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FIRST K-14 SYMPOSIUM HELPS BRING EDUCATION & INDUSTRY TOGETHER
By Tammy Sakry, Staff Writer, Anoka County Union
Posted: 11/16/06
Anoka Technical College (ATC) played host to 85 educators from around the state for the first K-14 symposium Nov. 2.
The event featured discussions on changing education programs to address the needs of the applied learners, the experiences of current and former STEP (Secondary Technical Education Program) students and what industry members are looking for from the educational system.
The purpose of the four-hour symposium was to begin discussing K-12 partnerships throughout the state, focusing on the applied learners and how they can be successful in a K-14 partnership, said Ginny Karbowski, STEP director.
It was interesting to hear how motivated the STEP students were and the passion they have for the given programs, said Michael Hiatt, personnel development and research director for the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley.
Educators also heard how the STEP programs challenged them and helped them get focused, he said.
It was amazing how directly and quickly the program impacted students. One student only took one class before knowing it was what she wanted to do full-time, said Hiatt.
“The program gave them direction and vision for the rest of their lives,” he said.
The symposium could lead to future changes at the center.
The Perpich Center for the Arts is looking into developing a similar program and Hiatt plans to spend more time with ATC and STEP staff to help design its own program.
“Some of our future partners were in the room,” said Hiatt of the symposium.
STEP has had a lot of visits from other school districts, including Rosemount, Rochester and Chisholm-Hibbing, interested in developing their own programs, said Karbowski.
The educators attending the symposium were already interested in the program and it opens up more discussions, she said.
“It has really been fun to see the interest from the other parts of the state,” said Karbowski.
It was an important opportunity for community leaders in the K-12 system and colleges and universities, according to Dr. Linda Baer, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) academic affairs senior vice chancellor. It is important for the college system members to connect with K-12 educators and explore what really works and what is needed, Baer said.
Some of the things the two systems can look into for their students are dual enrollment, college access programs, technical education preparation and early/middle college, like STEP, Baer told symposium attendees.
Research shows if students take six to 12 college credits before they finish high school they are more likely to go on to college because they can see themselves in that picture, she said.
“Can’t we do that for our students,” said Baer. “At MnSCU we ready to bring teachers and faculty together (and we) want it to happen everywhere.”
The STEP courses allow students to see the transition from high school to college and it motivates them to see how what they are learning applies to their future careers, said Dr. Roger Giroux, Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 superintendent.
“I really enjoyed the classes and I am looking forward to taking more classes, going to college with college (credits) already,” said student Jackie Tirimba, who is in the health occupation program.
“It’s hands-on training that really does get me excited about school,” said student Samantha Roeder, who is studying law enforcement.
In most schools, students spend most of the day sitting behind a book. At STEP, the teachers challenge the students to get things done to graduate, she said.
“It is preparing me to continue my education,” said Nick Winters, STEP graduate.
Working with an instructor who also teaches at ATC helped him make the connection to the college, he said.
With the knowledge he gained at STEP, “... it really helped me be able to apply myself and pass on what I know to other class members at college and in life,” said Morgan Whitman, STEP graduate. “It’s really helped.”
STEP has given her more of a push than she would from her home high school toward a career path, said Jamie Wolter, a STEP graduate.
If she had not gone to STEP, Wolter does not think she would have known she wants to be an emergency room nurse, she said.
While the school is very career driven, it also has an relaxed atmosphere, said Whitman.
For Kathi Dudley’s son, attending STEP meant not only graduating from high school but also going on to college.
Because of his physical limitations, Robert would wait until the halls were empty before going to class and he did not turn in his finished assignments because he was hit and pushed by fellow classmates when he turned it in, said Dudley.
“He didn’t like high school,” she said.
The bullying stopped when he went to STEP. He earned a 3.8 grade-point average, 15 college credits and is now a student at ATC, said Dudley.
The instructors helped him discover his strengths, she said.
“We need more schools like this,” said Tirimba. “I’m lucky to live in Champlin (and be able) to come here. The teachers are concerned about how students are doing.”
Teachers make an impact. at STEP. They treat students like adults and get them started thinking about the future, said student Matthew Breiwick.
The classes are smaller, the teachers truly care about the students and she has been able to make friends who share her interest in law enforcement, said Roeder.
“... The students have (such passion) at such a young age for their disciplines, and that ... is something that resonates with me because we read about all the problems in the high schools and here for students above all that,” said John Frey, College of Science and Engineering Technology dean at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
The education system needs to find a way to transform the institution and change the way business is done for the applied learners, according to John Cacich, ATC academic and student affairs vice president.
“... Applied learners are critical for the success of not just our institutions, but our economy,” Cacich said.
“We have a lot of educating to do,” said Blaine High School Principal Norm Hande.
“Seventy percent of the jobs are technical, but at Blaine High School only 13 percent of the students are going to a technical school.”
The program in the high schools has been diminished in part by No Child Left Behind and many students are not taking the classes available or are not aware of the fields, Hande said.
“I think in many ways that we schools are not as focused on some of the career-based (programs) as we should be,” he said.
While it is not an excuse, tight budgets and mandates make it much more difficult to address these issues, Hande said. They also have to “...get... people past the ideas that applied learners are secondary status learners. That’s not true - 100 percent of us are applied learners,” said Frey.
“I don’t know of a medical doctor who isn’t an applied learner.”
(The college system) needs to work diligently to partner and reach out to K-12 school district and figure out how issues can be solved together and work with business and industry, said Dr. Sue Collins, Northeast Higher Education District vice president.
NEW CENTER LINKS UNIVERSITY & COLLEGES WITH INDUSTRY
By Judith Evans, Director of Marketing & Communications
Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence Reprinted from Precision Manufacturing Journal, September/October 2006
“The unique edge that the Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence holds is its strong ties to industry,” explains Dr. Kuma Takamura, the Center’s Executive Director. “Our goals focus on preparing Minnesota’s workforce to perform in a climate of rapidly changing, high-skill technology. We do that in partnership with industry.”
Established in 2005, Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Engineering & Manufacturing is made up of seven institutions: Alexandria Technical College, Anoka Technical College and Hennepin Technical Colleges, Normandale Community College, Northeast Higher Education District, South Central College and Minnesota State University, Mankato which serves as lead university and headquarters for the Center. All are members of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System.
“The Center serves as industry’s ‘first-resource’ in seeking research assistance and worker training opportunities,” says Takamura, a former advisor and engineer in the research and development office for the Susumu Company of Japan, parent company of Thin Film Technologies.
He goes on to explain that conversely “Industry serves as the Center’s ‘first-resource’ in developing programs and curricula that are relevant to industry’s needs.” To do that industry leaders meet quarterly to share expertise in areas such as increasing the engineering pipeline, customized training and emerging trends. These focus areas directly reflect the Center’s agenda to:
- Increase interest in engineering as a career, especially among minorities and females
- Develop engineers and technicians with skills necessary to support advanced manufacturing technologies
- Initiate innovation in the development and use of renewable and recyclable resources
- Help Minnesota industries compete globally
- Assist industry to meet critical needs through customized training
- Promote the use of best practices in engineering and manufacturing education
- Secure student-faculty-industry applied research projects to further advanced technologies
Center educational partners offer industry an impressive battery of resources as well. For example, not only can Minnesota State Mankato offer small- and medium-size businesses efficient, reasonable, rapid prototyping capabilities, but because the equipment supports undergraduate and graduate coursework and research, students receive practical experience working with industry. This collaboration is an important step in developing engineers and technicians with high level skills for tomorrow’s technologies – one of the Center’s key goals.
“The role of an electrical technician is different than it was 10 to 15 years ago,” explains Dennis Siemer, MNCEME industrial advisory board chair, and president and CEO of V-Tek, Incorporated. “It involves more programming and less electrical and mechanical ‘bread-boarding.’ With less physical prototyping and more computer-aided design, it’s a quicker time to market for industry.”
The Center provides opportunities for Minnesota State University, Mankato engineering students to gain real world experience by helping industry identify challenges, proposing solutions for process improvement, and participating in project management.
Because of the vast resources at partner institutions and the expansive network linking these institutions together, Siemer believes the Center gives industry an advantage not only in emerging technology but in long-range recruitment, utilization of resources and workforce education. “The Center can develop methods and systems of delivery in customized training areas that are more cost- effective than what our company can provide.”
Through equipment funding from the Center, Hennepin and Alexandria technical colleges have done just that. Recognized leaders in metal forming and manufacturing training, the two colleges have developed joint robotic machine centers. The two centers are linked by remote monitoring and management capacities developed by Alexandria’s Center for Automation and Motion Control. In addition to the “in-place” centers, portable CAD/CAM and CNC/ROBOT programming stations are available for delivery to customized training partners and area high schools.
Getting today’s students ready for tomorrow’s highly skilled technical jobs is challenging. “It is as much about perception as education,” says Takamura. “A lot of people think manufacturing is a dirty job. We want to change that perception.”
One good way to change this attitude is by giving students opportunities to experience engineering and manufacturing first-hand. Project Lead The Way, a national curriculum designed to stimulate career interest in engineering and manufacturing for middle and high school students, is a key program sponsored through the Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence.
Anoka Technical College’s Secondary Technical Education Program (STEP) is producing impressive results. STEP provides hands-on project-based Project Lead The Way courses along with technical courses that prepare students for everything from aviation electronics to welding technology. Results are impressive. Over 85% of students enrolled in STEP engineering courses continue engineering or engineering technology courses at college levels. STEP classes are small, labs and equipment meet industry standards and students are encouraged to go on to college to prepare them for the high-tech, high-skill workplace.
According to a 2005 Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development report on the manufacturing sector in southeast Minnesota, manufacturing jobs will increase by nearly 9% in the next five to six years, translating to the creation of over 3,700 jobs. Add to that figure current jobs that are opening because Baby Boomers are retiring, and increasing the pipeline of future engineers and technicians becomes a concrete concern. Dennis Siemer agrees. “It’s harder to find knowledgeable workers. They just aren’t being nurtured today.”
The Center believes non-traditional students are one group to nurture. As a high school student, Christine Myers, now a 40 year-old widow raising four children, was interested in shop and drafting classes. She also enjoyed sewing. “No one ever mentioned that I could be part of making the sewing machine,” she laughed.
Even though her grandfather and uncle worked in manufacturing, Myers never really understood what they did until she toured South Central College’s computer integrated machining shop. “Machining was thought of as production work, but to me it was creative – it was the possibility of ‘how’ to make the part.”
Myers graduated in 2006 with High Honors, earning an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in Computer Integrated Machining, membership in Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for two-year colleges, and mention on the national Dean’s List. She was chosen as one of 60 U.S. students to travel to China with the International Scholar Laureate Program Delegation on Technology. Today she works as a laser operator at Pro-Fabrication in Madison Lake, Minn. and has dreams of furthering her education.
Applying two-year college credits to four-year degrees is a focus for the Center. It will work closely with its community and technical colleges to ensure “seamless” transfer opportunities for students who choose to move from two-year institutions to four-year universities like Minnesota State Mankato.
Both Normandale Community College and Itasca Community College, one of five colleges in the Northeast Higher Education District, offer pre-engineering degrees that allow students to transfer to four-year institutions to finish their engineering degrees. Jacob Bird, 2005 MSU - Mankato electrical engineering graduate, made the transition from Normandale to Minnesota State University “with no major struggles.”
Now employed at Goodrich Sensor Systems, an aerospace company, Bird believes students can be encouraged to become engineers and technicians through more interaction with industry. “People think that engineering is too difficult at first. Engineering is breaking things down into smaller pieces and seeing how they work. It’s fun to see the final result.”
“Strong collaboration between industry and the Center will directly impact the vitality of the new Minnesota economy,” says Executive Director Takamura. “By helping prepare more people with knowledge and skill to effectively manage technological advancements and scarce resources, Minnesota firms will be more innovative and productive, better able to compete in the global economy, and better able to adapt to advanced technologies.”
After over 25 years in the business, Dennis Siemer also believes the partnership between industry and the Center will positively impact Minnesota. “Our bottom line is, and always will be, the welfare of our Minnesota citizens.”
PROJECT LEAD THE WAY CONFERENCE BENEFITS MINNESOTA STUDENTS
MANKATO MN, August 18, 2006
"Minnesota has the infrastructure, the network and the collaborative partnerships to become the number one Project Lead the Way state in the nation within the next two years,” says Bob Dorn, Director of University Initiatives for the National Office of Project Lead the Way (PLTW)...
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AUTOMAKERS BEGIN TO CULTIVATE DESIGNING WOMEN
DETROIT FREE PRESS August 14, 2006 - Katie Slater, a soft-spoken, ponytail-sporting 17-year-old, is attracted to fast cars and powerful engines.
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FACTORY SHIFT MANUFACTURES STRUGGLE TO FILL HIGHGLY PAID JOBS
LOS ANGELES TIMES August 14, 2006 — Daniel McGee's parents were apprehensive when their son turned his back on the four-year college degree they always assumed he would earn. They figured a bachelor's degree was the key to success in the modern economy, and their son was on track to earn one, with athletic honors, a 3.0 grade point average at his Minnesota high school and
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ENGINEERING BETTER ENGINEERS
MANKATO FREE PRESS, August 9, 2006 – When it was announced last year, it was all theory and pie-in-the-sky and wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if-we-did-this type rhetoric. Now, however, it’s no longer just theory. At least not in Mankato...
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EDUCATORS PROMOTE SCEINCE & ENGINEERING
KEYC TV MANKATO MN, July 31, 2006 -- With a growing demand for engineers and other high tech manufacturing jobs, teachers are looking for a way to get students interested. News 12's Mitch Keegan shows us how new partnerships are hoping to start students on the on the road to a high tech future.
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PROJECT LEAD THE WAY CONFERENCE HELD AT MSU MANKATO
MANKATO MN, July 26, 2006– the Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence is sponsoring a faculty conference on Monday, July 31, Minnesota State Mankato, intended to familiarize high school, college and university faculties, and administrators with Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a
national not-for-profit organization established to help schools give students the knowledge they need to excel in the high-tech fields of engineering and manufacturing... Read More
CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE STAFF HIRED
Mankato MN,July 21, 2006- the Minnesota Center for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence has appointed three staff members to develop and articulate the mission of the Center for Excellence... Read More
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