Evaluating An Nsf Ate Center Using Baldrige Criteria
- Conference
- Location
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Austin, Texas
- Publication Date
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June 14, 2009
- Start Date
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June 14, 2009
- End Date
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June 17, 2009
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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6
- Page Numbers
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14.590.1 - 14.590.6
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--4524
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/4524
- Download Count
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285
Paper Authors
Marilyn Barger Hillsborough Community College
MARILYN BARGER is the Principle Investigator and Executive Director of FLATE, the Florida Regional Center for Advanced Technological Education funded by NSF and housed at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa Florida since 2004. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry at Agnes Scott College, and both a B.S. in Engineering Science and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Environmental) from the University of South Florida, where her research focused on membrane separation science and technology for water purification. She has over 20 years of experience in developing curriculum for engineering and engineering technology for elementary, middle, high school and post secondary institutions. Dr. Barger serves on several national panels and advisory board for technical programs, curriculum and workforce initiatives. She is a registered professional engineer in the State of Florida and a Fellow of ASEE.
Phil Centonze Positive Impact
Richard Gilbert USF
RICHARD GILBERT is a professor of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering at
the University of South Florida. He is a co-pi on the FL-ATE Center Grant. He has developed
educational materials for ISA (Instrument Society of America), AVS (American Vacuum
Society) Science Educator’s Workshop, and the National Science Foundation through a grant to
develop high school science and math curriculum content. He is currently working with D. L.
Jamerson Elementary School to develop curriculum content for its Center for Math and
Engineering. Dr. Gilbert has over 20 patents for biomedical equipment and protocols.
Eric Roe Hillsborough Community College
ERIC A. ROE is the Director of FLATE, an NSF Regional Center of Excellence in
Manufacturing Education. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of
South Florida (USF). During his time at USF, he has researched fluidized bed drying, been a
consultant to the Citrus Industry, worked on Florida Department of Citrus research projects, and
the High School Technology Initiative - funded by NSF. Prior to USF, he was employed as a
technologist in Research and Development at Tropicana Products, Inc. with process and product
development responsibilities. His research interests are food engineering, fluidized bed drying,and the integration of engineering and education.
Bradley Jenkins Saint Petersburg College
BRADLEY JENKINS, is the Director of the Engineering Technology program at St. Petersburg
College. He has developed engineering technology related curriculum and course content for the
last twenty years and is the director of the Engineering Technology Forum for the State of
Florida. He holds a B.S. Degree in Engineering Technology from the College of Engineering at
the University of South Florida (USF) and the M. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, also from
USF. He is the state of Florida course numbering coordinator for the enginering technology
curriculum. He is a Co-Principal Investigator for the NSF-ATE regional center for manufacturing
education in Florida.
Karen Wosczyna-Birch Connecticut College of Technology
Karen Wosczyna-Birch is the state director for the CT Community Colleges' College of
Technology (COT) and the Executive Director for the COT's NSF funded Regional Center for
Next Generation Manufacturing. She is also a professor and has over 26 years of teaching and
administrative experience in science, technology and engineering education at the two year
community college level.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Using a Baldrige/Sterling Evaluation Plan for an NSF ATE Center
Introduction
FLATE, the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center, a NSF ATE Regional Center of Excellence has as its mission to create a manufacturing educational delivery system by offering the technical programs, curriculum development, best practice demonstrations, student involvement and outreach activities necessary to meet the workforce capacity and high performance skill needs of the manufacturing sectors within its region. To accomplish this mission FLATE initiates and participates in a variety of projects and activities. To meet the reporting needs of the National Science Foundation and align itself with business models, FLATE has developed an Evaluation Plan that uses the impact and effectiveness data required by NSF as one component of a more comprehensive organizational self evaluation plan that is based on the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria. This approach keeps the Center’s projects and activities, data, and motivation aligned with its vision, mission and goals and target objectives.
Traditional Evaluation Plans and Their Implementation
NSF funded projects and centers focused on student recruitment and outreach, curriculum development and deployment, professional development into STEM Career pathways are all required to submit evaluation plans with their project proposals and provide annual reports of their performance data to document their activities. An informal survey of several such projects reveals that they contain many similar components including a variety of formative (periodic assessments), summative (end of project), and longitudinal data elements. Because many of the projects are broad in activity scope and focused on a single technology sector, the types of activities and when and how they are conducted might be similar, but not exactly the same. This forces many similar activities to be added together as activity data (e.g. number of students attending an outreach/promotional event). Additionally, many projects and /or centers build in a “process evaluation” provides feedback on the project implementation, timeliness, etc.
Data elements (activity data) can possibly provide information to answer some questions about broader impacts and institutional effectiveness. These research type questions draw conclusions and sometimes provide recommendations and/or best practices for various types of activities and programs. More straightforward effects on the host academic institutions faculty and teachers, programs, students and other stakeholders may also be revealed by analysis of this type of data over time. All of this requires continuous attention by the project leadership to be sure that good data is collected, recorded, filters/cleaned (if need be) and ultimately, reviewed and analyzed for reporting purposes. Below is a single pass with non feedback loops (although there are many possible) that sampling defines the various steps of an evaluation. Following these steps under the guidance of a trained professional with diligence should provide sufficient meaningful information for a comprehensive report that will satisfy the grant reporting requirements.
Barger, M., & Centonze, P., & Gilbert, R., & Roe, E., & Jenkins, B., & Wosczyna-Birch, K. (2009, June), Evaluating An Nsf Ate Center Using Baldrige Criteria Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4524
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