Advanced Technological Education . February 2023

Welcome to the ATE Central Connection! Published the first Tuesday 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

Featured Project: Information Technology Skill Standards, 2020 and Beyond
Featured Resources: Information and Security Technologies
Community Connection
ATE Success Tips: Websites
Did You Know?
Select STEM Education Resources
ATE Events
News & Reminders

Featured Project

Information Technology Skill Standards, 2020 and Beyond

connectedtech.org/itss-2020

In 2003, the ATE National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) developed and published the "Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skill Standards for Information Technology." This document has not been updated since 2003, and it no longer aligns with current information technology (IT) industry needs. This project will develop a new employer-led and verified IT Skill Standards document for the top eight to ten IT industry job clusters supporting positions requiring a two-year or a four-year applied IT degree. Initial discussions with industry experts have identified at least four new job clusters that did not exist in 2003, along with an additional five to six job clusters that need to be updated. Skill standards make IT careers more accessible as they provide transparency regarding the knowledge, skills and performance standards needed for success in the industry, and educators use skill standards to develop relevant curricular materials to better prepare students for the workplace.

This project will develop a future-facing set of IT Skill Standards for the most critical IT job clusters, led by employer subject matter experts. In addition to creating a set of skill standards for each job cluster, the standards within each job cluster will be stratified by the top four to eight critical work functions. For each cluster, a national group of educators and Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) members will determine which portions of the standards apply to two-year and four-year programs, to facilitate ease of use in development of employer-aligned curriculum. These stratifications will assist both employers and educators to apply the standards more easily. Subject matter experts will be asked to predict trends in IT and the knowledge and skills that will likely to be needed to support emerging trends. It is expected that this effort will increase the use and longevity of the developed standards.

Featured Resources: Information and Security Technologies

From National CyberWatch Resource Center:

Transfer Pathways in Cybersecurity Education: Challenging Routes, Promising Practices, Possible Improvements

www.nationalcyberwatch.org/resource/transfer-pathways-cybersecurity-education-challenging-routes-promising-practices-possible-improvements

This 18-page paper was written by John Sener and identifies several varieties of transfer pathways to cybersecurity degree programs. Also identified within the paper are "some promising or potentially exemplary practices related to transfer pathways, both in general and related to cybersecurity education in particular and concludes with a proposal for improving the transfer pathway system for cybersecurity education students." The resource includes the following sections: Context: The Challenging World of College Transfer Credit, Varieties of Transfer Pathways, Dual Admission: The Cooperative Route, Promising and Potentially Exemplary Transfer Practices, Improving Transfer Pathways for Cybersecurity Education Students, Acknowledgements, and References. This resource is available free for download.

From Information Technology Skill Standards, 2020 and Beyond:

Job Cluster: Data Analytics and Predictive Modeling

connectedtech.org/itss-2020/data-analytics-and-predictive-modeling

This website provides skill standards documents created by the IT Skills Standards 2020 and Beyond (ITSS 2020) project. "ITSS 2020 mission is to create a contemporary and future-facing set of IT Skill Standards for the most critical IT job clusters, led by employer thought leaders and subject matter experts (SMEs) nationally." These skill standards are intended to "help widen the pipeline of workforce-ready IT workers through a model curriculum..." This webpage includes information about the Data Analytics and Predictive Modeling IT job cluster. It includes the following documents: KSAs, Student Learning Outcomes, Key Performance Indicators, and Employability Skills. These documents provide skills and abilities, employability competencies, and performance indicators for employees working in this job cluster.

From National CyberWatch Resource Center:

Optimizing the Physical Learning Environment for Cybersecurity Education and Training: A Collaborative Design Initiative

atecentral.net/downloads/739/NCC_Optimizing+Cyber+Learningspace.pdf

This 42-page report, published through a collaboration of the National CyberWatch Center, Grimm + Parker Architects, and Steelcase, an innovative furniture design and manufacturing company, is intended to offer "support in the planning and design of advanced, high performing cybersecurity learning labs." In an effort to discover the optimal learning space for cybersecurity students, the collaboration team developed a four-step process: 1. A survey distributed to students, educators and professionals exploring current circumstances and ideal characteristics of teaching labs, 2. Benchmarking interviews and site visits, 3. Design activities using lab prototypes, and 4. Feedback via an online follow-up survey. This report publishes the findings of this process as survey results, and information from interviews and site visits. Design considerations and recommendations are also included.

Community Connection

Four Select Outreach Resources

ATE community members know how important it is to disseminate information and findings. Still, they sometimes need help finding time to Tweet or post on Facebook to promote their center or project. ATE Impact's latest blog rounded up several new tools that could help simplify creating outreach materials, expand your audience, and give insights into your outreach efforts. Here are quick descriptions of some new tools, read more about these tools on ATE Impacts! We'd also love to hear about your best outreach tools and tips at [email protected].

Hotjar is a free online tool that creates a heatmap of your website which shows where most website users linger or scroll on.
Accessible Social is a resource hub for anyone who wants to learn how to make their content inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities.
LinkTree is a free tool that uses a single link to reveal any links you want to share in one place.
BuzzSumo is a platform that will track topics and hashtags, showing the most engaged issues and articles.

ATE Success Tips: Websites

How to Find and Fix Broken Links

The internet is constantly evolving, with new and updated content replacing older iterations. Identifying and fixing broken links is a vital part of website upkeep, but it doesn't need to take up all your time. With a few tips and tools, you can easily integrate checking for dead links into your routine.

It's important to understand the difference between internal and external links. Internal links move users from one page to another within your website. External links, on the other hand, link users from your website out to other locations on the internet. Unless you are vigilant about checking external links, it is easy to miss when the page you had linked to changes or gets taken down.

Some platforms, like WordPress, offer automatic link checking plugins, but there are other options to make link testing easy. A great alternative is Google Analytics, which helps outreach teams track the impact and performance of web content.

Once you have identified links that cause 404 errors, it is important to update them. For internal links, find the correct page and adjust the hyperlinked text to join to the proper URL within your site. For external links, determine why the link no longer works. If the site to which you had linked is no longer active, you can either find an alternative site to link to, or link to the web archive version of the page. Sites may also be temporarily unavailable, so it is useful to monitor the situation if you're unsure why a link isn't working. If the issue persists long-term, you can either substitute the link as discussed previously or remove it altogether.

Did You Know?

Iowa's 15 community colleges saw an almost .5% bump in credit-seeking students in the last academic year. Their enrollment rose to 117,464 students from fall 2021 through summer 2022, according to the 2022 Annual Condition of Iowa's Community Colleges report. The enrollment also included many high school students and a growing interest in job training programs.

Select STEM Education Resources

A few online STEM resources from outside of ATE, that you may find of interest:

Try Engineering

tryengineering.org

Visitors to Try Engineering will note that IBM, IEEE, and TryScience sponsor the site, and it provides information for parents, students, teachers, and counselors. The "Lesson Plans" link "provides tips on how lessons can be integrated with other subject areas and offers background information on engineering and engineering careers." Visitors can search the lesson plans by age range, category or keyword, and there are over 100, so there is bound to be more than one that is of interest. Some of the lessons include "Can You Canoe?" "A Century of Plastics," and "Build Your Own Robot Arm." The "Play Games" link offers visitors such fun as "Solar Car Racing," "Roller Coaster Designer" and "Design a Parachute."

The Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)

lternet.edu

Established in 1980 and funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), The Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) is committed to providing "scientific expertise, research platforms, and long-term datasets necessary to document and analyze environmental change." The site is arranged for four broad types of users: Researchers, Educators & Students, Media Professionals, and Decision Makers. Information for researchers includes a link to the LTER data portal and instructions on how to write a data plan for an NSF grant. Similarly, the Educators & Students area links to the LTER Education Digital Library, with a searchable collection of lesson plans. Press releases make up the majority of the Media Professionals section, while the area for decision-makers is populated with LTER Key Research Findings. These are presented as short reports with citations and are designed to be easily built into the talking points of a public presentation.

Biotechnology Center Teacher Resources

www.ncbiotech.org/resources

Educators assembling lessons on biotechnology will find much to appreciate in this list of teacher resources from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Here readers will find Animations, Audio files, Case studies, Images, Interactives, Lesson plans and Videos in a variety of biotech-related subjects, from agriculture to ethics to genetics. Of the many beneficial resources here, Understanding the Human Genome Project offers an excellent representation of the information provided here. The link navigates to a National Institute of Health site that offers timelines, information about genes and gene sequencing, and an excellent lesson on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic research. Other resources include England's Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which features a number of excellent discussion prompts, and a Sumanas Animation site complete with biotech animations that are perfect for illuminating student understandings of the topic.

Do you have some great STEM resources you'd like to share with ATE Central? Email us with your ideas at [email protected].

ATE Events

Upcoming Events
February 9 – March 9	Eng	Electric Vehicle Battery Data Analytics	Online
February 13–15	Info	GEO Week 2023	Denver, CO
February 13	Gen	LGBTQ+ Allyship in the Classroom	Online
February 14–16	Eng	Oceanology International Americas Conference	San Diego, CA
February 15	Eng	Our Superhighway from A to Z: Take a Test Drive and Develop New Automotive Software Solutions	Online
February 17	Bio/Chem	Workplace Navigation Training: Managing Expectations: Asking for & Obtaining Feedback	Online
February 20–21	Eng	Makeblock Ultimate Robot Challenge	Warren, MI
February 22–25	Gen	2023 Florida TSA State Conference	Orlando, FL
February 22	Gen	Recruiting Strategies Best Practices	Online
February 23–25	Eng	2023 Women in Aviation International Conference	Long Beach, CA
February 23	Gen	Thinkers, Feelers, Introverts, Extraverts: Understanding and Communicating Better With Your Students	Online
February 24–25	Ag/Env	Multi-Generational Farm Transition Retreat - Mankato	North Mankato, MN
February 25	Eng	Girl Scouts Engineers Week	Warren, MI
March 6–7	Eng	Electric Vehicles Battery Tech USA	Garden Grove, CA
March 6–9	Eng	Texas Public Safety Robotics Summit 2023	Burnet, TX
March 9	Nano	Nanobiotechnology Workforce Training on a Shoe-String Budget	Online
March 10–11	Ag/Env	Multi-Generational Farm Transition Retreat - St. Cloud	St. Cloud, MN
March 13–14	Eng	2023 Aviation Maintenance Technician Conference	Brooklyn Center, MN
March 15	Eng	EV Motor Improvements with Torque-Dense Materials and Advanced Powertrain Technology	Online
March 16–18	Info	2023 Annual Women in Cyber Security (WiCyS) Conference	Aurora, CO
March 21–23	Eng	Automotive Cybersecurity Detroit 2023	Ann Arbor, MI
March 23–25	Gen	8th Life Discovery – Doing Science Biology Education Conference	Tallahassee, FL
March 24	Eng	Robots for AI and Industry 4.0 Training and Demo	Online
March 31 – April 1	Ag/Env	Multi-Generational Farm Transition Retreat - Mahnomen	Mahnomen, MN
April 10–13	Gen	Skills USA Florida Conference	Jacksonville, FL
April 12–15	Eng	ITEEA Conference 2023	Minneapolis, MN
April 13–16	Info	Symposium on Computing at Minority Institutions : Computing for Social Good	Virginia Beach, VA
April 19–21	Info	IT Skill Standards Summit	Frisco, TX
April 24–27	Eng	ITS America Conference and Expo	Grapvine, TX
April 26–28	Eng	ACTE’s National Work-based Learning Conference 2023	Atlanta, GA

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.

News & Reminders

Community College Innovation Challenge

The CCIC is led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is a national competition where community college student teams, working with a faculty or administrator mentor, use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to innovate solutions to real-world problems; participate in an Innovation Boot Camp; and compete for cash awards.

AACC is pleased to announce that planning is underway to hold the Innovation Boot Camp as an in-person event in the Washington, D.C. area on June 12-15, 2023--and full travel support will be provided to the finalist teams to attend.

The Innovation Boot Camp, taking place June 12-15, 2023, provides professional development, mentoring, and coaching designed to build strategic communication and entrepreneurial skills to help students advance their STEM innovations in both the public and private sectors. The Boot Camp culminates in a national poster session and engagement opportunity with STEM leaders and Congressional stakeholders, and a pitch presentation in front of a panel of industry professionals to determine the first, second, and third place winning teams. The application deadline is March 30, 2023.

Read more about the challenge on the AACC's website. For any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

CCSF Workplace Navigation Workshops

These free workshops aim to provide students or trainees with the knowledge, skills, support and clarity they need to effectively assess and successfully navigate any lab environment and achieve their professional and career goals.

The workshops for Winter/Spring 2022-23 are on the following dates:
Friday, February 17th 4-6pm PT - Managing Expectations: Asking for & Obtaining Feedback
Friday, March 10th 4-6pm PT - Negotiating for What You Need

To register visit the workshop's Eventbrite page. More information can received by emailing Karen Leung at [email protected]

ATE Impacts 2022-2023 Book Showcases Work of ATE Community

The ATE Impacts 2022-2023 book showcases the work of the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education Community. This edition includes a foreword from United States President Joseph Biden. It features the work of 33 projects and 28 centers across the seven ATE areas, as well as applied research. By highlighting the ATE community's successful and innovative work, the book encourages broader participation in the ATE program by academic institutions, educators, and industry partners. Dissemination of the ATE Impacts book advances understanding of the importance of technician education and its role in supporting the high-tech industries that drive the United States' economy More information on the book can be found on the ATE Impacts website.

Funding Opportunity from NSF

Keep an eye out for opportunities from the National Science foundation - including this recent Dear Colleague Letter! This DCL encourages proposals to two programs (ATE and S-STEM) supporting workforce development efforts at institutions of higher education. Proposals must build on or leverage strong industry-academic partnerships to strengthen the semiconductor manufacturing workforce.

EvaluateUR-CURE Accepting Applications

EvaluateUR-CURE is now accepting applications to participate in the final round of pilot testing during the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters. This opportunity is available through an award from the NSF ATE program to the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo State.

EvaluateUR-CURE is a method for evaluating course-based undergraduate research experiences -- CUREs. Combining research into undergraduate courses provides research opportunities for students.

Pilot testing of E-CURE is open to all faculty. Faculty teaching courses with research experiences (CUREs) at community colleges are especially encouraged to apply. A modest stipend is provided for participating in the pilot and providing feedback.

The application can be completed on EvaluateUR-CURE's website.

More information about the project can be found on the main E-CURE page.

Resources from the 2022 CAAT Conference

The Center for Advanced Automotive Technology (CAAT) held their 2022 Conference in late September with a conference theme focused on "Preparing Technicians for Electric Vehicle Technology." Happily, presenters agreed to allow the conference to make their presentations available through CAAT's resource library. Recordings of each speaker's presentation are also available.

Presentations from the 2022 CAAT Conference

Recordings from the 2022 CAAT Conference

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