This is a project to enable a core of high school teachers currently engaged in the delivery of technical education to enhance classroom instruction based on cutting-edge technology. During Phase I planning and pilot work for the professional development will be done. The professional development has four components: 1.) teacher inservice through formal graduate course work; 2.) industrial work site experiences with emerging technologies; 3.) dissemination that uses electronic networking; and 4.) improvement of equity and diversity in the future workforce. The initial dissemination will be through several high schools, all part of the Heart of Ohio Tech Prep Consortium. The long range goal is to recruit teams of four teachers from the Consortium high schools. The ideal team would include a science teacher, a mathematics teacher, a communications skills teacher, and a technical education teacher. Work site experiences will be bracketed with active-learning, project-based college courses and other workshops.
