spring 2007 consultant’s comments...booth 15&16: technology education concepts, inc...
TRANSCRIPT
Gregory C. Kane, State Consultant for Technology Education and Engineering
At this time it looks like that by the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year all Con-necticut school districts will have access to the Engineer-ing by Design (EBD) curricu-lum and assessments devel-oped through the CATTS Con-sortium of the International Technology Education Asso-ciation (ITEA). These curricu-lum materials designed for grades K-12 will help Con-necticut districts continue to align their curriculum to the national and state standards for technological literacy. The EBD curriculum will comple-ment curriculum in schools that have begun moving in toward offering courses in the STEM areas as well as school already offering Project Lead the Way. At this time, tenta-tive statewide professional development related to the EBD curriculum is being planned and districts will be
encouraged to use Carl Per-kins funds for this purpose.
For the past few weeks, TSA Associate State Advisor, Harry Baker, the CT-TSA State Officers and TSA Advi-sors have been meeting to discuss the total redesign of CT-TSA. While everyone agrees there is an important place for TSA in all technol-ogy education programs, it has become obvious the TSA delivery model used for the past 27 years is in need of redesign. As one step toward this new design, an agree-ment has been made between the Connecticut Technology Students Association and the sponsors of the Connecticut Innovations Expo to hold the 2008 CT-TSA Conference at the NEW Hartford Convention Center on May 9, 2008. Along with TSA we are also discuss-ing holding a competition for PLTW students on Saturday May 10th. Over the next few
months, much more about the
Greg Kane, State Consultant for Technology & Engineering Education
Connecticut Technology Education Association
Help your students
Well, the end of the year is upon us once again. One of the great things about teach-ing is that every August/September, we get to start fresh again. This summer while you are getting yourself refreshed and starting to
think about next year, start thinking about getting just a little more involved in the many activities that are avail-able to you and your technol-ogy education students.
I know that many of you are already involved in many activities and I commend you
for that, but there are also many who could get in-volved more than what they are now. Some of the ways to get more involved are: start a TSA Chapter, start a LEGO team, a robotics team, whether it is a FIRST team, Vex, or a BEST team.
Consultant’s Comments
President’s Notes
CTEA Trendsetter - cteaweb.org
The Official Newsletter of the Connecticut Technology Education Association
Special Recognition 2
Program of the Year 3
Conference Pictures 4
Teacher of the Year 5
Remaking TSA 5
Student Fuel Cell Car 6
CTELC 8
Baker Awardee 8
Inside this issue:
Special points of in-terest:
• Conference Pictures
• Awards Given
• Supporting Advertisers
• School Articles
Paul Hoffman, CTEA President
Go to page 8
Do you remember when:
Sanford Rich was President of the Connecticut Industrial Arts Association?
In what year did Central gradu-ate 87 new Industrial arts teachers?
Answers are buried within the newsletter! Happy Hunting!
2008 will be our 75th year
as an
association!
Spring 2007
Published three times a year, Fall, Winter and Spring
Special Recognition
Laura is a Technology Education major in her junior year at CCSU. A graduate of Nathan Hale Ray High School in East Haddam she is the President of the CCSU Electrathon Club, Treasurer of the CCSU TECA Club, and member of the CCSU Human-Powered Vehicle Team and the Manager of the CCSU Women’s volleyball team Laura has interest in and technical expertise in composite and Carbon fiber materials and fabrication. A three time member of the Deans list, the CCSU staff noted that she has excelled in presenting lessons to high school and elementary school students.
CTEA Scholarship goes to Laura Baker pictured above receiving her award
C T E A T r e n d s e t t e r - c t e a w e b . o r g P a g e 2
NEW CT-TSA will be unveiled. If you are not currently making TSA avail-able to your students and want to become part of the NEW CT-TSA, con-tact Harry Baker at [email protected].
In this time of electronic communications, it has never been more im-portant to stay in touch at the state, national and local level. Over the past few years, more and more teachers have subscribed to the Con-necticut Technology Education Listserv. This listserv is the primary elec-tronic means by which I communicate with Connecticut technology edu-cation community. If you do not subscribe to the listserv, please contact me for directions on how to sign on. I may be reached at [email protected]
Have a SAFE, and RESTFULL Summer.
Consultant’s Corner Continued from page one
Join ITEA!
One benefit is the option of joining the Idea Garden
Teacher of the Year Middle School
Maggie Kaiser teaches at Sedgwick Middle School in West Hartford and has also been a recipient of a Middle School Program of the Year award.
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Teacher of the Year—High School
LEE STRECKER, Darien HS
Technology Education is a second career for Maggie. She holds a bachelor degree in Biological Sci-ence, and worked for 9 years at Bec-ton-Dickenson & CO. (medical device manufacturer) in New Jersey.
While tutoring at a middle school, she was introduced to Tech Ed and found a new career path. In 1999 she completed the Post-Baccalaureate Tech Ed teaching cer-tification program at CCSU. Since then she has been teaching the 6th grade Exploring Technology at Sedg-wick Middle School in West Hartford, the last 5 years as part of an all fe-male Tech Ed department. In that time, she has worked on evaluating and updating curriculum and intro-duced new activities to support the curriculum, including integrating handheld computers into the Con-struction design unit. She also has been active in district and depart-ment professional development as a
Lee has worked in the Darien School System for the past 32 years. During much of that time he has served as Department Coordina-tor for the technology education program. He is currently teaching the DHS Fuel Cell Project for which has received international recogni-tion by the Technical foundation of America which included the project in their Promising Practices publication.
In 2006, Lee received the American Star of Teaching Award. This na-tional recognition is given to only one outstanding teacher per state. As a result of this recognition, he was chosen to represent technology education at a United States Office of Education roundtable discussion with Secretary of Education, Marga-ret Spellings. As a result of the Darien fuel cell project, this year Darien High School was selected to host the National Toyota Hybrid Road show, once again bringing recognition to his students and technology education program.
Lee has been married for 31 years and has two daughters. Lee is very pleased that multitudes of former students that stay in contact from all over the world. These former students are designing airplanes, engineering buildings, designing automobiles, and the thousand of other things that keep this world running.
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Young Crowd this year! Great to see new attendees!
Quite a fine group of Technology Educators! Were you among them?
Charlie Stango joins the Registration Team!
Welcome Back!
Dr. Pat Foster member of the conference committee
Jerry Stevens Conference Chair
High School Teacher of the Year could not make the conference so he sent his students to pick up his award
Dean Kremens sharing the vision of the School of Technology and highlighting Technology and Engineering Education.
2007 Spring Conference Highlights
activities that will help them grow and succeed in the future. At a re-cent meeting of TSA advisors the first steps In the process of “overhauling” TSA were taken.
An early start on planning for next year will begin soon and I encourage all of you to step up and be part of the new TSA. Now is the time your input is needed so the direction taken will meet the needs of you, your district and most of all your students. A number of surveys will be sent out soon and I’m
asking that each of you please take the time to respond. The major-ity of my communi-
cations are being done through the CTEA List-Serve and my TSA Advisor email list. If you are not already on one of these lists please let me know and we’ll help get you signed up. If you are interested in learning more about the TSA and would like to be part of the restructuring effort please feel free contact me. Harrison Baker Associate State Advisor CT-TSA [email protected]
CT TSA experienced a number of set backs this year, including a decline in the number of chapters and stu-dents being in-volved. A weak response to planned activities including a CAD competition and the annual Conference forced both to be cancelled. This is a trend I hope to see reverse over the months ahead. The reasons for this decline are not clear and are not unique to Connecticut. Perhaps it is because there are numer-ous other technology related activities competing for a limited amount of time. Maybe it’s because districts lack the funding necessary to be involved. Communications seems to be part of the issue coupled with fewer Technol-ogy Education teachers wanting to get involved. What ever the reason(s) may be, it’s time changes are made in order to provide students with the type of
At a recent meeting of TSA advisors
the first steps In the process of
“overhauling” TSA were taken.
Technology Student Association
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Sanford Rich was President of CIAA in 1971-73
patronize them as you are able. We have listed them here for your convenience.
Booth 1&2: KELVIN [email protected] Booth 3: EMC Publishing/Paradigm Publishing/Symtalk [email protected] Booth 4: Downes&Reader Hardwood Co DownesandReader.com Booth 5: Midwest Technology Products [email protected] Booth 6: Glencoe / McGraw-Hill [email protected] Booth 7: CCSU Booth 8: GEARS Educational Systems, LLC [email protected] BOOTH 9: LightSPEED Technologies, Inc [email protected]
Everett Condit recognized for his contributions to CTEA
Special Recognition
Commercial Exhibitors at the Conference
We have great appreciation for the commercial exhibitors that support us by purchasing a booth at the conference. Please
Booth 15&16: Technology Education Concepts, Inc [email protected] Booth 17: Thompson Learning/South-Western/Carse Technology/Delmar Learning [email protected] Booth 19: Modern School Supplies [email protected] Booth 20&21: Technical Education Solutions, LLC [email protected] Booth 22: TSA Booth 23: Goodheart-Willcox Publisher [email protected] There were 15 paid booths this year. We thank you, exhibitors, for supporting us. Without you this conference would not be successful!
Lee shares with fellow educators that he has found once the teacher be-comes part of the learning team more learning occurs in the classroom. This is the basis for the independent learn-ing philosophy that he embraces in the classroom. Every student is empow-ered and is responsible to bring to the class what they have learned and to use that information in an appropriate way.
HS Teacher of the Year—Continued
Four years of research and hard work has become a widely recognized high school project in the United States. Here at Darien High School, the Systems of Technology 2 class has adopted the project of building a hydrogen fuel cell car. The class has deemed itself, the Darien Fuel Cell Project. What makes this project so unique is not only the concept of high school students using technology that won’t be available for them to use publicly for another fifteen years, but also that the class is run by the students themselves. Very few classes rely on the creativity and motivation of the students to guide how the class operates. For most schools, engineering revolves around using a text book and being lectured by a teacher who deciphers what is right from wrong. Not only was the idea using hydrogen fuel cells thought of by previous Darien High School students who wanted to be challenged, but all of the goals and decisions for the project are student driven.
This doesn’t mean that the teacher hasn’t made important contributions to the project. Lee Strecker, who was awarded “American Star of Teaching Award” on September 22, 2006, only acts as a facilitator, but he is one of the biggest factors in guiding the students to be successful. He is responsible for class room setup and other essentials such as attendance and organization of the stu-dents. He also teaches the students about many life skills that are necessary for a project to be successful, such as communication between the students on their goals and achievements. He also gathers the group of students together to talk to them about the current news in the engineering world. But as soon as the class breaks off into individual student groups, the students are in charge.
At the beginning of the school year, the students meet to decide the areas of the class in which they wish to work. Such areas include electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and body design. There are two positions in the class that take on a large portion of the responsibility of the project. These positions are the Head Engi-neer and the Business Manager. Both of the students must be elected by the other students and the teacher must approve. This is because these two positions are not only responsible for their goals, but the goals of the entire class. The Head Engineer is responsible for approving the decisions made by the mechanical and electrical engineers as well as body design. The business manager is respon-sible for all of the financial aspects of the project, including ordering parts, arranging presentations and finding grants to fund the pro-ject. Each of these positions must also take on various other tasks as the year progresses.
This unique classroom setup has turned out incredible results. Since the project started in 2002, three vehicle phases have been accomplished. The first phase was a fuel cell powering a DC motor on a heavy go-kart frame. This phase was sufficient for testing the fuel cell and understanding how it works. The project quickly shifted to the second phase, where a lighter aluminum frame was created. The aluminum frame also yields a three wheeled design, which dramatically reduces weight and increases speed. The phase three car had the same frame as phase two, but then added a hybrid system of Lithium-Ion batteries. This sys-tem allowed for a much more efficient car and better performance.
The class is currently working on the phase three car. The frame has been modified and lowered for more stability and higher speeds. Mechanical engineers are working on obtaining new brakes and a new rear drive assembly. New hydraulic disk brakes will be more reliable and allow the driver to safely reach high speeds with more control and be able to break around turns. A new rear wheel assembly will be much more stable than the previous assembly. The body design team is currently designing a model for our car in order to eventually work on a full body carbon fiber shell, which will lower air resistance during testing.
This is a unique and ideal technology education class. In the arti-cle The Undeniable link between engineering and Technology Edu-cation1 the writer Harry T. Roman talks about the following skills that are needed to be an engineer: Analyze information; Convert information into knowledge; Sell new ideas to management; Com-municate concepts clearly; Be a team player. All of these skills are implemented and needed in this project. This class doesn’t teach students how to be engineers, it creates them. The Darien High School fuel cell project could be considered that undeniable link between engineering and technology education. Written by Niels Geneste is currently in charge of Public relations for the Darien Fuel Cell Project. He is a senior going to college in Europe next year and is also captain of the Darien Basketball Team. And Jesse Safran is the Business Manager for the Darien Fuel Cell Project. He is a Junior and will continue to work on the project for the 2007-2008 school year.
1 Roman, Harry T. "The Undeniable Link between Engineering and Technology Education." Techdirections Nov. 2006: 16-19.
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Fuel Cell Car Driven by Student Success
presenter, facilitator and partici-pant.
In her classes students learn about all aspects of technology. They learn to apply skills and knowledge from science, math and language classes through technological chal-lenges. They work cooperatively to develop ideas through design proc-esses, select and use tools and ma-terials to fabricate those designs, test them, and evaluate their re-sults. Students use desktop and handheld computers effectively to gather and process data, and com-municate their processes, products and results to others.
In 2002 she established a TSA chapter at Sedgwick. Her chapter has attended state conferences since 2002, and their first national conference in 2005. This year they will attend the national conference with 8 students and 4 parents.
Maggie also has been a co-instructor for the ARC Technology Education program since the 2002-2003 school year.
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MS Teacher of the Year Continued from page three
Scott holds a physical education degree from Southern Connecticut State University and a degree in Technol-ogy Education from Cen-tral Connecticut State University. He also has been involved in post-graduate work at Trinity College of Vermont.
He began his teaching career in Regional School District #16, in Prospect, where he received the “Outstanding Middle School” award in the American Industrial Arts Student Association, AI-ASA (now referred to as the Technology Student Association, TSA) state competition. He then moved to Wilby High School in Waterbury and is currently at the Waterbury Arts Magnet School.
Summers, Scott has taught and served as assistant director of the Taft Educational Center at the Taft School in Watertown. While at Taft he designed and presented week-long classes for experienced teach-ers interested in learning the basics of video production, and PageMaker, a graphic design software package. Scott also presented a day long program in the Wilby High School television studio to CCSU Enhancement Center participants,
highlighting the successful video produc-tion program. Because of his success and involvement with video production he was asked to present to Connecticut teachers at the Fox 61 Student News seminar
where he talk about his students’ suc-cesses with Fox 61 Student News.
Along with his recognition as the 2007 Waterbury teacher of the Year and a Semi-
Waterbury Teacher of the Year Scott Serafine, makes the final interview stage of the CT Teacher of the Year and is hon-ored for his contributions to CTEA and Technology Education.
The organization is open to all Con-necticut Technology Education teachers for an annual membership fee of $7.00. For the $7.00 each member receives a notice of the up coming meetings, a postage paid RSVP card and a engraved CTELC name badge. All members are also invited to an annual luncheon meeting in late June were ideas for future sites to visit are rec-ommended and discussed.
Connecticut Leadership Council Completes Another Successful Year
During the 2006-07 school year the Connecticut Technology Education Leadership council (CTELC) organized exciting and educational programs for members. This years CTELC Leadership site visits included the US Coast Guard Station New Haven, Derecktor Ship Yard in Bridgeport, Durham Manufac-turing, The Waterbury Arts Magnet School and the Bristol Fire Department. Each of these visits included a tour of the facility and an overview of what the organization/school/business as well as a dinner and a short update business meeting.
The CTELC is one, of if not the oldest, professional organizations for technol-ogy education teachers in the United States. CTELC members have always noted that along with learning about the sites visited, the time spent with fellow TE teachers is always a highlight of each meeting.
If you are not a current member of the CTELC and interested in joining, con-tact membership chairperson Ted Werner at [email protected] .
Greg Kane CTELC Chairperson
executive board to help run “our” or-ganization.
As you can see, there are many different ways that you can get in-volved with tech-nology education outside of your classroom. If you
You can also plan to attend one or more of the many Leadership Council meetings and see what happens in the real world. Plan to attend a Fall Con-ference, Spring Conference, or even the ITEA conference. Help out or par-ticipate in the Junior Solar Sprint com-petition, you can also help out with the TSA competition or even the LEGO competition. You may even want to help out CTEA in some form whether you help plan something or get on the
choose to do one or more of these activities, you will be amazed at what you will learn and how it will help you change your classroom.
Have a great summer.
Paul
CTELC Connect icut Technology Educat ion Leadership Counci l
President’s Notes from page 1
Greg Kane at the conference at CCSU
His efforts were rewarded when he represented Connecticut as Connecti-cut’s Teacher of the Year at the ITEA Conference in 1998 and again in 2001 for program of the year. The hard work and enthu-siasm he exhibited in Naugatuck was again revealed as he became the CTEA’s Spring Confer-ence Chairperson, as president elect and again as President. Congratula-tions Paul!
A number of years ago the CTEA honored me for my work as president of the CTEA and created the “Harrison Baker” award. Each year since then the award has been presented to a member of CTEA who has put forth that extra effort on behalf of the organization. I was excited to hear that this year’s recipient was Paul Hoffman. I have known Paul for quite a few years. Going back to my years in Naugatuck as their Applied Education Coordinator, I first met Paul on a visit to the Middle school. As we transitioned from Industrial Arts to Technology Education in Naugatuck, Paul was always excited and willing to do whatever was needed to make it happen.
Harrison Baker Award
C T E A T r e n d s e t t e r - c t e a w e b . o r g P a g e 8
finalist for the 2007 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Scott has been recognized by the New England Cable Association for outstanding service to the community. In coordination with Tele-Media, the local cable company, and BET, Black Entertain-ment Television, Scott’s students pre-sented a student forum on teen issues. Students produced and directed this live show to an audience of 6,000 people. As part of the Fox 61 Student News Awards the participating students received three major awards. Fox Kids News: the “Be There First Award” sponsored by United Technologies, “Reporter of the Year” and Second Place in the open competition.
Waterbury Teacher Recognized—Continued from page seven
PURPOSES OF THE ASSOCIATION SECTION I. The general purposes of The Association are: To research, define, stimulate, coordinate and strive
for the ideal form of Technology Education for all students on all levels, elementary, secondary and adult, for the inherent welfare of the students, the local communities, the geographic regions and the State.
To promote, i.e., identify and enhance, the improve-ment of the quality and content of instruction in Technology Education via assistance to educators, students and all others concerned in assuring in-structional contents, methods, and facilities to be current with the literal growth explosions of the technological-industrial complex.
To assist and promote in the development of local in-volvement and support, formal or informal, repre-sentative of geographic Connecticut.
To promote, encourage and be actively affiliated with the New England Association of technology Teach-ers (NEATT), the International Technology Educa-tion Association (ITEA), and The American Voca-tional Association (AVA).
To encourage and support the valid constitutional goals of the Connecticut Technology Student Asso-ciation (CT-TSA).
Connecticut Technology Education Association Paul Hoffman, President 88 Davis Street Watertown, CT 00000
Hollow School; Student = Tom Massar; Teacher = Jerry Stevens
Best in Show – Weaver High School; Students = Francesco Blockman, Jon
Once again we had a very successful showing at our CTEA Spring Confer-ence Student Expo. There were 70 student projects exhibited and 5 cur-rent Technology Education teachers did the judging. The projects ran the gambit from Woodworking to CO2 Racers to Underwater Video Cam-eras.
Students from area high schools started to arrive Tuesday after-noon to drop off projects and by the end of Wednesday mornings drop off time we had a nice amount to display.
The major award winners this year were:
Best in Area – High School = Man-chester High School; Student = Michael Boyle; Teacher = Mr. Bergeron
Best in Area – Middle School = Jockey
Okoye, Shayona Wright, Kahlea Jo-seph, Rich Lawrence; Teacher = Craig Clark
I would like to thank those of you who took the time to enter your students’ projects. I would like to encourage the rest of you to seri-ously consider joining your colleagues in cele-brating our students’ creations and submit projects next year.
Enjoy the last few days of the school year.
Have a restful summer.
Jerry Stevens
Conference Chair
CTEA Spring Conference Student Expo
Phone: (860) 274-0593 E-mail: [email protected]
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Best in Show – Weaver High School
Connecticut Technology Education Association
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Would you believe 87 graduates in one year! That was the case in 1975! Central was still a college at the time.