SECTION II: REQUESTED YOUTH SERVICESml727939/coursework/610/Project... · Web viewKey Advisor Robin...

The Robotics Corridor Collaborative Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530

Project DescriptionCuyahoga Community College respectfully requests support from the National Science Foundation for the Robotics Corridor Collaborative, an initiative enhancing educational opportunities for youth in the high-technology field of robotics that is transforming the regional economy from the Rust Belt into the Robotics Corridor.

Introduction of Partners: Cuyahoga Community College’s Youth Technology Academy (YTA) is a program designed to prepare in-school youth for careers in engineering and technology by providing seven major activities that give students a broad array of educational experiences:

enrollment in Cuyahoga Community College’s college engineering/technology/manufacturing courses through Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEOP) that allows students to bank college credit toward a certificate or degree while they are still in high school;

training in soft-skills through seminars and competitions that prepare students to function in the workforce;

participation in robotics tournaments (such as FIRST and VEX) that provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a real-life hands-on situation;

training and mentorship by technicians and engineers from industrial partners who teach by example;

tutoring on an as-needed basis to help students maintain their grades;

participation in job-shadowing and paid internship experiences that expose students to the real workplace situation; and

involvement in mentoring younger students in robotics camps that provides students to review, organize, and present their knowledge and skill sets to others

Cuyahoga Community College, also known as Tri-C, opened in 1963 as the first community college in Ohio and is now not only the largest college in Greater Cleveland but also the largest community college in Ohio, serving more than 55,000 credit and non-credit students each year and offering more than 70 programs for Associate Degrees and one-year certificates. Tri-C also offers many programs for continuing education and for business, industry, and workforce development.

The College is a leader in public education, academic innovation, cultural enrichment, and preparation of the workforce to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow. Tri-C’s is the largest PSEOP (Post-Secondary Enrollment Options) program in the state, with more than 11,000 students participating. Over 40 percent of Tri-C’s graduates continue their education at four-year institutions and more than 85 percent of its graduates continue to live in Northeast Ohio, providing a pool of skilled workers for area employers.

Tri-C is a member of the prestigious League for Innovation in the Community College, a consortium of the 20 most innovative two-year colleges in the nation.

Carnegie-Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) is the nation’s foremost research and technology development organization in agile robotics. The RI also offers PhD and Master’s Degree programs in robotics. In addition, the RI has pioneered the development of agile robotics education curriculum in various forms through its Robotics Academy (RA) at lower levels, from junior high school all the way up to bachelor’s programs. The RA markets and distributes its highly regarded educational materials, trains hundreds of teachers per year both online and face-to-face, designs software that helps teachers facilitate

1


Robotic Camps for children across the United States, hosts middle- and high-school robotics competitions, actively supports high-school robotics teams in national competitions such as FIRST and BotBall, and otherwise champions and supports scores of other agile robotics educational programs. RA curriculum and software is being used by over 3000 middle and high schools across the United States.

California University of Pennsylvania (CUP), with the third largest Technology Education program in the United States, has secured significant funding through the DOD and is partnering with the RA to develop technician-level training materials to grow the Southwestern Pennsylvania regional robotic and automation workforce. One of the stipulations to CUP’s winning the training materials development award was that it partner with CMU on design and implementation of the new curriculum. The new curriculum has a different focus than previously developed RA materials, and the technical level of this material is much higher than that of previous work. It puts more emphasis on the development of skills that will be used in industry than did previous RA work that involved the use of robots to demonstrate academic concepts. The curriculum places a higher emphasis on troubleshooting, wiring, using meters, building circuits, designing and building sensors, etc. The CMU/CUP team began by conducting a DACUM to gather feedback from robotic and manufacturing companies regionally. Industry feedback (included in the Appendix of this Proposal) told the developers that it is important for the curriculum not only to develop skills but also to develop an “engineering methodology” in future workers that will give them skills to attack a problem when they don’t know the answer. The CMU/CUP team has a mandate to recruit Western Pennsylvania schools to use this curriculum in order to grow a technologically literate regional workforce in Western Pennsylvania. The RC project proposed here provides an opportunity for Northeast Ohio to grow its own technologically literate regional workforce through the CMU/CUP partnership with Tri-C that offers the same CMU/CUP coursework to CMSD and in turn to other Northeast Ohio school systems.

CUP is interested in developing the nation’s first-ever two-tier associates and undergraduate degree programs in robotics engineering technology. This program will be targeted at educating a next-generation of agile robotics technicians and application engineers that will be needed to meet the growing workforce demand in this new and emerging sector of the robotics industry. Specifically, this program is expected to meet the future demand for such technicians and engineers for the defense industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania, including United Defense’s production facility in nearby Fayette County.

CUP also expects to offer a continuing education certificate program in robotics engineering technology for engineers and technicians with associate and bachelor degrees in mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering that work for regional companies and need to increase their knowledge and skills in agile robotics. CUP will partner with regional employers to offer the certificate training program on-site at employers’ facilities and/or via distance-learning technology. CUP expects to grow its degree and certificate education programs in robotics engineering technology over the next five years to a level where 50 – 100 students are enrolled. Longer term, CUP is also interested in developing a bachelor’s degree program in robotics engineering science. This set of courses is also being integrated into a CUP Technology Education teacher preparation program.

Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) is the K-12 public education system that serves the city of Cleveland, Ohio. CMSD will provide the students and the teachers/Technology Ambassadors for the project in Year One. In Years Two and Three, the project will establish similar relationships with other Northeast Ohio school systems in order to begin the project’s expansion throughout the Northeast Ohio-Southwest Pennsylvania corridor. Please see A

Current Industry Advisors include Batelle, Jergens, NorTech, and Swagelok, and the project will continue developing industry relationships on an ongoing basis. These will provide invaluable input into

2


both the professional development and the program improvement foci of this project. Please see letters of support and commitment in the Appendix for more information.

Other sources of significant support include the City of Cleveland, the office of Senator Mike Dewine, National Robotics Educators (California State University, Northridge), Youth Opportunities Unlimited (a YTA partner that provides soft-skills training to participating students), and Cleveland TechWorks (a partnership of Northeast Ohio K-12 educators, representatives from government workforce and economic development offices, civic and professional organizations, business and industry, and citizen volunteers exploring innovative ways to support the development of Northeast Ohio’s future technology workforce). Please see letters of support and commitment in the Appendix for more information.

Motivating Rationale: The motivating rationale behind this project is Cleveland’s current economic decline. The decline is so severe that in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cleveland experienced the highest poverty rate among America's big cities, with nearly a third of its population and nearly one-half of its children living in poverty. In addition, the Cleveland Schools’ $1 million dollar deficit required 1,400 layoffs, which resulted in more students walking to school or taking public transportation, extracurricular programs being eliminated, and class sizes being increased by five to seven students (E. Reed, 2004).

Cleveland’s economic situation is largely blamed on the decline of manufacturing jobs in recent years. According to Northeast Ohio Campaign for American Manufacturing (NEOCAM, 2004), three million manufacturing jobs have been lost on a nationwide scale since 1998. Ohio’s share of the lost manufacturing jobs is close to a quarter million (NEOCAM, 2004). NEOCAM puts the significance of lost manufacturing jobs in perspective: A dollar of lost manufacturing production leads to another $1.50 in losses to the service sector. The loss of manufacturing payroll dollars has led to state and local budget crunches and cutbacks in public services and education. The loss of manufacturing capacity undermines our national defense and innovation capability (NEOCAM, 2004).

It is logical to expect that our schools will train a new generation of technicians who will be capable of revitalizing the manufacturing sector, but the schools are woefully inadequate. In the words of Bill Gates, "Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. . . . Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design schools to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - and even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year" (Gates). Bill Gates’s voice is not the only voice warning us that science and technology education is out of step with the needs of the 21st century and has to be revamped. The same warning is being echoed by many voices, all the way up to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

PCAST Findings: In its report entitled Maintaining the Strength of our Science & Engineering Capabilities (2004), PCAST warns that our nation’s entire national innovation ecosystem is at risk, and therefore our competitive standing in the world market as well as our national security are at risk, since this innovation ecosystem is what produced the global economic leadership, the high standard of living, and the high level of national security this country enjoyed in the 20th century.

Because at the base of the innovation ecosystem lie science and technology, the PCAST report focuses on improving education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as one means to maintain our economic standing and our defense. PCAST’s report makes three recommendations that pertain to education as a first step in combating the threat the US faces: Improve the K-12 educational system by imposing more math & science instruction on the students; improve K-12 teacher preparation; and

3


improve graduate and undergraduate STEM training and retention. This project responds to PCAST’s clarion call.

Robotics Corridor (RC) partners believe that a fourth recommendation should be added to PCAST’s list: The U.S. must aggressively market STEM, particularly engineering, to K-12 students, helping them to identify the significance of STEM in their lives and the relationship of STEM to their career paths. For this reason, the RC project is designed to motivate a larger number of students to enter the STEM pipeline and also to improve technician-level training, recognizing that traditional US education is not preparing students for innovation and discovery and is not preparing students with good “Habit of Mind.”

Habit of Mind: In the view of RC partners, developing good "Habit of Mind" has to be the mission of educators. Good "Habit of Mind" means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems, the answers to which are not immediately known: dichotomies, dilemmas, enigmas, and uncertainties. It means getting into the habit of behaving intelligently when one DOESN'T know the answer. RC partners share the following beliefs:

All students can and want to learn but need to have the right environment and motivators.

This generation of American children must use all of their potential in order to compete.

Preparing students to work in today's world means teaching them that the only thing constant is change, and to remain marketable they must become life-long learners.

Technological literacy not only includes understanding computer hardware and software, but it also relies on three academic principles: knowledge about technology; ways of thinking about and acting on technology; and understanding the capabilities of technology.

Teaching students engineering process and challenging them with appropriate level work will increase good "Habit of Mind" as it increases students' academic performance.

The Robotics Corridor project is designed to stimulate teaching that promotes good Habit of Mind.

If we look at the results of other nations’ educational systems, we will note that according to some sources China graduates 700,000 engineers per year (Colvin, 2005; Kanellos, 2002; Bialik, 2005), each trained in a specific area of engineering. Can the U.S. compete with this workforce? According to Bill Gates, the U.S. is graduating only one-sixth the engineers that China is graduating (Bialik, 2005; Mundy, 2005). And what about the U.S. defense system? By 2015, one third of our military vehicles will be operated either by remote control or in autonomous mode (Chang, 2005), and robotics and automation play key roles in the development of Future Combat Systems. Will American schools be capable of graduating enough skilled technical workers to sustain our national defense? It’s not in the interest of the US to entrust its national security to foreign technicians!

This project is motivated not only by national concerns but by regional concerns as well. It responds to the need for economic revitalization of the Northeast Ohio and Southwest Pennsylvania corridor, which has earned the nickname “Rust Belt.” With a well prepared high-tech workforce, the proposers foresee a re-emergence of this region as the economically viable powerhouse it once was, a transformation of this “Rust Belt” into the Robotics Corridor.

The three-year Robotics Corridor (RC) collaborative project will focus on the work of several predecessors: CMU’s exemplary Robotics Academy curriculum, CMU/CUP’s collaborative DOD-funded technician-level training program, National Robotics Educators’ ATE-funded curriculum, and their test bed -- the nationally known and award-winning Tri-C YTA program.

4


In Year One, the RC project will focus on two areas of study: (1) professional development for technology/STEM teachers and community-college faculty from Northeast Ohio and (2) the testing and integration of CMU/CUP technician training materials into technology education and community college classrooms. This effort will address Northeast Ohio regional technician, technologist, and engineering needs.

In Year One, the Tri-C/CMU team will conduct surveys designed to assess the ability of the curriculum to teach technicians, teachers, and faculty. The results of the assessment surveys will be shared with CMU/CUP enabling them to improve their content based on testing. Tri-C is the perfect partner for the CMU/CUP project, which is interested in national dissemination, because it is far enough away from CMU that much of the training will involve distance learning, but close enough for partners to get together for face-to-face meetings as needed.

In Year Two, CMU will recruit other community colleges to work with and will continue to build the corridor of robotic training partnerships with schools and industry from Northeast Ohio through Southwest Pennsylvania. The CMU/CUP/Tri-C team will continue to iteratively test RC training methodologies to improve the curriculum content. CMU is already disseminating its training materials nationally. As noted before, CMU/CUP’s curriculum is being used in over 3000 schools, and CMU RA holds a number-one ranking in Google when “Robotic Curriculum” is searched. In Year Three, CMU will offer national dissemination of its Train-the-Trainer approach to professional development, which this project demonstrates.

The starting point for the project will involve program improvement to the existing Tri-C YTA model, which recruits WIA-qualified low-income predominantly minority high-school students for engineering- and technology-related training. This award-winning program uses a multifaceted approach to teaching STEM to its stakeholders and provides them with key benefits:

High-school students have an opportunity to take college technology courses at Cuyahoga Community College through the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEOP) and earn college credit while they are still in high school.

High-school teachers are paid a stipend to undergo professional STEM training and to attend the PSEOP classes with their students. The teachers serve a dual role in the program: they serve as Technology Ambassadors or liaisons between the YTA and their respective high schools, and they mentor groups of 25 YTA students from their respective schools during the school year.

Participating YTA students learn academic concepts in context. Student learning of STEM is cemented with hands-on mind-on learning modules developed by community-college instructors.

Participating students gain experience mentoring younger students during summer robotics camps at local library sites.

Participating students receive soft-skill training so that they are prepared to function in the technical work environment.

Participating students gain experience in a technical work environment through job-shadowing and internship opportunities.

Goals, Objectives, Deliverables, and ActivitiesSince the project encompasses two foci (professional development for educators and program improvement), goals, objectives, deliverables, and activities will be treated separately for each. For both the professional development workshops and the student training program, the project will have access to Tri-C’s state-of-the-art computer lab designed for engineering training and to Tri-C’s Manufacturing

5


Center, which has a 15,000-plus square-foot shop floor that was upgraded recently with a $1 million U.S. Department of Labor IST grant.

A. Professional Development for Educators: The project seeks to remedy the lack of adequate staff technology training that professional development studies have cited (Brand, 1997; Tenbusch, 1998) by engaging high-school and two-year-college technology instructors in the fields of robotics, education, and styles of learning. Carnegie Mellon, a world leader in robotics education, will lead training opportunities designed to help high-school teachers teach STEM, to help community-college faculty to teach robotics and automation, and to help both groups upgrade their technical capacity.

In line with the findings of major studies about professional development (Arter, 2001; Garmston, 1999; Johnson & Johnson, 1999), the project will incorporate follow-up workshops designed to deepen the understanding of the teachers, allowing them to feel comfortable working with this new and exciting engineering technology. The follow-up workshops will serve a number of functions:

Keeping these educators abreast of new technological developments/changes and strategies for introducing them into the classroom.

Bringing educators together for collaborative learning and allowing them to share their classroom experiences and individual insights -- elements identified by several researchers as being important to the success of a program (Brown & Ritchie, 1991; Dobbs, 2000; Persky, 1990; Stager, 1995).

Offering teachers opportunities to obtain further explanation of key concepts as needed after they have tested new teaching strategies in their classrooms.

Reassuring participating educators that the professional development is ongoing.

The staff development will pivot on the CMU/CUP robotic workforce development project, providing hands-on learning along with classroom instruction. The design of the program allows instructors the opportunity to individualize portions of the learning for individual teachers, an important element in helping teachers to assimilate new material adequately enough to be able to impart it to their students (Brand, 1997; Guhlin, 1996; Shelton & Jones, 1996).

Studies have shown that strong support from school administrators is crucial to the success of a staff development program (Persky, 1990; Tenbusch, 1998). This project will take advantage of the strong support for the YTA project by both Tri-C and CMSD administrations. The project team foresees that the positive impact on teaching skills of participating educators and on students’ learning will strongly influence more high-school administrators to place the same kind of high priority on professional development for other high school teachers (particularly those in STEM areas).

The project staff will serve as a mentoring unit to the educators who have participated in the professional development sessions. Such mentorship is very important to educators who are faced with questions about how to best incorporate new concepts and strategies into their teaching.

6


Goals and ObjectivesGoal 1: In each of the three years, the project will recruit one (1) new Tri-C instructor and five (5) new Northeast Ohio (NEO) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors interested in undergoing professional development training.

Objective 1: In the spring of each program year, project staff will approach engineering/technology/manufacturing departments at Tri-C to recruit and interview one (1) new Tri-C instructor.

Objective 2: In the spring of each program year, project staff will approach NEO high-school advisory committees to obtain recommendations for five (5) new NEO teacher recruits.

Objective 3: The project will offer compensation/incentives to the participating NEO teachers for the time and effort they devote to their professional development.

Goal 2: During the summer, prior to the inception of the program at the start of the new academic year, CMU staff will conduct educator workshops for both the Tri-C instructors and for the high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors.

Objective 1: By the end of Year 3, the project will have three (3) trained Tri-C instructors and 15 trained NEO teachers/Technology Ambassadors.

Objective 2: Both the Tri-C instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will become thoroughly familiar with the CMU robotics training curriculum.

Objective 3: Both the Tri-C instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will receive curriculum materials from CMU staff.

Objective 4: Both the instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will gain familiarity with current industry standards.

Objective 5: Both the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will learn the same instructional strategies.

Objective 6: Both the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will cooperate in developing lesson plans.

Objective 7: As a result, the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will form an effective teaching team for the students.

Goal 3: CMU staff will conduct quarterly follow-up educator workshops for both the Tri-C instructors and for NEO high-school STEM teachers during the academic year.

Objective 1: New technological advancements and industry requirements will be introduced to the educators.

Objective 2: Educators will have the opportunity to share specific problem areas they encounter in their teaching and gain valuable feedback from colleagues and CMU experts.

7


Objective 3: Educators will share additional curriculum materials, strategies, and other useful information that they find exceptionally helpful to them in their work.

Goal 4: The project will provide a resource center for the participating educators during the regular school year.

Objective 1: A resource room, which will include a resource library for supplementing the curriculum, will be established at the YTA center at Tri-C for participating educators.

Objective 2: Participating educators will have access to computers, printers, and a copy machine for duplicating materials they require.

Objective 3: A project staff member will be available after school to answer questions and provide other assistance to participating educators.

DeliverablesThe professional-development component of the project will have deliverables in two areas that will begin to be replicated across the RC in years two and three:

Deliverables I - Teacher Professional Development

Improved capacity of teachers and faculty to integrate industry standards and workplace competencies into classroom lessons;

Improved understanding of mechanics, programming, electronics, and engineering design for faculty and teachers including methodology to use it in their classrooms;

Improved use of electronic technician tools (meters and oscilloscopes) to aid in teaching technician-level troubleshooting techniques;

Improved understanding of sensors, controllers, and vision systems and how they are integrated to control robotic and automated systems;

Improved ability of teachers and faculty to assess work at industry-standard levels.

Deliverables II -Curriculum and Educational Material Testing

A major component of this plan involves giving CMU feedback on its technician-level robotic training materials (the evaluation plan is covered in the evaluation and assessment section of this proposal);

The project team will solicit feedback from industry advisors and teachers.

o The industry advisors will focus on the curriculum’s appropriateness to teach technicians skills aligned with today’s manufacturing and automation companies as well as robotic companies in the region;

o Teachers will focus on the methodologies used to teach STEM: Are the connections to STEM clear and measurable? Does the STEM learning have rigor? Can the lessons be implemented in the traditional STEM classroom?

CMU will take this feedback and incorporate it into their curriculum, which is already being disseminated nationally.

8


ActivitiesCMU is working closely with the Technology Collaborative, a regional economic development initiative with over 100 industry partners, on the development of the CMU/CUP robotics workforce training materials which will form the core of the training materials presented to NEO teachers and Tri-C faculty in the professional-development focus of this project.

CMU will conduct a series of professional-development workshops designed to provide growth and knowledge in both the academic and technical aspects of the robotics industry. Professional development will include summer educator training workshops, online instruction, and quarterly educator training workshops. Training will begin with a week-long summer intensive training workshop for NEO teachers, Tri-C faculty, and a Tri-C teacher-trainer designed to make teachers comfortable using the educational technologies. Training will continue with CMU providing interactive online course materials designed to increase teacher/faculty learning and to be used as a lesson plan for course instruction throughout the year.

The Tri-C teacher-trainer will identify quarterly workshop needs by observing teacher/faculty as they work with students and by soliciting input from industry partners, as indicated in the flow chart below.

The methodology that the project team will use to identify training needs of teachers and faculty is diagramed in the flow-chart below.

B. YTA Program Improvement:

9

Weeklong intensive summer training

Online training and bulletin board

Workshops held quarterly with industry

participation

Online training and bulletin board

Tri-C teacher trainer monitors faculty,

teacher, and student interaction

Industry advisors identify workplace needs

Tri-C/CMU follow online discussion and

Q&A

Tri-C/CMU prepare for quarterly workshops


In improving the existing YTA program, the proposers plan to focus on several areas:

1. The project will increase the quantity and quality of industry input into the skills being taught in the program.

2. The project will create a team of high-school STEM teachers and Tri-C engineering/technology faculty with high-level CMU professional development training who will work together to develop a curriculum that responds to the needs of industry and who will participate in a team-teaching relationship for imparting instruction to students.

3. The project will instill the proper mindset in participating YTA students: they must be willing to master the STEM skills that they will need in order to meet the demands of industry four to six years in the future, and they must be willing to develop the “Habit of Mind” skill sets.

4. The project will open up the YTA program to all students desiring to pursue technology/STEM training rather than restricting participation to only those students who qualify for WIA (Workforce Investment Act) services as is currently the case, since the YTA is 100% supported by WIA funding. This last area is important because it will add diversity to the body of students participating in YTA – diversity of experience, of abilities, and of attitudes among students creates a fine mix in levels of interest and motivation so that the more reluctant learners are helped along by the more motivated ones.

The existing YTA program will be fine-tuned so as to increase its impact by focusing on all of the elements of program improvement identified by L. W. Reed (2001): It will fine-tune the process for curriculum development and implementation. It will provide a balance of sequenced Tri-C coursework, laboratories (robotics-focused), and work-based experiences (job-shadowing and internship opportunities). It will emphasize STEM standards, communication skills, critical thinking, advanced technology courses, and workplace competencies. It will lead to an associate degree or certificate in engineering or technology. It will provide industry with an increased pool of highly skilled technicians. And it will provide students with a maximum array of educational experiences. It will also increase recruitment for Tri-C and improve student retention because, after all, while in the YTA program, the students have one foot in high school and one foot in college. With all the support provided, it will be an easy transition for them to continue their education at Tri-C, and they will have an opportunity to develop good habits that will help them complete their education.

The improved curriculum places a heavy emphasis on rigorous stem content. Please note the CMU/CUP course syllabi for Agile Robotics 101 and 201 that are included in the Appendix for specifics regarding the material that will be covered.

Goals and ObjectivesGoal 1: The project will enhance the YTA program by incorporating the CMU Robotics curriculum into it.

Objective 1: Tri-C instructors and high-school STEM teachers/Tech Ambassadors will be teaching the same CMU Robotics curriculum to the participating students.

Objective 2: Participating students will learn the most current industrial-standard technical skills, as presented in the CMU Robotics curriculum.

10


Goal 2: The project will establish a distance-learning model for instruction and for sharing curriculum materials between remote locations.

Objective 1: The project will create a web-based server and network for sharing information and conducting remote instruction.

Objective 2: The distance-learning model will provide a means for many more students to participate in the PSEOP courses than the classroom can accommodate – while one group is physically present in the classroom, several other groups are attending at remote locations. On a rotation basis, each group can take its turn being physically present in the Tri-C classroom on alternating meeting days, while the others are present at the remote locations. It is anticipated that 120-150 more students per year will participate in YTA through the addition of distance learning.

Goal 3: The YTA will open its existing program to all high-school students interested in technology training and technology career paths.

Objective 1: Project staff will visit 20 NEO schools per year to talk with principles, guidance counselors, teachers, students, and parents in order to recruit students without restrictions on income.

Objective 2: Project staff will conduct at least 20 informational meetings per year at various locations as a recruitment tool.

Objective 3: The project will offer the incentive of potential college credit towards an engineering/technical certificate or associate degree to students who participate as well as other incentives. Students will have the opportunity to earn up to 4 college credit hours towards an associate degree per year of YTA participation.

DeliverablesThe program-improvement component of the project will have the following deliverables that will begin to be replicated across the RC in years two and three:

Addition of rigorous STEM academic concepts into the Tri-C PSEOP program through the adoption of the CMU/CUP training materials: fundamental electronics; motion planning using algebra, geometry, and trigonometry; kinematics; technical writing; and building responses to technical requests for proposals;

Integration of advanced control devices into both the NEO high school and the Tri-C programs

Activities The YTA program model is a year-round work-based learning experience, incorporating the following major components: academic/occupational training via college-level courses at Cuyahoga Community College and reinforced outside the classroom through interaction with a teacher/Tech Ambassador; practical application of college training through hands-on robotics activities and competitions; job readiness and life skills activities through after-school workshops and competitions; and tutoring, summer job placement, job shadowing, and internship for youth on an as-needed basis. Please note appendix for a fuller description of the existing YTA program activities.

11


The YTA strives to work around many of the barriers that plague students in the classroom: lack of funding for programs; outdated, non-existent, or unusable equipment; teachers unprepared to teach current technological standards; defeatist attitudes of many in the educational system. Within this environment, the project aims to train the students – America’s greatest resource – to take their places in a very competitive workforce.

The YTA is making headway against these barriers, but the Robotics Corridor collaborative is the impetus needed to take the YTA program to the next level and successfully train the future workforce of the Robotics Corridor region, as it brings together creative minds and leaders of innovative teaching to develop an educational model that will provide the catalyst for promoting the skills and knowledge that our industries are clamoring for.

The project is taking an award-winning and very successful YTA program to the next level by several means:

o By providing CMU professional development training for high school teachers and college faculty who are directly responsible for teaching the students

o By improving the quality and quantity of industry input into the program , and

o By instilling into the students the proper mindset – “Habit of Mind” skill sets that are valuable now and will be valuable six years into the future when the students complete their education and enter the workforce.

All of these elements of program improvement will contribute to the dissemination of the program throughout the RC, from Northeast Ohio through Southwest Pennsylvania, and to the transformation of the “Rust Belt” into the new “Robotics Corridor.”

Timetable A chart outlining the project timeline is included in the Appendix.

On an ongoing basis, the project will publicize the ATE award and form/confirm industry advisory boards. In May of Year One, the project will advise CMSD teachers and Tri-C instructors currently participating in the YTA program of summer training dates. In April of Years Two and Three, the project will begin recruiting new teachers from the Northeast Ohio Robotics Corridor region for participation and will advise them of summer training dates.

In June of each year, the project will hold a three-day train-the-trainer orientation for CMU/CUP/Tri-C faculty and staff. In the summer of each year, the project will conduct a one-week summer training workshop for Tri-C faculty and NEO teachers, followed by an evaluation completed by all stakeholders. In August of Year One (2006), CMU will develop online course materials and make them available in September 2006. In Years Two and Three, the online course materials will be improved on the basis of teacher feedback, and the improved materials will be made available in September of 2007 and September of 2008. Each year, quarterly one-day follow-up training workshops will be held in October, January, and March.

In September of each year, YTA students will be tested to evaluate their STEM knowledge. In each year, students will participate in the year-long YTA activities: PSEOP courses on a weekly basis for two semesters, YOU soft-skills training on a weekly basis throughout the academic year, tutoring on an as-needed basis, participation in building competitive robots and in robotics competitions from September

12


through May under the mentorship of technicians and engineers from industry, participation in job-shadowing and paid internship experiences on an ongoing basis, and summer robotics camp. Students will be tested for STEM growth in June of each year.

Management PlanThe RC Collaborative will be managed by the Youth Technology Academy Director, who will devote 25% of his time to the project. CMU will provide training facilities, staff, and support throughout the program year. One other staff member, a YTA Teacher-Trainer, will devote 100% of his/her time to the project. Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) will provide a soft-skills trainer at a per-student fee. The project will engage five (5) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year One, ten (10) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year Two, and fifteen (15) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year Three and will pay them a stipend for their after-school participation in professional development. In addition, and one Tri-C instructor per five high-school teachers will participate in the program.

Roles and Responsibilities of the PI and Co-PIGeorge Bilokonsky, Director of Tri-C’s Youth Technology Academy, will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Robotics Corridor project. He will be responsible for communicating with the staff of NSF regarding all project reporting and administrative management, overall management and oversight of the ATE program grant, supervision of all program staff, ensuring the success of the project in reaching all program goals, recruiting school and community support. Please see Appendix for Mr. Bilokonsky’s resume.

Mary Reis, Associate Dean of Business, Mathematics, and Technology at Tri-C, will serve as co-PI and will oversee the integration of the CMSD and Tri-C STEM-engineering-technology curricula with the CMU/CUP curriculum. Please see Appendix for Ms. Reis’ resume.

Key AdvisorRobin Shoop, Director of Educational Outreach for Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Consortium, is a master teacher who earned Teacher of the Year recognition in 1999. After 28 years with Pittsburgh Public Schools, where he led numerous curriculum development teams in transitioning from Industrial Arts Education to Technology Education, Mr. Shoop currently teaches robotics in the Schenley High School Technological Studies Magnet, and each spring and fall he teaches a robotics professional development class for teachers at Carnegie Mellon. In 1997, Mr. Shoop authored the training manual for Digital Tool, Inc. (a computer numerical control company that entered the education market), and in 1998, he authored the Robotics and Automation Technology curriculum for the Pittsburgh Public School System. Mr. Shoop is currently a co-PI on an Engineering Directorate NSF-funded Research Experience for Teachers.

Sustainability PlanAt the conclusion of the grant period, the program will be incorporated into the public school systems as a major part of their STEM curriculum, and the schools’ part will be paid for by the schools and by various grants obtained locally from the project’s industry partners and from foundations.

Evaluation PlanThe RC partners are guided by ATE-funded assessment research (Gold & Powe, 2001) as they teach professional development designed to improve Tri-C outreach into CMSD/NEO schools. The model pictured below shows the iterative cycle the team will use to assess/improve the program.

13


The team will measure the success of the project using the following questions: Did the learners have the time to gain new knowledge and skills in the areas studied? Was the opportunity to learn ongoing and responsive to the learners’ needs? Did the methodology use hands-on, classroom-based, student-centered activities that could be implemented into today’s classroom? Did the training present analytical problems, using inquiry techniques; promote modeling; rely on instructors and teacher-trainers working together to create plans, present information and skills, evaluate and redefine educational programs; and present refined curricula to meet student and marketplace needs? Did the plan include mentoring and time for professionals to exchange ideas and techniques? Was there a teacher-trainer component included in the program? Were the new methodologies successfully implemented in the affected schools?

Project evaluation will follow the implementation and training cycle and will comprise three components: teacher/faculty training, implementation/revision of content, and student learning.

Evaluation of teacher/faculty professional development involves examining the administrative support provided for implementing teacher and Tri-C faculty professional development. The assessment team will include industry advisor review of CMU/CUP training materials, survey professional development sessions, and use the data collected to iteratively improve the content. Guiding questions include the following: Are the lessons aligned with industry standards for technician-level training? Do the materials align with skill sets needed in industry today? Do the materials and sessions include rigorous applied STEM concepts? Are teachers provided with industry-standard scoring rubrics to allow them to adequately assess industry-accepted practices? Is the instruction individualized for the learner? Is there follow-up training to deepen the understanding of the learner?

Evaluation of program improvement will identify strengths and weaknesses of CMU/CUP curriculum integration into Tri-C/CMSD programs. RC partners will design and administer pre- and post-tests designed to assess student understanding of content, student STEM competency, and student awareness of technical careers. Industry advisors will observe selected classroom instruction and examine student work to see if it aligns with current industry practices. Guiding questions include the following: Do the lessons presented adequately prepare students for technician-level jobs? Does classroom instruction inspire students to study STEM? Do the lessons elicit and build on students’ existing conceptions? Are students learning the targeted concepts and processes?

Evaluation of CMU/CUP instructional modules involves examination of the impact of the project at the classroom level for both the instructor and the learner. The team will use the “Rubric designed for

14

Industry advisors identify workplace

needs

Ongoing professional development for educators

Assessment of program implementation by

teachers, and STEM learning by students, and CMU curriculum

Improvements of professional development and implementation based

on assessment results

Tri-C program improvement cycle


assessing quality ATE materials” (Evaluation Center, 2001). They will analyze data from teacher evaluations, industry advisors, faculty evaluations, and student evaluations. Guiding questions include the following: Does the material represent current industry practices? Is the material sequenced appropriately? Does the material support multiple levels of learning? Are there rubrics for instruction for all stakeholders so they are able to determine what good work looks like?

Evaluation tasks conducted and data collected will be analyzed and rated for CMU curriculum developers to guide their curricular improvement efforts. Throughout the funding period, evaluation results will be shared with the RC advisory team to inform them of the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and the results will be used to guide program improvement, professional development, and curricular reform.

Dissemination PlanSince Cuyahoga Community College’s Youth Technology Academy is a member of the National Council on Student Development (NCSD) and has been recognized by this organization as a 2005 Exemplary Practice, other community colleges are looking to the YTA for assistance in establishing programs similar to the YTA. The PI and co-PI are executive board members of National Robotics Educators, an NSF grant recipient, and will utilize both the NCSD and the National Robotics Educators network of schools for dissemination.

On the regional level, the project will be able to spread the word by giving presentations to the school administrators/students/parents of the Northeast Ohio and Southwest Pennsylvania school districts. At the national level, project newsletters, special mailings, and a website will highlight and promote the project’s activities. The project will compile a database of all curriculum materials used in professional development and in the improved Youth Technology training program. It will develop and maintain a web site that will provide remote access to these materials, and it will publish a newsletter in order to broadly disseminate program updates to schools, companies, and organizations in the Robotics Corridor. Finally, the project will promote the project model in local, regional, and national school systems by providing guest speakers, by taking student-built robots on tour, by distributing CD recordings of competitions, and by other means.

15

SECTION II: REQUESTED YOUTH SERVICESml727939/coursework/610/Project... · Web viewKey Advisor Robin...

Documents

Transcript of SECTION II: REQUESTED YOUTH SERVICESml727939/coursework/610/Project... · Web viewKey Advisor Robin...