development organizations recently conducted a comprehensive skill set needs assessment for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. The report was published in August 2013, and was sponsored by Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation, Pinellas County Economic Development, Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, WorkNet Pinellas, Tampa Bay Partnership and Florida High-Tech Corridor. The Hillsborough-Pinellas Manufacturing Gap Analysis was targeted to quantify the areas’ difficult to fill manufacturing skills set. In total, 107 skill sets across 16 job type categories were surveyed. There were 109 responding companies, representing 14,715 employees, or 28.9% of the entire manufacturing employee population in the two county area.

Community College in Brandon, the girls programmed Lego® Mindstorms® robots, and got an overview of educational and career pathways in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). “Our goal is to provide students with hands-on robotics experiences while emphasizing how robots are used in manufacturing” said Desh Bagley, outreach manager for FLATE.  To that effect, students got a wealth of information on applications of robotics technology in everyday settings and in manufacturing operations, and witnessed a demo of the NAO humanoid robot in action. To give a real-world view of engineering and technical professions, Dr. Sylvia Thomas, professor of electrical engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, gave a first-hand account of a “day in the life of an engineer,” and the skills set and knowledge required to pursue STEM based careers and educational pathways. “I’m here to encourage each of you to dream and to become the great young ladies that you are” said Thomas.

STEM professional. The students also got an overview of local high-tech companies, like Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, Featherlite, Tampa Armature Works and Tropicana that they could work for in the future.  “It’s all about discovering who you are and the choices that you have” Thomas said.

development to the Florida engineering technology community. This year FLATE hosted the 3^rd Engineering Technology Summer Institute workshop for Florida educators, faculty and staff personnel involved in “Building Florida’s Manufacturing Pathways.” The workshop was held as a one day pre-conference workshop at the 47th Annual Florida Association for Career and Technical Educators (FACTE) conference & trade show at Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

To develop curriculum and reinforcement strategies for bolstering student success the workshop included a

shared best practice panel and two group activities. Best practice panel focused in integrating Manufacturing Skills Standards Council (MSSC) into high school curriculum, sharing strategies for preparing students for the MSSC tests, and establishing a common tie between MSSC and educational resources available for educators and students. Activity I included review and alignment of the Automation & Production Technology frameworks to MSSC standards. Activity II involved review of the MSSC production standards and identification of key vocabulary that students need to learn to score higher in MSSC test and improve their success in finding better jobs.

MSSC standards can be aligned to curriculum. The same number of responders also stated that there was a very good or excellent likelihood for them to implement components of this workshop at their institution. Typical survey comments included: “It was very helpful to me to speak with other people in the field,” “Very beneficial workshop” and “It was very informative and exciting to see how much is being done for our students.”

Special thanks to Bluegrass Educational Technologies, LLC and Lab-Volt for sponsoring workshop’s lunch. If you have additional resources you would like to share please contact Danielly Orozco-Cole, curriculum coordinator at orozco@fl-ate.org, or visit www.fl-ate.org and www.madeinflorida.org.

A Hospitality room will be provided at the Armwood High Media where meals, snacks, and beverages will be provided for event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors only. On Friday evening, pizza and drinks and on Saturday a continental breakfast and lunch will be provided for event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors only. We thank you in advance for your willingness to volunteer to help with this worthwhile STEM program. We guarantee you’ll have an awesome time.

Exchange conference (www.highimpact-tec.org) held July 20-24 in Austin, TX. This conference was established, is organized and sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Centers to meet the needs of educators that teach, or are involved with advanced technological education at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Over 500 attendees convened for four days of workshops, tours, presentations, meetings, exhibits, and networking. Conference trademarks that contribute to its success include: tightly focused sessions on trends in new technologies, pedagogies, strategies for working with industry and other partners, grant management and implementation, industry site visits that get people talking, and recognition awards for those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.  

FLATE will organize an expanded mechatronics program for HiTEC 2014.  Stay tuned for more mechatronics and “mech” community building in the coming months and  plan to join us at HiTEC 2014 next July in Chicago.  I’d like to thank my colleagues who helped make this year’s effort happen including our panel: Ernie Friend (FSCJ); Dan Horine (VWCC) and Niaz Latif (PUC) for sharing the interworking of their own programs. A special thank-you to everyone who enthusiastically provided information during the “Mechatronics Moments” pre-conference session that dramatically changed the image of mechatronics. Kudos and many thanks to LabVolt for its support and each of you and your teams for your incredible contributions!  Rest assured the Mechatronics Moments pre-conference session will be back next year!

FLATE was also extremely pleased to have Michael Ennis, manufacturing engineer at Harris Corporation chosen for the prestigious Industry Recognition Award at HiTEC. This national award recognizes an industry partner that provides exceptional support to technician education and the students in our technical programs. I am sure that there are many deserving folks out there that meet the criteria, but we are very proud that Michael was selected for this honor at HiTEC 2013. We think all of our industry partners are winners, but are truly happy to have Mike recognized in a national venue like HiTEC.  Congratulations Mike Ennis!

Immediately following HiTEC the FLATE team scurried from Austin to Ponte Vedra, FL, for

the annual Florida Association for Career and Technical Education conference to present our activity packed workshop focused on integrating Manufacturing Skills Standard Council (MSSC) into our Florida high school curriculum. Neil Reddy, executive director of MSSC presented an overview of MSSC and CPT credentials, while Ted Norman, state supervisor for manufacturing, transportation and logistics, did the same for the Florida Department of Education curriculum frameworks.  Aaron Bowman from JAXUSA Partnership gave workshop participants a wonderful snapshot about the manufacturing industry in the greater Jacksonville area. Three teachers, Jack Clark from Treasure Coast High School, Dale Toney from Marion Technical Institute, and Russ Hernderlite from Petersen Academy in Jacksonville, lead an intense panel conversation on their best practices for implementing and integrating the four MSSC tests into their Automation and Production Technology aligned programs. Two intense hands-on activities filled out the day as well as provided the seeds for some shared resources for our manufacturing high school partners. Thanks to the FACTE organization team for their help.

National Science and Technology Council ‘s, Committee on STEM Education which recently released a five year strategic plan.  The latest iteration of the President’s proposed 2014 budget request has at least a 6% funds increase allocation for STEM education. Included in the strategy for 2014 fund allocation is the intent to reduce the number of federally supported programs (currently approximately 225) to closer to 100 (the announced target number at this point is 110) programs. The details of the proposed STEM program changes are available in the five year Federal STEM Education Strategic Plan prepared by the Committee on STEM Education of the National Science and Technology Council as required by the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010.

The driving force for the stated approach is the attempt to increase the effectiveness of federally supported programs to improve STEM education.  Integrated with this intention to improve performance is the desire to establish useful measures of program impact. At this point, other than the need to consolidate, specific details about the consolidation process and the impact on the programs affected are not available.  However, the Plan does outline the altered roles for the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

The Department of Education role will increase with efforts focused on K-12 by supporting partnerships among school districts, universities, science agencies, businesses, and other community organizations. The objective will be to transform  teaching and learning by crafting a STEM relevant teacher. Suggested strategies for this task are to establish a STEM Master Teacher Corps and create STEM Innovation Networks to connect school districts with available  local, regional, and national STEM resources.

The National Science Foundation’s role will also increase. NSF resources will be directed to undergraduate STEM teaching and learning as driven by evidence-based reform approaches. This effort will include programs aimed at improving retention within undergraduate STEM fields, expansion and enhancement of graduate fellowship programs, and the creation of a National Graduate Research Fellowship program.

In addition, the Smithsonian Institution will receive funds to focus on improving its informal STEM education efforts. This includes partnering with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reach more teachers and students both inside and outside the classroom. The distribution of these funds and extent of these partnerships were not outlined. 

Tthe bottom line at this point is simple. There is more funding for STEM education in the pipeline with a bit more focus on the “E” part of “sTEm”  but not much evidence of any serious additional support for the “T”. Thus, it may be up to the ATE community to alter this current path.

Action suggestions?

robotics and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to whet their appetite. “Science is basically logic and reasoning, it’s what the universe is about” said Christopher Browy, a 5^th grader at Christ the King Catholic school in Tampa.  “We love mathematics, robotics, science and technology” said Luca Valenti and Brennan Gill, 5^th graders at the same school. Christopher, Luca and Brennan were among 141 students who enrolled in FLATE’s robotics camps this summer.

This year FLATE offered six (three intro level; 2 intermediate and one high school) robotics

camps. Curriculum for all the camps comprised of a mixture of LEGO educational materials that were integrated with STEM subjects. Each camp offered different level of challenges. During the introductory camp students learned how to reconfigure Lego® Mindstorms® robots and programmed them to follow specific commands. “The exercises were fun as they challenged your ability to really think” said Brennan.

The intermediate camps presented students with more complex challenges. Campers designed, built and programmed a robot, learned about 3D printers and gained hands-on knowledge about CAD.  “I love when a robot breaks. If your robot works all the time you don’t get to be challenged” said Karina Barcenas, an 8^th grader at St. Lawrence Catholic School in Tampa. Barcenas found the challenges harder in the intermediate camp, but said she learned a lot.

The pinnacle for every camper as they progress through each level is the advanced

engineering camp for high school students. At the camp, students not only solved challenges using Lego® Mindstorms® robots, but learned different topics each day and wrote programs to operate the NAO humanoid robot. The high school campers also learned how to use Arduino Uno Microprocessors. “The Arduino taught me how to do more of circuitry and actually write programs on the computer, so it taught me a lot more” said Jefferson Vance, a 9^th grader at Middleton High School in Tampa.

As part of the high school challenge, campers were presented with the “cable tram challenge.” Campers had to design, build and program a robot to crawl across a make-believe canyon to pick up buckets and transport them back to a drop-off location. For Randy, a 9^th grader at Wesley Chapel High School in Tampa and his team (named Hyperion Inc.) one of the basic concepts that they had to understand about the robot was the drive train. Once they got that figured out everything was smooth sailing, in that theirs was the only robot that never slipped off the wire.

The camps were not all work and no play. The “fun part” for most high school campers was programming the NXT robot and also working with the NAO robot. The best part of the camp for Brennan, who was in the intro camp, was the challenges as it gave him a better understanding about programming and building a robot. “It’s a really fun way to release your creativity, show who you are and how you like things done” Brennan said.   

Common takeaways for all campers regardless of which camp they attended were teamwork,

developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills. “I like that the challenges made us work together as a team” said Luca. Christopher Browy also liked the competitive aspect of the challenges as it gave him a fresh perspective on how to operate robots. “This is like one of the best camps I’ve ever been to and probably the best place to start if you want to become an engineer” said Nick Burke, a high school camp attendee from Wharton High School in Tampa. Randy also enjoyed working in small groups and easy access to instructors who helped with programing and giving ideas for improvement.

This summer FLATE’s robotics attendance was excellent, said Desh Bagley, FLATE’s outreach manager and camp director. The “all girls” camp had its highest enrollment at 21, and the high school camp had 28 campers.  The Intermediate camps saw an increase in the number of girls who decided to return after having participated in the intro camp.  In addition to the camps offered at Hillsborough Community College in Brandon, FLATE also partnered with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Ocala and Pineview Charter School in Sarasota to offer camps at the respective locations. 

For more information on FLATE’s STEM and robotics based curriculum and projects for middle and high school students visit www.fl-ate.org/projects/camps.html, and www.madeinflorida.org. You can also contact Desh Bagley, outreach manager at camps@fl-ate.org, and Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director at barger@fl-ate.org.