The Center for Workforce Development at Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) requests funding to provide professional development for community college faculty and high school educators through externships and research opportunities in local industry, ATE centers, and universities. The goals of the High Tech Workforce Initiative-2: Externship Driven Talent Development project (HTWI-2) are to expand the faculty externship program, develop externship-driven curriculum modules in emerging technology, and create a long-term student engagement model. This project builds on the previously funded High Tech Workforce Initiative (DUE 06-03379) effort by adding high school teachers as externs and incorporating additional technology areas such as advanced materials, alternative energy, automation and robotics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. The current project also includes an extensive national dissemination plan. HTWI-2 includes partnerships with local high schools serving underrepresented students, the ten Maricopa colleges, the Arizona Department of Commerce, the Arizona Department of Education Career and Technical Education Division, Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC), the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Arizona Nanotechnology Cluster, the Arizona Manufacturers Council, the Arizona Chapter of the National Defense Industry Association, the Arizona Chapter of TechAmerica, the Arizona STEM Education Center, and NAM's Manufacturing Institute.
The primary project deliverables are curriculum modules on emerging technologies resulting from faculty externships and a model for long-term student engagement. HTWI-2 provides community college and high school faculty with a five-week externship involving research or hands-on applications that can be used in the classroom. At least four externships will be situated at the NSF-funded ATE centers. MATEC, a key partner in both HTWI efforts, will play a vital role in the identification and facilitation of the appropriate ATE Center resources. Externship participants develop two classroom modules, including one that is specifically designed to recruit secondary students. Modules are developed following the ADDIE Model of instructional design and Dee Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning. It is anticipated that this project will reach 160 faculty and 4,000 students. Strategies will be employed to engage the large Hispanic population attending MCCCD.
The comprehensive evaluation plan utilizes observations, interviews, surveys, and project records to measure outcomes associated with the project goals. The formative evaluation assesses the planning associated with the externships, curriculum development and learning modules. The summative evaluation assesses indicators and trends related to partnerships, faculty knowledge gained through externships, and student recruitment, retention, and performance. The HTWI-2 Project provides students in the Greater Phoenix area with the knowledge and skills needed to support the growing high technology industry in Arizona.
