Robotics Technician Training Program

Throughout 2009, SC ATE collaborated with the US Department of Defense-funded National Robotics Training Center (NRTC) to develop a robotics technician training program. The SC ATE team assisted NRTC by identifying Subject Matter Experts from across the ATE technician education community who traveled to the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SIMT) to participate in the curriculum development process. The curriculum design is based on the SC ATE Center model of project-based learning that emphasizes hands-on, just-in-time learning, integrates content across disciplines, and requires teamwork. During the fall 2009 semester, the curriculum was pilot-tested with a class of FDTC ATE engineering technology (ET) students. SC ATE Director, Elaine Craft, assisted with the evaluation for the project. Picture attached.

Instructional Leadership Institute

All 5 SC ATE curriculum implementation partners and two “exploratory” partners sent faculty teams or representatives to an Instructional Leadership Institute, held at the Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock, NC, April 1-3, 2009 [White County High School (Cleveland, GA), Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (Asheville, NC), Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (Boston, MA), Wayne Community College (Goldsboro, NC), South Florence High School (Florence, SC), Denmark Technical College (Denmark, SC), and Harford Community College, (Bel Air, MD)]. The theme of the workshop was “Teamwork Works” which focused on a critical success factor for implementation of the interdisciplinary, project-based SC ATE curriculum: effective use of teamwork in the classroom and among faculty who teach the curriculum.

SCATE Intro

The South Carolina Advanced Technological Education (SC ATE) National Resource Center for Engineering Technology (ET) Education serves as a central resource for the two-year college ET community. The SC ATE National Resource Center provides this "one-stop shopping" web site for accessing best practices and exemplary materials for recruiting and retaining students, as well as for teaching engineering technology. In addition, SC ATE provides resources for potential and current ET students and for businesses and industries who hire associate degree ET graduates.

An integrated, problem-based curriculum, collaborative teaching strategies and extensive active learning techniques-together with faculty and student teams-form the cornerstone of the Center's successful strategy. These tools are a nationally-acclaimed model for recruiting, retaining, and graduating more students in engineering technology programs.

The Center is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Florence-Darlington Technical College (Florence, SC).