Adapting and Improving Mathematics, Science and Technological Education in High Performance Manufacturing

Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) and its educational and private industrial partners in the Virginia Peninsula Workforce Development Center are establishing a Manufacturing Excellence Consortium (MEC). The project's three goals are to: 1) adapt and implement Sinclair Community College's ATE-funded module clusters in Principles of Mathematics, Principles of Science, Design for Manufacturing, Manufacturing Processes and Materials, and Manufacturing Systems and Automation; 2) strengthen and expand TNCC's existing cooperative education program by training faculty in co-op development, preparing faculty for co-op supervisory roles, adopting a labor exchange database compatible with that currently in use by Old Dominion University, and providing release time for faculty industrial internships; and 3) equip a laboratory modeled after Sinclair's Advanced Manufacturing Center. TNCC is disseminating its results to the two other Manufacturing Excellence Consortia in the Virginia Community College System for eventual dissemination to state and regional partners.