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   Summer Challenge for

             Educators

   "Engineering Challenge for

      21st Century Skills"

July 11-15, 2010

 Back by demand from last year's successful program, educators from across the country spent a week at the United States Coast Guard Academy as part of the "Engineering Challenge for 21st Century Skills" Teacher Workshop, July 11-15, 2010.   (click here for photos and more information.)

Educators Learn Through Workplace Experiences

2010 Teacher Externship Program Brings Teachers into Industry

(see more photos)

Norwich Tech pre-electrical engineering teacher Ernie Todd adjusts a component to an audio-visual system used in AV network services created by Telaid.  He is participating in a four-week externship at the company that sets up teleconferencing systems nationwide to such clients as Walmart, Bank of America and Burger King.

 

What is an Externship?

The Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM) is dedicated to helping educators prepare the workforce of the future by not only giving them relevant and current curriculum programs, but by giving them exposure to industry practices that they might not otherwise have.

(Click here for information on the 2010 class of teacher externs.)

The Center has developed a teacher externship program that brings both high school, technical high school and community college faculty into the workplace for four-weeks in the summer. Following their externship experience, teachers develop a work-based learning project for their students.

Preparing the next generation of workers to meet the expectations of a highly technological workforce can be a challenge to educators. Often, the demands of teaching within a set curriculum prevent educators from broadening their students' knowledge of workplace requirements because they, themselves, are unfamiliar with those expectations. By exposing educators to business environments - whether it be through teacher externships, company visits, visiting lecturers, or collaborative work-based projects in the classroom - educators are given the opportunity to infuse some excitement into their classes. Educators who participate in these kinds of professional development programs have an opportunity to not only engage their students in more active learning experiences, but to become part of those experiences themselves.

For more information about these programs, contact Mary deManbey, Program Manager, CBIA, (860)-244-1900, email Mary.demanbey@cbia.com

 

 


The Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education program. Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.