FSGC is collaborating with the University of Central Florida’s College of Engineering Outreach office in implementing a number of K-12 programs targeted towards teachers
(1) Third Annual Florida Engineering Education Conference (FEEC)
UCF-CECS’ continued goal is to highlight the importance of pre-college engineering education in Florida, to showcase successful formal and informal pre-college engineering education programs and share the information with STEM educators and administrators. This is accomplished via a one-day event to be hosted at our Student Union this summer. The format for this year’s conference will be similar to last year based on feedback per the evaluations. A morning brunch and afternoon lunch are included. The morning will consist of three panel presentations and afternoon will include workshops. The panel presentations will include:
- Session One An Engineer’s Retrospective: What I wish I learned and/or did while in school. (Four engineers from major engineering organizations will be featured presenters.)
- Session Two Integrating engineering into the K12 classroom: An elementary, middle and high school perspective (Four teachers that have integrated engineering programs into their curricula will be presenting what they have accomplished and learned from their experiences.)
- Session Three Industry – Professional Engineering Organization sponsored pre-college engineering education programs (Four engineers/educators that have hosted informal engineering programs will be presenting what they have accomplished and learned from their experiences.)
- Workshops Four afternoon workshops are currently panned
NASA-KSC will be providing a speaker for one of the panels and for one of the four workshops. FSGC will join the Florida Engineering Foundation, Harris Corporation and SWE in providing funding.
(2) Summer 08 Internet Science and Technology Fair Teacher Training(ISTF)
The ISTF is an eleven year old, national technology literacy program. Pre-college student teams in grades 3-12 research solutions to real world problems using IT tools and communicate with on-line scientists/engineers. They present their four month research projects in a website format and are judged nationally. UCF-CECS Outreach proposes to offer three, two-day training classes scheduled during July 2008, to over 100 teachers. There will be three separate classes to include elementary STEM teachers, middle school STEM teachers and high school STEM teachers. Educators from throughout Central Florida will be invited to participate. Each of the three classes will include sessions for technical representatives involved in space sciences who may participate as ISTF student team technical advisors. The training will be a modified version of the successful four-day training provided by our office to Seminole County school teachers that included in-service training credits.
(3) The Engineer – Teacher Connection
The ET Connection is proposed by UCF-CECS to connect STEM teachers with engineers (subject matter experts). Our intent is to help teachers find (engineering) speakers, mentors and subject matter experts who are available on-line to respond to teacher content questions, provide technical support to student projects and make classroom visits. The ET Connection will enable engineers to find teachers in geographic areas and content areas related to their interests. Both teachers and engineers will set up on-line accounts that will profile their interests using a modified version of our ComPAS software that matched over 700 faculty with funding opportunities and provided targeted announcements relative to each individual. The same software has been used for the past six years to match Volusia Governments departments with grant opportunities. The system will also enable FSGC and NASA KSC Education to enter and disburse STEM information, training announcements and surveys to teachers based on their specific (STEM) content interests. Teachers and engineers who participate in the above two projects (FEEC and ISTF Teacher Training) will be use the ET Connection to establish accounts to participate.
(4) SECME
FSHC and the University of Central Florida is collaborating with the SECME National Office to provide ISTF Teacher training to SECME teachers. SECME’s goal is to increase the pool of historically under-represented,* geographically under-served, and differently abled students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), thus creating a diverse and globally competitive workforce. The ISTF is an eleven year old, national technology literacy program that challenges student teams in grades 3-12 research solutions to real world problems using IT tools and communicate with on-line scientists/engineers. They present their four month research projects in a website format and are judged nationally. UCF-CECS Outreach proposes to offer three, two-day training classes in 2009, to over 100 teachers. There will be three separate classes to include elementary STEM teachers, middle school STEM teachers and high school STEM teachers. Our office will coordinate with the SECME national office to invite their teachers to participate. Each of the three classes will include sessions for technical representatives involved in space sciences who may participate as ISTF student team technical advisors. The training will be a modified version of the successful four-day training provided by our office to Seminole County school teachers that included in-service training credits.