ET Summer Institute Focuses on Building Florida’s Manufacturing Career Pathways

FLATE and the National Science Foundation recognize the importance of providing professional

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.

FLATE has created the following link that contains presentations and resources developed during FLATE'sE.T. Summer Institute III. Material posted includes Automation and Production Technology (APT) that is aligned to the MSSC  -CPT credential summary report of activities I & II,  links to the the MSSC website FLDOE Curriculum Frameworks for this program, wisc-online, & other resources, MSSC test review resources from Bruce (Dale) Toney (Marion Technical Institute), all workshop presentations including audio recordings.

Following the conference, 100% of 28 survey responders agreed they have a better understanding of how

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.