Student Focused, Student Built

Student Focused, Student Built        

   The success of the NSF Advanced Technological Education program has been well documented over the years.  Thousands of STEM students have benefited from the curricula, career pathways, internships, summer camp experiences, and other activities offered by ATE projects and centers, and hundreds of technical programs continue to feel the positive effects of ATE funding.  A smaller number of students work directly with PIs as part of the project staff; they contribute significantly to project success, but also have a unique opportunity to build a body of work that sets them apart from other job seekers after graduation. 

Teri and Kem from Highland Community College

    Two of these students, Teresa Vowell and Kemalie Winter, from Highland Community College in Freeport, Illinois, showcased their work in web design, graphic design and animation, scriptwriting, and display design at this year’s ATE Principal Investigator’s Conference.  According to Project Director Phil Pilcher, Teri and Kem have been an integral part of the project team: “We knew from previous ATE projects that it’s good to have resources that are available year-round. While we rely on faculty as subject matter experts, their activities are concentrated in a two-month period during the summer break, and the full-time college staff is often too overloaded to respond when needed.  Kem and Teri devote some hours to the project every week, which allows for a continuity of effort that produces significant results.”

    These results may be seen at www.WindTechTV.org , the project website designed and maintained by the students. Working under the direction of project PI Jeff Davidson and Co-PI Pilcher, the students developed proposals for the web design, launched a prototype site in March, 2011, and completed the site architecture during the summer of 2011. HCC computer science instructor Jeremy Monigold guided Kem and Teri through the build process.  “They were very eager to complete a large scale project for a real world client, but those opportunities are scarce for students,” said Monigold, who serves as technical advisor to the site.  “WindTechTV let them stretch their skills and add new ones, while learning how to turn the wishes of the project leaders into a reliable working site.” Because the site relies heavily on video and animation, Teri and Kem also confronted the challenges of delivering media from a content delivery network server.

    The students faced a completely different challenge when it came to designing a display for the 2011 PI conference. Pilcher specified that all display materials must fit in a standard suitcase and meet the airline weight limit of 50 pounds.  “We looked at commercial displays, but thought that we could get something cheaper, lighter, and smaller if we did it ourselves,” he said.  “I had seen what Teri and Kem did with WindTechTV.org, and was confident that they could deliver. What they produced is beautiful, functional, and lightweight. People are astonished when I tell them how little it cost, and that it was built by our students.”  

    When asked to describe the experience of working on a funded research project, Teri had these thoughts:  “It was an incredible learning experience!  We used skills acquired in our Dreamweaver, Flash, Web Programming, and Graphic Design classes that were taken as part of the Web Design degree.  I was able to hone my skills to the degree that I am currently teaching Dreamweaver at HCC, and will be teaching Flash Animation next semester. I also feel more confident now about launching my own web design business.” Kem added: “The projects that we worked on in class covered basic concepts, but they seemed abstract until we actually built a working site for a client. The WindTechTV project helped me bridge the gap between concept and real-world expectations. When I started the project, my goal was to build a functional, attractive web site, but I have expanded my goals to include writing, animation, and video production.”

    These students are emblematic of the ATE vision that recognizes students as life-long learners as well as the needs of the modern workplace. Both looked to their local community college for training in a new career after pursuing successful careers in other fields. “We were very fortunate to have students of this caliber enrolled at HCC when we looked for a design team,” said Pilcher, “but without ATE support, their skills could not have been put to use, and they would have had a very different community college experience. I’m sure many students in ATE-supported programs would say the same thing.”