FLATE’s
efforts to stimulate interest in STEM and manufacturing-related careers have
culminated in various outreach initiatives. These targeted programs have
impacted middle and high school students, secondary/post-secondary educators as
well as industry professionals throughout Florida, and repositioned their
opinion of manufacturing. As part of these efforts, FLATE has facilitated
several onsite visits for students and educators to tour the engineering technology
lab at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) and get a first-hand view of
technologies used in real-world settings.
Most
recently, FLATE sponsored a day trip and opened its doors for students from
Marion Technical
Institute (MTI) in Ocala to visit its facilities and learn
about the engineering technology program that is currently offered at HCC and
13 other colleges across Florida. “I wanted the students to see what we are
doing in the high school is rigorous and relevant to career and college
preparedness” said Dale Toney, robotics
and automation teacher at MTI. Toney who
was the recipient of the 20134 FLATE secondary educator of the year award said
the tour provided students with a realistic view of STEM related careers and options
available to them once they graduated from high school. Given the
integration of robotics in high-tech operations, students also interacted with
Brandon—a NAO humanoid robot which served as a highlight of their trip.
In
an ongoing bid to encourage minorities and underrepresented students to pursue
STEM based careers, FLATE also partnered with Hillsborough Community College, the
School District of Hillsborough County’s
Career & Technical Education Department
and the Florida High-Tech Corridor (FHTC)—an economic development initiative of
the University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and University
of Florida—to give 27 students enrolled in the aerospace technology program at Robinson
High School (RHS) a tour of the ET lab at HCC. Jeffrey Bindell, Ph.D. who was a
speaker and organizer said the tour was made possible via the techCAMP program,
a subsidiary of FHTC’s techPATH initiative geared to educate/expose students to
technology-related degrees offered at community colleges in Florida. The
initiative has been highly successful, in that, more than 3700 students and
teachers have toured high tech facilities via this program to date, and learned how an interest
in STEM would translate to lucrative opportunities in future.
During
the visit students toured the HCC/FLATE engineering technology lab and learned
about tinkerCAD, a design program that introduced students to 3D modeling and
printing. Students verified the relevance of metrology, tolerances &
specifications while designing their own key-chain with their names in 3-D. “I
knew there were rapid advances in technology, but I did not know how fast it
was growing until I saw this” said Nicole Foy, a senior at RHS. Students also
got a brief overview of the A.S. degree in engineering with special emphasis on
manufacturing. “I did not realize HCC had a robust ET program. It opened my
mind into considering community college as an option” said Foy.
In
addition to hand-on exercises, students also toured the 3D-printing laboratory,
scanning laboratory and
the final products & samples station at EMS
Technologies in Tampa. At the 3D-station laboratory students saw 3D printers in
action, and got a brief explanation of printer set up and how the software
works. At the scanning laboratory students saw different types of 3-D scanner, surface
scanner for larger object, comet scanner for smaller objects and a metro
scanner that could be manually operated. Students also got a demo of how to
scan and 3D model an object. “There are no limits to what you can do with technology
and if there are any limits those are just relegated to your imagination” said
Sean McGlone, a junior at RHS.
Feedback
to the tour was highly positive from teachers too. “The most immediate impact
will be seeing what they learned about CAD/SolidWORKS is being applied and used
in manufacturing settings” said Jeff
Kaloostian, aerospace technology
instructor at RHS who also attended FLATE’s STEM workshop for educators in
2011. Kaloostian says most people envision engineering jobs as someone sitting
on a desk and designing products, and a technician as someone with a wrench in
their hands, but they do not think about the high-skilled, high-paying jobs an
individual can make working as an engineering technology specialist. To that
end, he hopes the tours will inspire and help students to think outside the box
and explore technologies that might stimulate their interest in high-tech
manufacturing and/or STEM.
The “Made in Florida” industry tours are designed to fuel students’ interest in modern manufacturing
careers, and encourage enrollment in technology programs available throughout
Florida. Since the inception of the tours, 4,472 students from 64 middle and
high schools and 533 teachers and parents have toured 87 high-tech
manufacturing sites in Florida. Ninety six percent of over 3,000 surveyed
students since 2005 have agreed the tours were critical in informing about
careers in advanced manufacturing.
To
coordinate a tour of the engineering technology lab at HCC, a MIF tour, or for
information on the statewide ET degree contact Dr. Marilyn Barger executive
director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org,
or visit http://etdegree.org and www.madeinflorida.org. For information
on the engineering program at MTI and aerospace technology program at RHS contact
Dale Toney at Bruce.Toney@marion.k12.fl.us
and Jeff Kaloostian at 813.272.3006 ext 271. For information on FHTC’s techPATH
program contact Jeffrey Bindell, Ph.D. at jeffrey.bindell@ucf.edu.
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