting them.
Our local school district was particularly overwhelmed with the success that technical students in the PBL program had on standardized state tests in such areas as drafting and engineering mathematics. This experience has prompted a paradigm shift in thinking from the public school administration and a new PBL initiative in the system was announced this past spring. Our partnership with the system was instrumental in this change and faculty from Wayne Community College have been asked to design and conduct the training for the public school faculty and give aid during this transition. We are looking forward to sustaining our efforts of using PBL and cultivating further the relationships with community colleges, industry, and our public school system.
Last Modified: 09/16/2016
Modified by: Angela Wall
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