National Science Foundation (NSF) Sponsored Grant-Writing Workshop for Two-Year College Faculty

JUNE 9 – 12, 2019 (Workshop Location: Arlington, VA/D.C.)

Workshop Focus: The emphasis of the workshop is on learning more about the NSF Advanced

Technological Education (ATE) programs, and how to apply for ATE grants most effectively. Participants should come with specific ideas for funding they want to pursue. Activities will include informational presentations; planning and writing sessions with help from mentors who have had extensive experience with and in the NSF; and time to network with colleagues from similar institutions around the country.

When: June 9 – 12, 2019. Participants will be expected to arrive late afternoon on Sunday and the workshop will end by noon on Wednesday. Detailed travel arrangements will be provided after workshop registration.

Eligibility: Teams of two full-time STEM discipline faculty from two-year colleges are preferred. Teams with a faculty member and administrator are also acceptable.

Covered Costs: Travel (up to $500) and accommodation/meal costs will be covered for up to 50 participants (up to 2 per institution).

Stipends and Support: Each participant will be eligible for a $250. stipend (in addition to travel costs) at the completion of the workshop. An extra stipend of $250. will be provided if a proposal is submitted in

2019 or 2020.

Ongoing Support: The mentor who works with you at the workshop will continue throughout the year

to support your efforts to write a complete proposal. This will include creating post-workshop milestones, suggesting resources, and providing feedback.

To register for the workshop, or if you have any questions about activities or arrangements, please contact Dr. Eun-Woo Chang at nsfateworkshop@gmail.com or Dr. Kathleen Alfano at

kathleen.alfano@canyons.edu.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.1820952. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.

Finding America’s Greatest Champion

Terry Iverson, President, and CEO of  Iverson & Co. in Des Plaines, IL which provides sales and service for the machining industry in the greater Chicago region served on FLATE’s National Visiting Committee (NVC) for a number of years and worked with many community college manufacturing programs in and around Chicago.  A number of years, concerned about the lack of young people choosing manufacturing as a career path, Terry Iverson started a nonprofit to address the negative perception of manufacturing.  Information about that movement can be found on its website: ChampionNow! To share his passion with more people, Terry wrote and published a new book late in 2018: “Finding America’s Greatest Champions”.  Today, he is not only running Iverson & Co. but promoting his book and the whole Champion Now movement.  Check out the book! You will find several Floridians featured in the book of best practices, including Dr. Barger, Executive Director, FLATE. 

In the photograph below, you can see Terry at a book signing at the San Marco Bookstore near Jacksonville on Saturday, March 4. Working continuously to raise community awareness about manufacturing. You can learn more about Champion Now and order a book here: https://championnow.org/book/  (paperbacks are also available at Amazon.com.)

Congratulations to Atlantic Tech Machining Seniors!

The seniors in the Atlantic Technical College's Machining Technology program all passed the NIMS certification assessments for NIMS Measurement, NMS Material, & Safety Cert, NIMS CNC Mill Cert, and Solidworks. Congratulations to the soon-to-be graduates!

FLATE’s Upcoming Spring 2019 Professional Development Events

Here at FLATE, we have many Professional Development events and workshops that we carry on all throughout the year and this spring we are excited to announce our three new PD opportunities.

Our first workshop this spring is the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council Certified Production Technician (MSSC-CPT) credential. This workshop is designed for Florida educators interested in manufacturing education. Last year, a packed agenda was centered around the updated standards from the MSSC Panel of Experts for the CPT as well as a new hands-on tool to support MSSC student learning, “Skills Boss”. The integrated small trainer was designed to provide hands-on activities that support the MSSC workplace standards. The Skills Boss will be especially helpful for those who have little or no experience in the manufacturing workplace, including high school students. Neil Reddy, MSSC CEO, will be at the workshop to address the educators and answer any MSSC questions. Also, a panel of educators and industry representatives who have been using the MSSC CPT will discuss how they have integrated the CPT into their program of study and into their work environments and culture. 

The second opportunity, FANUC Certified Education Robot Training Cart (CERT) is a hands-on learning course that will get you up to speed with your FANUC CERT system by providing training with an actual robot that uses the same Roboguide programming software and curriculum you will be using in your classroom. Join us for this free 4.5-day training at the Central Florida College, Ocala that will get you up to speed on basic robotics programming and prepare you for the FANUC certification.  

Click here to register!

Our third opportunity is to attend STEM – CTE educator workshops in which the attendees will be enriched with knowledge and relevant tools for STEM educators interested and pursuing additional growth in their classes. These workshops are led by one of our very best in the Hillsborough County Schools, Libby Simpson. For more information, download the flyer on FLATE's Wiki Professional Development page.  There are 2 2-day sessions May 9-10 (Robotics and 3D Printing) and May 16-17 (Integrated Technology Projects) at HCC Brandon. 

Professional development opportunities are always posted on our FLATE wiki site.  You can always check there for additional updates by clicking on the Professional development icon as well as explore any previous workshops and PD events offered by FLATE and its partners.  Speaking of partners, we cannot do all of this alone and want to thank the many organizations that support these efforts in many ways from providing travel stipends (FACTE), meals (MSSC, Jaeger Education and others); Central Florida College (CCF) and Hillsborough Community College for hosting the events on their campuses and providing supporting infrastructure; and the Hillsborough School District, CCF, HCC, FANUC, Jaeger Education and Amatrol for providing an instructors and subject matter experts.

We continue to look forward to being a part of the growth of many Florida educators at these 2019 spring events!  For more information, please visit the FLATE wiki or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at (barger@fl-ate.org).  See you there!