Articulated Technological Education Pathways (ATEP) Project

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ATEP has been funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, Award Number DUE #1104253

Michael Hacker, co-director
Center for STEM Research
and Principal Investigator
Phone: 518-724-6437
Email
Award Abstract #1104253
Articulated Technological Education Pathways (ATEP)
NSF Org: DUE: Division of Undergraduate Education 
NSF Program Manager: Gerhard L. Salinger

PROJECT ABSTRACT

ATEP MISSION, VISION, AND GOALS

The mission of the ATEP Project is to develop and research a high-quality innovative program model addressing the need to inspire high school students to pursue promising technical careers in the three ATEP Project domains. Through the efforts of the ATEP collaborative, the Project will:

Produce, field test, evaluate, revise, and commercially publish three yearlong hybrid ATE courses for grades 11-12 students that promote career exploration, are linked to skill and academic standards, and serve as an instructional bridge to CC ATE programs.

Augment HS students’ opportunities to learn significant STEM and technical content knowledge, and workforce/21st-century skills (e.g., skills in computers and technology, critical thinking / problem solving, media literacy, communication, and creativity), as well as their ability to choose personally appropriate career pathways in Project-related STEM fields.

Conduct research into how effectively the ATEP hybrid program (1) supports student learning of important concepts and workforce skills, (2) is more engaging than learning through traditional curriculum, (3) becomes a pathway through which interest in technical careers can be stimulated, and (4) serves as a means through which the pursuit of further STEM education can be inspired.

Develop published teacher support and professional development materials to scaffold teachers’ ability to implement the ATEP curriculum; produce an administrator’s guide describing the curriculum content and pedagogy; and create a parent guide to introduce parents to the promising technical career pathways advanced by the Project.

Evaluate, publish, and disseminate models, methods, products, materials, and results.

ATEP Contact List

Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT)

ATEP has convened a Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) that will serve to reflect an industrial perspective relative to the materials under development. The BILT members include:

During the January 20, 2012 BILT meeting, several presentations were given. The PowerPoint slides for these presentations follow:

1. Overview of ATEP: Michael Hacker, Project Principal Investigator
2. Information and Communication Technology in the Social and Global Context: Gordon Snyder,  Director, National ICT Center, Springfield MA
3. Bioscience and Chemical Technology Trends in the Social and Global Context:
   Brian Shmaefsky (Lone STAR Clg, TX) and Sulatha Dwarakanath (Austin Community College, TX)
4. Transforming Learning, Transforming Lives
5. Materials and Manufacturing Technology in the Social and Global Context: Karen Wosczyna-Birch,
   Director, Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (CT).

Meeting Agenda
Meeting Minutes

BILT Members Contact Information

ANTICIPATED PRODUCTS

The Project deliverables will comprise a commercially published hybrid text-based and cyberlearning ATE HS instructional system that includes:

• Three yearlong grades 11-12 courses with gender-equitable content in biochemical, manufacturing, and ICT configured as ten-week instructional modules that can be flexibly implemented as marking period, semester, or full-year programs for HS engineering, technology, and CTE students;
• A Project Web site and online learning management system (LMS) that is based on open-source tools and meets universal accessibility standards;
• Browser-based simulations, animations, videos, practical activities, and formative and summative assessments;
• Online controlled-access social interaction tools such as blogs, forums, and wikis;
• Support materials and a program overview for teachers, parents, and program administrators;
• Articulation agreements. The ATE Center directors/co-PIs have acknowledged the need for the development of articulation agreements and will set a precedent by facilitating arrangements between their partner CCs and neighboring high schools. These agreements would build on established agreements to enable HS students to receive one unit of CC credit for each ATEP unit of study.
• Research Park initiative that contexualizes learning within an interactive design based simulation within embedded assessments.
  • video
  • slides

RESEARCH DESIGN AND EVALUATION

The Center for Advanced Study in Education (CASE) of the City University of New York will undertake process and outcome evaluation of ATEP. CASE was integrally involved in the development of the ATEP proposal, helping to make linkages between Project activities and expected outcomes. ATEP will benefit from a strong working relationship between Hofstra and CASE on numerous NSF projects. The evaluation and research team will work closely with Project management to ensure that all assessments and multimedia learning tools are relevant and appropriate, and that the evaluation findings are shared in timely and meaningful ways. Research and external evaluation (formative and summative) will be conducted by Dr. Deborah Hecht at CASE. ATEP evaluation and research will examine questions about the content and format of the modules, how the modules are used, dissemination activities, and student impact.

Formative evaluation will assess and optimize progress on key activities focusing on development and use of ATEP. Examples of formative evaluation questions related to module development are: How well does ATEP connect high school (HS) curriculum materials with community college (CC) ATE programs in the three technological domains? How well is the ATEP hybrid text and Web-based cyber-learning system aligned with national standards? What are the key and essential features of ATEP and how relevant, aligned, essential and comprehensive are the textual content, animations, simulations, and practical applications?

Examples of formative evaluation questions related to ATEP module use are:What are the optimal structure, format, and content of ATEP professional development for teachers? How do teachers and students use ATEP materials in classes? Do students and teachers believe that the content and key elements of ATEP are engaging, doable, and easily institutionalized? Is there evidence that the ATEP model is transferable to other content areas? How effective is ATEP at disseminating the curriculum and materials? 

The procedures used to develop and refine the hybrid model; to identify, select, and enhance the text, online browser-based simulations, animations, videos, and practical activities; connect text and multimedia materials; and create module-specific assessments will be documented and reviewed using expert reviews. Periodic surveys and interviews with the development team, along with reviews of tasks completed and materials developed, will be conducted to determine whether team progress and outcomes are in alignment with the Project work plan, timeline, and goals. 

As components of the hybrid curriculum are identified or created (e.g., simulations, videos), they will be reviewed by relevant educational and industry experts and recommendations made for any changes. The evaluation team will assist developers in creating embedded assessments. As the modules are created (modules A & B – summer and fall of Year I; modules C & D – summer and fall of Year II), they will be reviewed by Project staff (including members of other module teams), teachers, students, content specialists, and industrial partners to help ensure the materials are clear, coherent, relevant, factual, and essential and that all components are aligned. 

The modules will then be pilot tested with students from the classes of the teacher-developers to ensure they are doable and understandable; to examine how the curriculum is used; and to further guide development and revisions of the teacher instructional tools.

All dissemination activities will be documented using an online data management system and posted on the Project Moodle. Feedback from dissemination activities (e.g., feedback surveys from workshops) along with reviews by experts will help assess whether the model is transferable. 

Summative evaluation and research activities will focus on the study of ATEP classrooms (students and teachers). Summative evaluation and research questions are: 1) To what degree does the ATEP hybrid model, and what components of it, lead to deeper student understanding of content, positive attitudes, enhanced self-efficacy, and interest in and awareness of technical STEM education and careers? 2) How have students’ interests in careers in the three ATEP domains been stimulated through Project involvement? 3) In what way does the curricular treatment of manufacturing, biotechnology, and ICT affect student engagement and promote interest in further study in those domains? 4) Is there a differential use and impact of ATEP in terms of school, type of student (e.g., gender), teacher experience, and type multimedia introduced? 5) What are the characteristics of schools where ATEP is most easily implemented?

Expert reviews and pilot testing will provide initial data about ATEP’s impact. These will also provide opportunities to refine assessment tools to evaluate the accomplishment of Project goals. Using the assessment tools developed and refined during the pilot testing, pre-post surveys given before and after participating in ATEP field testing (Year III) will be collected from students and teachers to assess each of the key Project goals. Student surveys will examine understanding of ATEP content, interest in and awareness of technical careers, interest in STEM careers, and relevant self-efficacy. Teacher surveys will examine interest and self-efficacy in using ATEP materials and attitudes toward the program.

Demographic and background data will be collected to characterize the participating schools, types of students, gender, and teacher experience. Using statistical techniques such as multivariate analysis of covariance and discriminant analysis, the differential impact related to these and other curriculum variables (e.g., curriculum topic, number of simulations) will be examined. The relationship between teacher ratings of curriculum effectiveness and various demographic variables will be explored. Results will inform the development of text- and Web-based materials and contribute new knowledge related to the use of the Project’s hybridmodel as a transformative educational methodology. In particular, differences across the three technology domains will be examined within the context of the structure and format of the curriculum.

Resources

Annual Report

Here is a link to the NSF Annual Report Template.  Project participants are asked to fill in and submit this form by May 15 of each Project Year to Michael Hacker at mhacker@nycap.rr.com. 

Forms for the Writing Teams

The ATEP CONTENT DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK describes the overall process of developing the content using CONTENT TEMPLATES.

The ONLINE CONTENT TEMPLATE IN WORD and the ONLINE CONTENT TEMPLATE PDF VERSION provides the framework for introducing each module, and for providing the supporting content for the student. Content will be developed in a 300 words sections, linked together to cover all aspects of a module. A worked example, entitled CONTENT 1 - Online Content Template ICT EXAMPLE is also provided.

Download Word files for the entire Engineering and Technology text. These should be copied and pasted into the Content Template as appropriate.

The ONLINE MEDIA SPECIFICATION TEMPLATE allows Team Leaders and the Writing Teams to identify multimedia elements that might be developed from the CONTENT TEMPLATE.  A worked example entitled MEDIA-1 Online Media Specification Template EXAMPLE is also provided.

The ONLINE MEDIA SCRIPT TEMPLATE acts as the focal point for the development of the multimedia elements between the writing teams and multimedia developers (Tony and Jim).  An example entitled MEDIA-2 EXAMPLE- Online Media Script for Module 1: The Cutting Edge is provided. Another example of a completed script, this one in the BIO domain, is a Worked Template Example from Biotechnology (Insulin production). 

The STUDENT ACTIVITY TEMPLATE will scaffold the work through the design process and serve to document their work.

Timelimes

The full page timeline lays out in some detail what we will accomplish yearly, by season.

The Media and web meeting timeline lays out specific dates related to the development of the our media and also provides a calendar of our Webex meetings.

The Curriculum and Media Development and Classroom Testing Timeline provides a concise look at development, pilot, and field testing. (Our first pilot test would be of Module A - content and Media- and would take place in the Spring, 2012 Semester (likely between April 1 and May 31, 2012).

Team Meeting Faciliation Calendar

Planning Worksheets

The Planning Worksheet for Developing ATEP Modules is a planning document for the teams to list the major topics and weeks per topic in a particular module.

The Worksheet for Revision of Course and Module Outlines is a planning document for all four modules and asks for a first cut at identifying the topics where simulations, animations, and interactive assessments should be added.

Presentations

This is is a Slide Presentation (powerpoint) that explains the Research Park initiative that will be used to contextualize learning of key ideas in each domain.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation from the ATEP January 23 2012 Management Team Meeting

Here is the PowerPoint presentation from the ATEP February 15, 2012 Full Team Meeting

Here is the PowerPoint presentation from the ATEP March 28, 2012 Full Team Meeting

This is the presentation made at the ATEP full-team meeting on March 6, 2012. It includes the materials presented by Delmar Cengage Learning representatives: Mary Clyne and Jim Devoe. The presentation provides guidance related to the template use, procedures for obtaining permissions, and publisher’s guidelines.

Video Introduction to the Project Moodle and Simulation- http://www.coursegames.com/simdev/media/atep_overview.mp4

Course and Module Outlines

The Course and Module Outlines document lists the module outlines from our proposal that you and your team would revise to best fit your curricular plan.

Template Outlining Guide

The Template Outlining Guide is a tool to be used by the ATEP writers to plan the content of each section and topic within the ATEP modules. The tool would help organize content, ensure that we address all necessary elements, and serve as a potential marketing tool once the project is completed.

Author Guidelines

The Author Guidelines is a document prepared by Cengage Learning to guide authors through the steps in developing online content. Questions related to these guidelines should be directed to Mary Clyne Mary.Clyne@cengage.com .

ATEP Teacher's Guide Layout DRAFT

This is a draft  version of the ATEP teacher's guide.  We invite comment relative to the format of this guide which is intended to scaffold instruction as teachers begin to implement the ATEP materials,   An important function of this guide is to help teachers move seamlessly from classroom p;rojct work, demonstration, use of the Moodle, use of simulated activities, and assessments.