FAIRVIEW, TN – He took the job in 2003 as a business education teacher. But Kevin Sizemore didn’t know he’d build a mechatronics program that offers students an associate’s degree along with their high school diploma. Sizemore, the mechatronics instructor at Fairview High School in Fairview, TN, said his goal as an instructor is to
Today’s career and technical education (CTE) instructors face a variety of challenges. For many new CTE instructors, it’s a matter of establishing a program and getting it off the ground. However, it can be just as difficult to revive and improve an established program that’s underperforming. That’s the situation Dean Lepkowski found when he took
There’s more than corn in Iowa. Baseball fans who cherish the 1989 classic Field of Dreams will remember a baseball diamond forged out of a corn field outside Dyersville, Iowa, that brought the ghosts of former baseball greats out to play ball. Today, just down the road from Dyersville, you’ll find an institution that
If you’re a fan of country music classics, you’re probably familiar with Alan Jackson’s 1992 hit, Chattahoochee, an ode to the muddy river that taught him how to swim, who he was, “a lot about livin’ and a little ‘bout love.” Today, the Chattahoochee teaches a lot more than that. We’re talking about Chattahoochee Technical
It’s not unusual for career and technical education (CTE) programs to reach out to local experts for help teaching the next generation of students the skills they need to succeed in the workplace. After all, who better to pass along valuable knowledge and demonstrate hands-on skills than someone with real-life industrial experience? That’s why you’ll
Virtual simulator is a common term used to define everything from aircraft flight simulators to interactive games. In manufacturing training, virtual simulators refer to interactive software that closely mimics the operation of machines, tools, or systems. They imitate their real-world counterparts to such a close degree that they allow the transfer of real-world skills. While
For two weeks during the summer, incoming high school freshmen and sophomores were welcomed to Amatrol’s headquarters in Jeffersonville, Ind. for a Robotics Engineering Summer Camp. The annual camp introduced students to the world of robotics and allowed them to gain hands-on experience programming real robots. Along with working on real Pegasus Robots, campers
Click HERE to view 5 Ways to Update Your CTE Program for an Uncertain Future as a multimedia presentation. Have you been brainstorming ways to take your Career and Technical Education (CTE) program to the next level? With many schools and programs in a holding pattern due to the Coronavirus pandemic, instructors might be tempted to
Click HERE to view STEM Holds the Key to Preparing Students for the Jobs of the Future as a multimedia presentation. Cutting-edge Industry 4.0 technologies continue to shape current and future jobs across a broad range of industries in ways no one fully understands yet. Unfortunately, workers’ skills aren’t keeping pace with the demands of employers. Today,
As the world recovers from the devastating economic effects caused by the global pandemic, employers across every industry are still struggling to pull employees back into the workforce. This comes at a time when manufactures are integrating more advanced technologies to increase production, which in turn creates a greater demand for highly-skilled workers. This combination
