SAE International and ASSET Partner to Develop Workshop for Educators Designed to Bring STEM Education to Life
WARRENDALE, Pa., May 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- ASSET STEM Education (ASSET), a national provider of professional learning programs supporting educators in Pre-k through grade 12, today announced an innovative partnership with SAE International. The organizations join Universal Technical Institute to host the "Engage in the Future: Engineering Workshop" for teachers, administrators and other educators to integrate engineering design and inquiry-based teaching into the classroom, while exploring hands-on learning materials.
During the two-day workshop, ASSET's Professional Learning team will engage participants in understanding what it means to teach engineering intentionally at all grade levels and make connections using a cross-curriculum learning approach. Educators will preview hands-on activities from SAE International's A World in Motion® (AWIM) program, which are written to national math and science education standards.
"This unique and innovative program will help guide teachers to foster an early interest in STEM through inquiry and hands-on, minds-on activities," said Dr. Cynthia Pulkowski, Executive Director at ASSET. "We are excited to collaborate with SAE International and Universal Technical Institute to discover effective and fun ways of incorporating positive STEM experiences in their classrooms."
The event is open to Pre-K through grade 8 educators of all disciplines. Primary and elementary teachers will participate in one day of professional learning on Foundations of Engineering, and will break out into grade levels on day two for courses on SAE's AWIM challenges Rolling Things (pre-K through grade 1), Pinball (grades 2-3) and Gravity Cruiser (grades 4-5). Participants from grades 6-8 will complete a two-day course combining Foundations of Engineering and either the AWIM Glider Challenge or the recently released AWIM Cybersecurity: Keeping Our Networks Secure curriculum.
"SAE is excited to continue to expand our partnership with ASSET," said Chris Ciuca, Director of Pre-Professional Education at SAE International. "This partnership yields immediate access to research-proven STEM curricula for educators paired with the highest level of teacher professional development provided by ASSET."
Each AWIM challenge presents an engineering, marketing or production scenario from a fictitious company and guides students to design a product or devise a solution. Students must examine the goal, identify the intended product audience, establish what information to gather and synthesize, and plan how to design, develop, test and present a prototype of their design solution.
ASSET will work with teachers to explore how students will engage with these hands-on activities and understand concepts such as momentum, measurement, energy, gravity, prototype construction and more. AWIM's newest course on Cybersecurity encourages students to investigate the architecture of the Internet & how it is designed to withstand attacks.
The two-day workshop will be held on Tuesday, September 24 and Wednesday, September 25 from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Universal Technical Institute Exton campus.
Holding the event at Universal Technical Institute's Exton campus will expose educators to potential STEM education and career paths for students interested in transportation and motorsports industries. The facility includes state-of-the-industry equipment and hands-on training experience to prepare students for the shop environment.
Registration is now open until September 13, 2019. The cost of the program is $400 per person, and educators can get a 20 percent discount for Early Bird registration until June 30, 2019. Continuing Education credits are available for participants who complete the program.
Educators can visit http://assetinc.org/ProfessionalLearning to learn more and register for the program.
About ASSET STEM Education
Founded in 1994 by the Bayer Corporation and a coalition of community partners, ASSET STEM Education has grown from a local education improvement nonprofit to a national leader in science, technology, engineering and math education. The organization provides more than 100 different professional development courses to more than 2,600 educators annually. ASSET also equips classrooms and educational programs with hands-on, minds-on STEM materials. Each year, these activities improved quality of STEM education for more than 69,000 learners. ASSET's holistic approach to STEM education fosters youth interest, engagement and achievement in other subjects as well, including reading. For more information, visit http://www.assetinc.org.
About SAE International The mission of the SAE Foundation is to encourage and increase student achievement and participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to build a STEM-fluent workforce. Funds raised by the SAE Foundation support SAE International's award-winning A World In Motion® (AWIM) program, Collegiate Design Series™ (CDS), awards and scholarships. SAE's STEM education programs enable students to develop the 21st century skills needed to succeed in real-world work environments and connect classroom learning with real-life application. Overall, SAE's STEM programs have reached more than 5 million students worldwide and engaged more than 30,000 STEM industry professionals as volunteers. SAE International is a global association engaging nearly 200,000 engineers, technical experts and volunteers to advance mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. Get involved today at http://www.saefoundation.org.
About Universal Technical Institute With more than 200,000 graduates in its 53-year history, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) is the nation's leading provider of technical training for automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians, and offers welding technology and computer numerical control (CNC) machining programs. The company has built partnerships with industry leaders, outfits its state-of-the-industry facilities with current technology, and delivers training that is aligned with employer needs. Through its network of 13 campuses nationwide, UTI offers post-secondary programs under the banner of several well-known brands, including Universal Technical Institute (UTI), Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and Marine Mechanics Institute (MMI) and NASCAR Technical Institute (NASCAR Tech). The company is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information, visit uti.edu.
