ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION · FEBRUARY 2010

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.

We want the ATE Central Connection to be a valuable tool; please e-mail info@atecentral.net with any suggestions about how to make the ATE Central Connection more useful for you or to suggest any information you would like to see in an upcoming issue.

Upcoming Events

February 3-5 2010 Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration (CIEC) Palm Springs, CA
February 4-5 Evalu-ate Workshop: Professional Development Impact Evaluation Tempe, AZ
February 4-5 OP-TEC Workshop on Optics and Photonics Education Rochester, NY
February 4-5 UCGIS Winter Meeting 2010 Washington DC
February 6-8 Midwest Regional Grape & Wine Conference Osage Beach, MO
February 8-9 Enterprise Security Management Instructor Training Workshop Bossier City, LA
February 9-12 Virtual Enterprise Biotech and IT Faculty Development Seminar Brooklyn, NY
February 11 Secure Electronic Commerce Instructor Training Workshop Jackson, TN
February 12 NetWorks Webinar: Evaluating Student Impact Online
February 13-17 American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Winter Meeting Washington DC
February 16-17 Two-Day CAD Academy Training New Haven, CT
February 17 Webinar: Using Web 2.0 tools and mobile GIS Online
February 18-20 Texas Grape and Wine Conference Richardson, TX
February 19 Webinar: Introductory GIS as a General Education Online
February 21-24 North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) Austin, TX
February 24-25 Writing in the Regulated Environment When English Is Your Second Language Malvern, PA

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 send them to info@atecentral.net

Featured ATE Project

Tennessee Board of Regents Teacher Preparation Partnership (TBR-TPP)

http://pstcc15.pstcc.edu/misc/tppnsf/

The primary goal of the Tennessee Board of Regents Teacher Preparation Partnership (TBRTP) is to improve the mathematics, science, and technology preparation of future elementary level teachers in Tennessee through a large-scale partnership and systemic change. Seven community colleges and two four-year universities within the Tennessee Board of Regents system have joined together to develop a common core of courses for teachers consisting of an introduction to teaching and technology courses and standards-based mathematics and science courses. On the site, visitors will find information about the project, its goals and history, project summaries, timetables, contacts, and links to all the institutions participating in the partnership.

Featured ATE Resources

Here is a small sample of the valuable resources in ATE Central that focus on Women and STEM:

From NetWorks:

Engineer Your Life

http://www.engineeryourlife.org/

This website is primarily a guide to engineering for high school girls. It also includes sections for parents and advisors, engineers, and middle school girls. There are several sections to the site which demonstrate the appeal and success of women in Engineering, these sections include: "Why Engineering?", "Meet Inspiring Women", "Find Your Dream Job", and "Making it Happen".

WomenTech Portal

http://www.iwitts.com/html/womentechportal_home.html

The WomenTech Portal is an essential new resource on the Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science (IWITTS) website, connecting educators with research-based articles on recruiting and retaining women in technology. Here, you can read journal articles in categories such as bridge courses, spatial reasoning, and learning style, among others. These articles introduce educators to research on the most effective strategies for recruiting and retaining women, and include examples of programs that have had real results. The portal also offers best practices, student recruitment tools, downloadable posters, WomenTechTalk - an email discussion group, job listings, videos, biographies, marketing materials, and much more. The WomenTech Portal is part of the CalWomenTech Project, and is available to everyone on the IWITTS website.

From the National Center for Manufacturing Education (NCME):

Women in Technology Project

http://www.womenintech.com/

The Women in Technology Project's mission is to "build and strengthen the education to workforce pipeline by encouraging girls, women and other underrepresented groups into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers." On their website, visitors will find information on their many programs available including camps, job placement programs, mentoring, and job fairs. Also available from their homepage visitors can find details on upcoming workshops, resources, and a blog.

For more ATE resources on Women and STEM please visit: http://atecentral.net/s=Women

News & Reminders

ATE Central Recieves Further Funding from NSF

We are extremely pleased to announce that ATE Central has been awarded a second grant from the National Science Foundation which expands the scope of the project and will allow us to continue supporting the ATE community for the next four years. We look forward to working with all our partners within ATE as well as WGBH Boston and others as ATE Central moves forward into this second phase! For more information please e-mail Rachael Bower (bower@scout.wisc.edu).

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 -- click here to check out a few of the sites running CWIS. We'd be happy to provide you with more information about CWIS and give you a quick tour of its features -- please e-mail Edward Almasy (ealmasy@scout.wisc.edu) to get started!

Find Out More About ATE Central

For information about ATE Central and how your project or center can take part and benefit from ATE Central's portal and services you may want to download the ATE Central Handbook at http://atecentral.net/handbook.