ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION ·
APRIL 2011
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 [email protected] 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.
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 [email protected].
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is pleased to announce a national grant competition for the MentorLinks: Advancing Technological Education program, developed with the support of the National Science Foundation. MentorLinks is designed for community colleges seeking to improve technician education programs in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields. Colleges should be interested in working with an experienced community college mentor who has successfully planned and implemented a major change in a high-technology program. MentorLinks colleges will receive $20,000 for the two-year grant period with primary emphasis on opportunities for technical assistance and professional development as part of the mentoring relationship. The grant period runs from October 1, 2011 – October 31, 2013. The deadline to apply is June 23, 2011. For more information, please see http://www.aacc.nche.edu/mentorlinks.
Here is a sample of the valuable resources in ATE Central that focus on Agriculture:
From ATETV:
The ATETV project delivers web-based videos to connect students to careers in advanced technology. This episode of ATETV focuses on Biotechnology, Agricultural Sciences, and Medical Electronics. The video looks at the process and advantages of transferring from a two-year college onto a four-year institution. This video also showcases Agricultural Science and the impact that students can have on that field. It can be viewed whole or in three segments: "Community College Biotechnology Programs," "Agricultural Technology," and "Working with Medical Electronics." The running time for the full episode is 9:47.
From AgrowKnowledge:
The Ag Teacher's Resource Kit was developed a couple of years ago for majors in the University of Florida's Agricultural Education and Communication Department. It was first presented to them before they went out for their first teaching assignments. The Kit has now become a standard part of the course Special Methods in Teaching Agriculture. Students are presented with the materials assembled in a 3" binder. A 2-hour block of time is allocated where the contents are described and reviewed. Recommendations or examples are also discussed for how the materials can be used in the classroom. The Kit has also been used as the basis of a workshop for teachers already in the field. In summer 2005, a 2-day workshop was held at the University of Florida for middle, junior and senior high school teachers. In addition to distributing and presenting the kit, attendees actually worked through several of the activities as if they were students. The resources listed are available for download from the Web. Use these links to make your own "Safety Resource Kit" notebook. Workshop participants have noted that it is very useful to have these items assembled in one place. You can then adapt these materials for use in your program, e.g., to meet requirements for core competencies. Resources are listed with a brief annotation about their contents. In order to make it easier to assemble a kit, links are also provided for a cover and an update or new materials page.
From Bio-Link:
Genetically modified foods are often in the news and widely grown in the United States. Three US government agencies (USDA, FDA, and EPA) work to regulate the introduction and production of genetically modified foods. These crops can provide agricultural, ecological and nutritional benefits, but there are also potential risks to the environment and consumers. As consumers and public interest groups around the world have become aware of these risks, there has been a call for more explicit product labeling and reliable methods for the detection of genetic modification in the foods we eat. This lab activity explores these issues by taking students through a three-part process to detect the presence of genetic modification in corn (maize) or soy food products. This lab uses PCR analysis, one of the two methods for detection of genetic modification currently approved by the European Union. For convenience, the resource is divided into 5 sections, all PDF files, including background, wet lab, paper lab, assessment and further reading.
ATEEC is looking for environmental and energy specialists to vet (review) materials for the electronic Environmental and Energy Resources Library. If you are interested in participating please contact Lora at [email protected].
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 [email protected] to get started!
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.
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ATE Central Connection is published by Internet Scout via support from the National Science Foundation under grant number 0941067. |  |