Advanced Technological Education ·

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.

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In This Issue

Chemistry

Featured Laboratory-based Resources

From HURI SURI:

Keeping a Laboratory Notebook

http://www.sunyjcc.edu/hurisuri/sites/default/files/Keeping_a_Laboratory_Notebook_0.doc

The HURI SURI project is developing a regional biotechnology workforce pipeline by expanding and supporting biotechnology research experiences for Jamestown Community College (JCC) undergraduates and disseminating these research experiences and materials to area high school teachers and students. This Microsoft Word document details how to keep a laboratory notebook in a high school or undergraduate science class. This is important because "a laboratory notebook is really required by law for investigators that either work in an industry (e.g. pharmaceutical industry) that is federally regulated or for investigators who have federal grant funding for research (e.g. from the National Institutes of Health or National Science Foundation)." The document explains how the notebook needs a table of contents, experiment details, and conclusion.

From Bio-Link: Educating the BioTechnology Workforce:

Write Effective Laboratory Reports

http://www.bio-link.org/home/write-effective-laboratory-reports

The ability to write a good laboratory report is an essential skill for all scientists. For many students, however, producing a well-written lab report is a laborious task. This document presents some useful pointers on lab report writing, and a discussion of lab report content so that students will have a better idea of expectations for their work. Checklists are included so that students can insure that they have met the requirements. The file is available in both PDF and .doc versions.

From ATETV:

Communication Toolkit screenshot

Community Connection

Talk to Me: Tools to Support Communication and Outreach

For all of us in the ATE community some portion of our time is spent figuring out how to tell our project or center’s story – connecting with audiences and stakeholders about our work and the impact it’s having on students, faculty, institutions, and industry. Hershey Cause Communications has created an array of wonderful toolkits, guides, and other materials specifically designed with non-profits in mind and discussed in detail on the ATE@20 Blog. Here’s a sneak peek!

  • The Communications Toolkit

    This 134-page guide offers a huge amount of practical advice and information to those looking to navigate communications and outreach in the nonprofit sector.

  • Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes

    This book pulls together information and advice on how to create and deliver top-notch presentations but much of it is very useful in thinking about grant writing and report writing too.

  • Online Outreach Tools Guide

    While only about a dozen pages long this cheat-sheet style guide provides a roadmap for those considering how to effectively use web based tools as part of their outreach and communications strategies.

Be sure to check out the full post for more information on these helpful tools, as well as ATE Central’s Outreach Kit and Social Media Directory – both of which were designed to help support ATE communications and outreach efforts.

Google Logo

ATE Success Tips: Websites

How to Make Use of Google Website Performance Tests

For ATE projects and centers with their own websites to maintain and update, these two tests provide a great way to determine how well your site is running, and best of all, they're free! If you've got a few minutes to spare, try them out and see what kind of shape your site is in.

PageSpeed Insights
Is your project or center's web page running as optimally as possible? Google's PageSpeed tools analyze your site's performance following "web best" practices. The PageSpeed Insights will rate your site in terms of user experience and speed. After completing the test, you will be directed to a page with "Should Fix" and "Consider Fixing" options, along with "rules" that your site has fully passed. These suggestion summaries are generated for both mobile and desktop usage.

Mobile-Friendly Test
With so many people using smart phones to access the internet these days, it is important to ensure that your project or center's web site is mobile-friendly. Google's Mobile-Friendly test quickly decides if your page is eligible for the mobile-friendly label in Google Search. If your site does not pass the test, Google explains why, with reasons such as the text is "too small to read," the links are "too close together," etc. Similar to the PageSpeed Insights test, the mobile-friendly test also lists helpful suggestions on making your page mobile friendly, depending on how the site was created.

Save Money

Did You Know?

According to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, 62% of community college presidents support the idea of free community college.

ATE Events

Ongoing Events
Nano SCME Hands-online Microsystems Academy: BioMEMS Applications Online
Upcoming Events
Mfg MFG4 Hartford, CT
Gen The Funding Environment: From Funder Mandates to Industry Partnerships Online
Gen SREB Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Community Webinar Online
Gen Science Diplomacy 2016 Washington, DC
Eng 2016 CAAT Conference: The Road to Autonomous Vehicles Warren, MI
Info Good Practice in Geography for Elementary Grades Newark, NY
Eng Future Connected Cars USA Santa Clara, CA
Gen 2016 Expo Fest Wallingford, CT
Info Y.E.L.L. Female Summit Des Moines, WA
Mfg Live Tooling CNC Lathe Teacher Training Auburn, ME
Eng Women in Transportation Annual Conference Austin, TX
Info Geo-Capacity Building in Europe Webinar Online
Eng LASERS & FIBER OPTICS Workshop for STEM Educators Fort Pierce, FL
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Gen National Association for Workforce Improvement Conference 2016 Norwich, CT
Eng National Association of Workforce Development Professionals Annual Conference Orlando, FL
Gen ATE Central: The Importance of Digital Archiving for ATE Online
Bio/Chem Bioscience Industrial Fellowship Project Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Nano SCME Hands-online Microsystems Academy: Micro Pressure Sensors Online
Gen The Role of Science Diplomacy in International Crises: Syria as a Case Study Washington, DC
Info ACM SIGMIS Computers and People Research 2016 Alexandria, VA
Mfg STEM Guitar Building Institute College Station, TX
Ag/Env Great Environmental Safety Training Institute Davenport, IA
Bio/Chem Infrastructure and Training to Bring Next-generation Sequence (NGS) Analysis Into Undergraduate Educ Online
Info An Introduction to Geospatial Intelligence: Why Remote Sensing is Becoming More Important Louisville, KY
Info Field Data Collection Louisville, KY
Info Multispectral Imagery - Introduction to remote sensing concepts and use of imagery Louisville, KY
Info Web Map Creation: Using Services, ArcGIS Online and Open Source Louisville, KY
Info An Introduction to Drones: Getting to Know sUAS Lingo and Safety Louisville, KY
Info Introduction to Open Source GIS: QGIS Louisville, KY
Bio/Chem 2016 Bio-Link Summer Fellows Forum Berkeley, CA
Info Open Educational Forum Louisville, KY
Info National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence GeoEd '16 Conference Louisville, KY
Gen STEM Entrepreneurship Education Workshop New York, New York
Mfg Advanced Transportation Fuels Summer Academy Owensboro, Kentucky
Mfg 4-Axis CNC Milling Teacher Training with Curriculum Auburn, ME
Mfg Digital Fabrication Workshop White Bear Lake, MN
Mfg Southern Automotive Workforce Solutions Summit Huntsville, AL
Gen WomenTech Educators National Institute Emeryville, California
Gen National Leadership and Skills Conference Louisville, Kentucky
Mfg STEM Guitar Building Institute Hampton, VA
Mfg 5-Axis CNC Milling with Curriculum Auburn, ME
Bio/Chem ComGen Workshop 2016 Bellevue, WA
Eng American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition New Orleans, LA
Mfg Live Tooling CNC Lathe Teacher Training Auburn, ME
Mfg STEM Guitar Building Institute Fairless Hills, PA
Mfg STEM Guitar Building Workshop Marietta, GA
Nano 2016 MNT Conference Albany, NY

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 submit them online.

To add a continuously-updated list of ATE and STEM education events to your website, use the ATE Event Widget.

News & Reminders

Consider participating in the Bioscience Industrial Fellowship Project (BIFP) June 1-24, 2016.

The Bioscience Industrial Fellowship Project (BIFP) is a four week observational fellowship program where selected instructors will reside in Winston – Salem, North Carolina for the month of June 2016. During their stay, they will visit NC Biosciences industrial facilities, community colleges and university labs and research parks. Working in pairs, up to twelve awardees will write about their experiences and produce contextualized modules as grant products. For more information please contact Russ Read, rread@forsythtech.edu or Allison Nestor, anestor@forsythtech.edu at the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce. Applications will be accepted on a first come first serve basis for those who meet the requirements.

Is your project/center on Facebook, Twitter, or another social media site?

If so, please make sure we've found that site and added it to the ATE Social Media Directory. Having your social media presence linked through the directory will help ensure that interested parties can find you online. In addition, if you currently publish a newsletter, please let us know, as we will be adding links to newsletters to the information available on ATE Central.

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. The latest version (CWIS 3.2.0) was released on and is available for download on the Scout site. Please email cwis@scout.wisc.edu if you have any questions or would like a quick tour of its features!

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