ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION ·
JANUARY 2012
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 NSF-funded Aerospace Manufacturing Education Project's mission is to "develop and disseminate curricula modules to enhance manufacturing technician and engineering programs in higher education with relevant aerospace manufacturing examples." The project is developing curricula modules to prepare manufacturing technology practitioners for the aerospace industry and increase the number of interested candidates for aerospace manufacturing jobs. Curricula modules are being developed and used by two-year colleges for student education and by industry for in-house training of employees. Visitors will find the downloadable curricula modules on the left side of the homepage, after quick and free registration, as well as further info about the project, its partners, and advisors.
Here is a sample of the valuable resources in ATE Central that focus on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies:
From Weld-Ed:
The National Center for Welding Education and Training (Weld-Ed) created this lesson plan to introduce students to a career in welding. The lesson is expected to take two to three 45 minute sessions, and students will have evaluated a personal career in welding by the end. This lesson requires students to complete a worksheet demonstrating their understanding of the welding profession.
From the Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM):
From the Next Generation Regional Manufacturing Center, this video presents a day in the life of aerospace technician Elizabeth. Aerospace technicians spend their days at work "servicing or repairing mechanical and electronic equipment, using hand tools and test equipment to perform work" often "discussing with engineers problems relating to maintenance or operation of equipment." The video is one of a series from the Center intended to help students and future technicians understand the day-to-day responsibilities and skill needs of different manufacturing careers. They are a helpful addition to any introductory manufacturing classroom or to the recruitment resource arsenal of manufacturing programs at community or technical colleges.
From the Next Generation Regional Manufacturing Center, this video presents a typical day for Dave, a laser technician supervisor working for a pioneering laser technology company in Connecticut. From brainstorming new ideas, working with advanced machines to cut metal, communicating with team members, to the education needed to obtain a job like Dave's, this video gives an overview of this cutting-edge technological field. The video is one of a series from the Center intended to help students and future technicians understand the day-to-day responsibilities and skill needs of different manufacturing careers. They are a helpful addition to any introductory manufacturing classroom or to the recruitment resource arsenal of manufacturing programs at community or technical colleges.
Want to know which ATE Projects and Centers and ATE partners and collaborators are using Social Media? Check out our ATE Social Media Directory and follow them too!
Are you interested in designing a more effective dissemination and marketing plan for your project or center? If so, then check out ATE Central's Outreach Kit at atecentral.net/outreach. This online toolkit includes a Planning Guide to show you, step by step, how to build and execute a realistic and achievable outreach plan. Learn new and innovative ways to reach your audience and connect with the ATE community and beyond with the Social Media Guide. Use the Communications Guide to craft your project or center's message, discover new dissemination paths, and learn to build your own media kit. In addition, you will find a Resources section which will direct you to some best practices within NSF and ATE, other free and low-cost outreach tools, further helpful links, and some suggested reading. If you're ready to show Broader Impacts and ensure your NSF mission, then get started with the ATE Outreach Kit.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently released a report that addresses a fundamental question about community colleges: why are so many of them unable to successfully secure federal funding for computing programs? The report, Digitally Enhancing America's Community Colleges, offers recommendations designed to spur new grant proposals, inventive initiatives, and dynamic partnerships that infuse innovation into community college computing courses and programs. The full 24-page report is available online here: http://www.acmccecc.org/.... NSF's release about the summit, ACM, and the report is available here: http://www.nsf.gov/news/.... Printed copies of the report along with a strategic planning template are available for free via an online request form at http://www.acmccecc.org/contactus/.
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. |  |