Are we as a nation heading in the right direction with the many different programs and various approaches to enhance STEM education throughout the educational continuum, K-20? What have we learned from the past? What do we know about good teaching and learning practices that we should now implement? Will putting more money into the silos of STEM help produce the STEM workers we need now and will need more of in the future? Is it time for systemic change In STEM education practices? In addition to STEM workers with specific skills and knowledge to support emerging technologies, our country will also need for all citizens to be STEM literate.

Dr. Rodger Bybee, past executive director of the National Research Council’s Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education (CSMEE), and director emeritus of the BSCS (Biological Science Curriculum Moving towards STEM literacy) defines STEM literacy with these 4 bullets:

• Acquiring scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical knowledge and using that knowledge to solve and interpret STEM-related issues.
• Understanding the characteristic features of STEM disciplines as forms of human endeavors that include the processes of inquiry, design, and analysis.
• Recognizing how STEM disciplines shape our material, intellectual, and cultural world.
• Engaging in STEM-related issues with the ideas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics as concerned, affected, and constructive citizens.

Further, Dr. Bybee suggests alternative definitions of and approaches to STEM education, centering education on contextual-STEM. One strategy would include health, energy efficiency, natural resources, environmental quality, hazard mitigation and frontiers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These “units” would be studied at various levels: personal (self, family, and peers); social (community); and global (life across the world). These units are problem-based and offer relevancy to the theory and abstract nature of pure math and science. Food for thought for all of us. Please feel free to comment and share your ideas below in this blog.

November is always very special for us at FLATE because we celebrate our annual educator and industry award winners as well as MAF’s Manufacturers of the year. Read about David, Dean and Art and their successes as well as their tireless commitment to manufacturing education. Know someone doing great things in or for education? You will be able to nominate them as early as March for the 2011 FLATE awards. Didn’t get the last sTEm puzzle? Try again this month sTEm puzzle #13 might bring you luck in cracking its sTEm connections.

Dave Lintner

Dave Lintner was named Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year. Lintner who is an industrial education and technology teacher at Ridge Community High School in Davenport, FL is a former engineer who has taught industrial technology in Michigan and Florida for over three decades. He brings insider’s knowledge of having worked in various segments of manufacturing into the classroom and says “integrating that valuable experience into teaching has been very important as well as a real plus with all the various projects his students have completed over the years.”

Dean Eavey at the MAF Summit

On the post-secondary level, Dean Eavey, associate professor of business and technology division and program manager for electronics engineering technology and computer integration manufacturing (CIM) at Gulf Coast Community College (GCCC) in Panama City will receive the Manufacturing Post-Secondary Educator-of-the-Year Award. Eavey who has served in this capacity for the past ten years is part of a $500,000 grant from the Department of Labor geared to promote manufacturing training in Florida. His driving force lies in preparing students to enter the field of high-tech manufacturing and witness them succeed. This he says helps them pursue rewarding careers and helps the country remain globally competitive.

At the legislative level he played a pivotal role in formulating the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Act which changed the deployment of career and technical education programs in school districts throughout Florida. This spearheaded the establishment of CAPE career academies that have allowed students to operate in small learning communities focused on earning national industry certifications. Hoelke has also supported Brevard County School District’s career and technical efforts by providing paid summer internships for several Brevard County’s engineering technology teachers, and has been instrumental in establishing inroads that have facilitated a number of opportunities for students and incumbent workers across the state. 



Art Hoelke at the MAF Summit

Art’s partnerships with various educators and industry leaders also paved a path for Heritage High School in Brevard County to offer the M.S.S.C industrial credential that articulates 15 credit hours into Brevard Community College’s two year A.S. degree in engineering technology. Art also provided numerous hours of community support while serving on the advisory committee for Space Coast High Schools’ engineering academy. He worked closely with the academy’s teachers, volunteered Knight’s Armament as a field trip site for students, and facilitated national manufacturing experts to make local presentations to students. Furthermore, he is intricately involved with Reusable Resources—another organization that teaches kids to build products from recycled materials.

The linear variable differential transformer, LVDT, is a sensor that indicates the linear change in the horizontal (vertical) position of a robotic arm and sends an electrical signal to indicate how much differential movement has occurred. The sensor makes symmetrical differential distance measurements; the output signal provided by the LVDT is simply a % of the total output signal the sensor can deliver. In addition, the detected movement is expressed as % of total possible translation of the sensor movement shaft on either side of the null position. The technician routinely runs performance tests on the LVDT to be sure the LVDT meets operational expectations. A summary of one of those tests is provided.

The LVD for this robot system is operating correctly. (yes or no). Submit your answers at https://www.fl-ate.org/

Manufacturing has undergone monumental changes in the past few decades. Gone are the days when grandpa’s grimy machine shop was sufficient in meeting industry needs. Today manufacturing is all about automation and robotics that require high-tech, high-skilled labor. Despite the emergence of a new face in manufacturing, traces of the old visage still haunts the industry leaving manufacturers like Terry Iverson to address misconceptions that are no longer relevant to manufacturing.

Iverson points to America as one of the most technologically savvy nations in the world. Given his numerous engagements and insider’s know-how of manufacturing, he often wondered about his customers’ inability to find good, skilled talent for their manufacturing requirements. He says he noticed a loss of manufacturing’s lure over young people, and a disappearance of high school/apprentice programs. Iverson also points to an ageing workforce as one of the current challenges manufacturers face across the board. As jobs get outsourced, and manufacturing processes get more automated and technologically savvy he notes an immediate need for young and fresh minds, as well as a high-skilled, educated workforce.

Taking all of this into account, he decided to take action, to do something, to make a difference in the manufacturing industry. In March, 2010 Iverson founded a not-for-profit organization called C.H.A.M.P.I.O.N. Now which stands for Change How American Manufacturing is Perceived In Our Nation-Now! The NOW represents an immediate call to action for change that will impact young people by tearing down misconceptions of manufacturing perpetuated via the media or traditional ideas, and encouraging them to pursue career choices in skilled areas of high-tech manufacturing.

Despite its infancy, the organization and its site has been a magnet for educators and industry representatives from 38 different states who have offered their support. The site has enabled Iverson to hold a “CNC Technology Day” for local students where students take a field trip to Iverson & Company demo room to witness the latest in CNC processes. His ultimate hope he says “is to get USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and even 60 Minutes interested in helping change the misperceptions of American manufacturing, and underline the

importance of manufacturing in maintaining the technical and innovative edge the U.S. had has thus far.”

You can join Terry’s cause at www.championnow.org, or contact him at tiverson@iversonandco.com.

After initial focus groups with its industry partners, the FLATE leadership team realized that it needed an evaluation plan that would be of value when interacting with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as FLATE’s state wide industry partners. With this necessity in mind, FLATE decided to use the Florida Sterling Criteria for Organizational Performance Excellence as a basis for its NSF-ATE grant evaluation plan. This is an industry-recognized, best practice model for managing and leading organizations, which parallels the Federal Government’s Baldrige Performance Excellence Program criteria. The Sterling model is an organization-wide approach to implementing and assessing performance, improvement, and organizational sustainability of any organization in any industry or sector. Thus, FLATE uses this model as a template for evaluation because it is an industry validated assessment tool also recognized within the Federal government. From FLATE’s leadership team’s perspective, it is the best way to demonstrate FLATE’s intention to use its federal grant funds to accomplish its grant declared goals and secure Florida based industries help to accomplish its mission.

FLATE’s evaluation plan is built on a set of core values which the Sterling model integrates into seven categories encompassing every facet of organizational leadership and management. The Figure summarizes the Sterling Framework and these systematic relationships of every aspect of an organization. The cyclic interaction of the 7 model elements shown in the figure suggests the cyclic nature of FLATE operational mode.

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An essential component of FLATE’s daily activity is a constant effort to continuously improvement all aspects of its operations. This overall improvement involves continuous review of activities as they impact grant performance measurement, analysis, and knowledge management. To assure that activities optimally help accomplish grant declared goals, a Sterling based evaluation of FLATE is conducted on a two-year cycle. The results of this formal review process conducted by FLATE’s Sterling certified NSF grant evaluator provide a quantitative measure or score of our organizational performance that can be compared to our previous Sterling “scores” as an indication of our quality improvement progress.

To put these biennial scores in context, it is important to appreciate that the scoring process is not linear. As an organization gets better at accomplishing its goals to realize its mission, the expectations for quality improvement also increase. In other words, the score at any specific time in an organization’s existence depends on the extent of the types of management systems in place, their deployment and alignment with organizational goals, and the implicit knowledge gained from regular improvement of these systems. A Sterling “score” reflects the organization performance based on the current status of their management system(s) with the expectation that the next round of scoring will not only reflect quality improvements but increased “organizational maturity” and effectiveness in their management system(s). Thus, average or typical organizations will continue to score around 20-25% or 200-250 points overall. Sterling award winning organizations show continuous increases in score values even though the performance expectations for the organization to achieve the average score also continue to increase. This nonlinear seemingly moving target scoring process pushes the organization toward excellence and produces Sterling recognized award winners with typical scores of 500+ points as a minimum. No organizations receive perfect scores, as there are always progressively higher level opportunities and expectations for improvement. It is unlikely an organizations would score in the 900’s, although it is not unusual for Sterling Award winning organizations to score in the 90% range in one or more individual categories of the criteria summarized in the Figure.

In summary, evaluation using the Sterling model provides strengths, opportunities for improvement, and a score on a scale of zero to 1000. FLATE’s 2008 score at 250 points improved to 362 points in 2010. This new score clearly indicates that FLATE is moving toward excellence with it management systems and overall all objective to be a high performance based organization. The score indicates that FLATE is above the norm and that it has identified new opportunities for improving quality. It also indicates that the next round of scoring will be based on these higher performance expectations. This cyclic improvement with continuous increased demands for perfection will lead FLATE not only to a Sterling Award but an organization where high quality results are represented in normal daily activity.

For more information visit https://www.floridasterling.com/, or contact Phil Centonze at phil.c@fl-ate.org

(Contributed by Phil Centonze, FLATE External Evaluator)

It is my extreme pleasure to announce that David Gula, FLATE outreach manager has been selected as the Brandon Campus Employee Excellence Award winner in the supervisory category. We are thrilled that he was selected as our campus awardee. Dave has worked tirelessly since 2005 as FLATE’s Outreach Manager. In his current role, he developed a comprehensive industry tour/field trip model that has taken over 3,000 Florida middle and high school students into manufacturing facilities in Florida. He also diligently seeks facilities and school programs that can be good partners after the tours conclude.

Dave also manages and oversees our summer robotics camps, another model outreach program. From partnering with others in a supportive role, to developing and running our own camps, FLATE has grown considerably in this area since we started in 2006. This summer we had 200 students attending weeklong camps at 4 different sites and 2 different levels. The fact that all 9 camp sessions went flawlessly with only the highest kudos from parents and kids alike – is all Dave’s doing. To enhance our own summer camps and highlight the HCC academic program in Engineering Technology, Dave has brought a number of local and regional robotics competitions to the Brandon Campus of HCC. These competitions, no matter what level (elementary, middle or high school) are intense and require a lot of logistical support before, during and after the events (including weekends and nights!). Dave supports them all by helping with logistics, set-up, judging, teardown and clean up.

What else does Dave do? Dave makes FLATE look fabulous! He develops a variety of display items, posters, and presentations. He also supports our website with information about events, companies, and develops the virtual tours posted on www.madeinflorida.org to help students and the community get an inside look at advanced manufacturing companies in Florida. As we all do, Dave does data, helping keep FLATE’s outreach documentation in tip-top shape and as impactful as possible. Dave also helps keep FLATE robot mascot, FLATER uniquely costumed and appropriately dressed for any occasion or holiday.

Please join me in congratulating Dave for this well deserved recognition!

Enjoy the rest of our October FLATE Focus with another challenging STEM puzzle, an informational article about the work FLATE has been doing with the Florida State Common Course Numbering System, and a review of the July HI-TEC conference through the eyes of the principle of a Post-secondary Adult Vocational Technical Center here in Tampa. Congratulations also to recipients of the 2010 FLATE Awards for their role in promoting excellence in education and training today’s technology workforce.

AnnMarie Courtney, principal of ALTC



Indeed, for centers like Aparicio-Levy Technical Center (ALTC), HI-TECH served as a guide in charting a “roadmap for success.” The Center caters to a diverse range of students that include those looking for initial career skills to enter the workforce for the first time, students looking to retool current skills set for career advancement, and assist local industry partners with proprietary training needs.

ALTC’s commitment lies in providing industry relevant training that is supported by program advisory boards, and has embedded employability components. Students can earn a variety of industry certifications depending on the type of program they’re enrolled in. The information technology specialist program prepares students for the A+ exam, as well as the CISCO certification exam. The mobile electronic installer program prepares students for the Mobile Electronic Certified Program, while the students enrolled in the new media production specialist program can earn the Adobe Associate Essentials credentials in Photoshop, Dreamweaver and FLASH. Students also have the ability to earn a number of Microsoft certifications in WORD, PowerPoint and Excel.

The Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS) is an integral piece in Florida’s K-20 system of articulation. This seamless system of articulation has been in place since the 1960s, and provides a database of post-secondary vocational courses at technical centers, community colleges, universities, and participating nonpublic institutions. Central to the system is its effort to assign numbers, describe course content to improve research, assist program planning, and facilitate seamless transition of courses for students transferring among various colleges. (Source: www.scns.fldoe.org).

In Florida, the effort to better align, classify and define existing courses as well as new discipline areas of engineering technology began in Fall 2007. According to FLATE’s Executive Director, Dr. Marilyn Barger, “FLATE’s efforts to develop the new A.S. degree in engineering technology served as a strong impetus for this reform activity at the state level, and continues to play an important role in the processes.” FLATE’s objective is to make engineering technology education through the state college system unified in all aspects so it is easy for all stakeholders (students, employers, educators). The review and reorganization of the SCNS ET disciplines is just one activity FLATE has undertaken to reach this goal.


Participants at the ET Forum


 In a special ongoing effort since early 2008, the division in the department of education that oversees state post-secondary courses/course numbers began a comprehensive look at several discipline areas including engineering technology education. The objective of the project was to move courses to discipline areas that better define them; consolidate redundant courses, review and update discipline area descriptions/definitions, and reorganize the discipline areas which are subsets of another. The new definition for the engineering technology discipline area and thereafter all courses associated with applied engineering focuses on the practical aspects of the specific technical disciplines preparing students to do one or more of the following: analyze, assemble, design, fabricate, install, operate, troubleshoot, maintain, and manage engineering and related systems.

FLATE, together with the ET Forum, played a crucial part in working with the state to redefine the discipline definition, rewrite all ET course prefix definitions and reclassify them in a more organized manner. Brad Jenkins, program manager for the engineering technology degree at St. Petersburg College and one of the SCNS state coordinators for aligning the numbering for the EET, EST and ETI courses under the engineering technology discipline says the initiative is a leap in the right direction as “it gives all colleges that have adopted the ET degree a chance to change their numbers and align it with the new course numbering system.”

The proposed changes were approved by SCNS and the Florida Department of Education in April 2010, and will be implemented in Aug. 2011. For more information visit https://scns.fldoe.org, or contact Brad Jenkins at jenkinsb@spcollege.edu and Dr. Marilyn Barger at barger@fl-ate.org.