Advanced Technological Education · March 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 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

March 4-7	23rd Annual National Youth-At-Risk Conference	Statesboro, GA
March 4-7	League for Innovations Conference	Philadelphia, PA
March 6	Pathway 101: Inquiry and Action for Retention of Vulnerable and Tentative Students	Online
March 8	National Agriculture Day	Washington, DC
March 9	Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery Conference	Springfield, IL
March 9	Innovative Manufacturing	Online
March 9	NSF Grant - Professional Development Workshop	Tampa, FL
March 15	HSPI Webinar: Assessment and Communication	Online
March 15-16	FPGA Design Flow Workshop	Florence , SC
March 21	Pathway 102: Getting Started with Inquiry & Action for Retention of Vulnerable Students	Online
March 21	Reducing the Outcomes Angst: A step-by-step approach to identify what to measure	Online
March 23	Women in Technology Dinner	Palos Hills, IL
March 23	Women in Technology Mentoring Workshop	Palos Hills, IL
March 30	Building a Nanotechnology Workforce	Online
March 31	Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL): 1 Day Public Workshop	Oceanside, CA
April 5-6	OP-TEC Workshop on Optics and Photonics Education	Tustin, CA

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

Advancing Women in Automation Robotics and Engineering (AWARE) Camp

http://www.awarecamp.com/

AWARE Camp, located in Greenville, North Carolina, is a free camp for rising 5th-8th grade girls that introduces them to the fields of automation, robotics, and engineering. The camp's goal is to spark an interest in these subjects among young women, and open the possibility that they might pursue a career in any of these fields. During the 5-day camp (half-day or full-day, depending on grade level), girls participate in a range of activities. These start with the classic teambuilding exercises and progress to industry tours and hands-on circuit building and programming activities. This range allows camp participants to develop concrete skills while seeing firsthand how those skills are relevant and useful to local industry. In addition, a speaker series connects participants with inspirational women who work in automotive, robotics, or engineering professions. The camp culminates in a student reception, where students are invited to present their accomplishments to friends and family. The application deadline is April 20, 2012, and the camp itself will take place between 9-13 July, 2012 for rising 5th and 6th graders, and 23-27 July 2012 for rising 7th and 8th graders.

Featured ATE Resources

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

From NetWorks:

Girls, Math & Science Partnership: BrainCake

http://www.braincake.org/

The Girls, Math & Science Partnership's mission is to engage, educate, and embrace girls as architects of change. Working with girls age 11-17 and their parents, teachers, and mentors, the partnership draws organizations, stakeholders, and communities together in an effort to ensure that girls succeed in math and science. On this fun and friendly website, girls can interact with one another, play games, take quizzes, find scholarships, read about women in science, and even listen to GirlTalk Radio, a mentoring initiative that allows girls to discuss STEM topics "in their own words." A parent/teacher section includes some recommendations for people a little beyond the 11-17 age range on how to encourage girls to explore science. Quick and free registration may be required to access some resources.

From the National Center for Manufacturing Education:

Women in Technology: Building Tomorrow's STEM Workforce

http://www.womenintech.com/

The Women in Technology project (WIT) strives "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." Although the group is focused on bringing women into STEM careers in Hawaii, other groups interested in achieving similar success with female students could learn a great deal from WIT's program descriptions, list of resources, publications, and conference papers. A timely and consistently updated blog rounds out WIT's offerings with news from the field and profiles of leading women in STEM fields.

From the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science:

IWITTS: Proven Practices Collection

http://www.iwitts.org/proven-practices

The IWITTS Proven Practices Collection brings educators a research-based blueprint for recruiting and retaining women and girls in the technology classroom. Visitors to the website can browse through nearly 100 articles, case studies, podcasts, and webinars on proven recruitment practices. In addition, the site discusses some common reasons that women drop out of technology programs and suggests some ways to retain them. Sub-topics of retention explore a range of concerns including curriculum, learning style, and student support.

News & Reminders

Follow ATE Central on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with all things new at ATE Central and in the ATE Community as well as in the world of STEM Education

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!

ATE Central has an Outreach Kit to help with Your Project or Center's Dissemination and Outreach Plan

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.

Application Deadline for IWITTS WomenTech Educators Online Training is February 15th

The Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science presents a "Proven System for Increasing the Number of Women and Girls in Your Science, Technology & Engineering Classes" in this ten-week online training program. Apply by February 15th to participate and learn about an easy-to-implement recruitment plan that will greatly increase the number of women and girls in your STEM classroom and a retention plan for your school that will increase the completion rate of your female (and male) students that you can implement and use immediately. Apply here or read more about the program.

Digitally Enhancing America's Community Colleges: Strategic Opportunities for Computing Education

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.capspace.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.capspace.org/contactus/.

ATEEC seeks reviewers for eERL resources

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 lkaisler@eicc.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 cwis@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.

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