2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF ATE) National Center aims to address the need for a highly skilled advanced manufacturing technician workforce at the two-year college level through its network of advanced manufacturing stakeholders. It is imperative that educators are up to date on current and future skills needed in the manufacturing workforce when educating that future workforce. The Center partners with two NSF ATE funded projects to offer hands-on professional development opportunities for high school and community college educators from across the United States.

The virtual Summer Teacher Workshop for high school and community college educators provides lessons on both technology skills and professional skills for participants to implement in their own classrooms. Curriculum for the workshop is updated annually to address workforce needs trends in a timely manner. The curriculum was initially developed for a program for high school students and later incorporated into a program for community college students. With student feedback being positive, instructors for these programs developed a workshop to disseminate their curriculum through the Summer Teacher Workshop. The format has remained virtual for four years to accommodate educators from across the nation who have barriers to participating in activities that require travel such as funding and scheduling conflicts. For professional skills lessons, breakout rooms are used for activities that demonstrate teamwork. For technology skills, supplies are shipped to participates ahead of the workshop for use with instructors in real-time during the workshop.

The second professional development opportunity is a series of four in-person mechatronics workshops where participants learn about a dual enrollment pathway that gives high school students access to four online entry-level, hands-on mechatronics courses and best practices for delivering those courses. They also build a mechatronics trainer based on which of the four levels the workshop is covering. Participants keep the trainer for use in their own classrooms along with corresponding curriculum. Participants have been surveyed at the completion of the workshops and throughout the year after the workshop to determine impacts of the workshops.

Feedback for both professional development opportunities has been very positive. Suggestions are taken into consideration and changes are made in the workshops for continuous improvement when appropriate. Both workshops have been able to reach national audiences and provide professional development to educators who may not have local professional development opportunities.