This video will showcase a K-12 hands-on outreach idea involving Controls Tech Barbie and her Smart Barbie Grand Hotel that has successfully attracted and engaged female students at Building Automation System Controls Technology related outreach events.
Engineering, Technology, Broadening Participation
Valencia College
Advanced Technological Education (ATE)
Related Content for Controls Tech Barbie and her Smart Barbie Grand Hotel
Discussion from the 2020 STEM For All Video Showcase (47 posts)
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 4, 2020 | 07:08 p.m.
Welcome! Many thanks for visiting our Controls Tech Barbie and her Smart Barbie Grand Hotel video presentation! At Valencia College, I am the Principal Investigator of our NSF ATE Proposal 1601403, the Energy Management and Controls Technology Program Chair, and an Electronics Engineering Technology Professor. We are just about ready to wrap up our NSF ATE grant. This grant has provided Valencia College with the opportunity to develop Florida’s first ever Associate in Science degree in Energy Management and Controls Technology and to create a state-of-the-art Building Automation Systems (BAS) Controls lab. Another one of our NSF ATE grant objectives was to increase the number of female students enrolled within our degree program. This video will highlight some of our grant outreach work. Please feel free to share your own STEM outreach ideas and thoughts on the video. If anything, this video will at least make you smile…enjoy!
Ruby Alvarez
Higher Ed Administrator
May 6, 2020 | 03:39 p.m.
Deb, thanks for sharing! You have done a great job!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:36 p.m.
Thanks, Ruby!
Patti Curtis
Facilitator Robert Noyce/Ellen Lettvin STEM Education Fellow
May 5, 2020 | 01:22 p.m.
Thanks Deb for bringing STEM Barbie to Life. She not only needs the right look, but she needs the tools and workplace to demonstrate her skills. I hope you have shared this with Mattel as well! Can you share any impacts you have been able to document with this outreach effort? Do you continue to use the Grand Hotel in your classes? Can it easily be replicated? Has it been replicated? Do your students also use this in outreach events? If only Eloise had Bldg Mgt skills in her next edition.
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 11:48 a.m.
You are most welcome, Patti!
Thus far, Controls Tech Barbie has been hitting the road with us to various outreach events at local area K-12 schools, tech college STEM events, Junior Achievement middle school STEM career events, and of course around Valencia College's different campus career and STEM related events. The impacts witnessed up to this point are a significant increase in the number of female students that we are able to interact with and the amount of time that we are able to talk to them about this particular STEM career. Before Controls Tech Barbie walked into our lives, at countless outreach tabling events during the first couple of years of our grant, we considered it a good day if we had even one female student walk up to our EMCT AS degree table so that we could interact with her a bit and share our enthusiasm about the amazing career opportunities available to her within the building automation systems control industry. We plan to continue to bring along Controls Tech Barbie to our K-12 outreach events and as our EMCT AS degree program continues to grows, we definitely plan to invite our own Valencia EMCT students, both male and female, to interact with and share their own enthusiasm about the building automation systems control industry. This outreach idea can most definitely be replicated. My hope is that this video will inspire some folks to invite Controls Tech Barbie along on their outreach events as well.
I remember seeing Controls Tech Barbie at the NSF ATE Conference. What a great idea! Makes me think of Paulo Freire's generative themes concept: Learn what themes capture the interest of your students, then use those themes to make the learning interesting and applicable. I work on a related project, GRRATE, that uses guitar-building, rocketry, and robotics to teach entry-level STEM skills in north central Florida. We draw students in with hands-on projects that they find interesting and then they are compelled to learn the entry-level STEM skills required to engage with those projects. Check out our project if you get a chance: https://videohall.com/p/1683
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Michael I. Swart
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 12:17 p.m.
I absolutely love your GRRATE project, Chelsea! It definitely evokes Freire's concepts as well. Also, Tanis' idea that fun equals effective learning seems to also be at "play" here (no pun intended!).
Tanis, D. J. (2012). Exploring play/playfulness and learning in the adult and higher education classroom. (Doctoral Dissertation). ProQuest LLC.
Irina Struganova
Higher Ed Faculty
May 5, 2020 | 03:40 p.m.
Great job, Deb!
I really like it and I think it will work!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:37 p.m.
Thanks, Irina!
Bob Gessner
Higher Ed Administrator
May 5, 2020 | 03:55 p.m.
Terrific job, Deb!! Barbie doesn't need Ken to help her with a "honey-do" list anymore. She is in charge. Thank you and all our women engineers for showing young women that they can explore any field of study and that they can dream of becoming and doing anything they want.
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:38 p.m.
Thanks, Bob!
Marjorie Bequette
Facilitator Director
May 5, 2020 | 04:58 p.m.
Thanks for the video and it's so cool to see the creativity in your project. It sounds like Barbie is doing a good job at bringing more women into your program -- what happens once they join you all? Is retention something you are working on as well?
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 01:38 p.m.
Retention is definitely something that we are also focused upon. We have embedded a few different strategies within our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program. One of these retention improvement strategies is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the required 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College so that early on within their degree progress, they can begin to see the relevance of their coursework to the real world. Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which will help to retain the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners. We also have included within our curriculum, a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within our capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester which provides them more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills.
TED WILINSKI
Higher Ed Faculty
May 5, 2020 | 06:33 p.m.
That is a great, quick video that covers a lot of ground for introducing people to BAS. Well Done!
I am going to try to use that video at my next marketing event for MATC's BAS program.
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 01:39 p.m.
Excellent news, Ted!
Kathleen Plinske
Higher Ed Administrator
May 5, 2020 | 08:09 p.m.
Thanks so much for your creativity and leadership!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:56 p.m.
Thanks for the encouragement, Kathleen! It took a team of superlatively talented individuals from Valencia College to make this work happen, for which Controls Tech Barbie and I are most grateful.
I love how the Smart Barbie Grand Hotel puts electronic technology within a setting that appeals to girls. I can see this being effective in classes at many levels. Thank you for this!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:57 p.m.
You are most welcome, Christine!
Melissa Pedone
Higher Ed Administrator
May 6, 2020 | 09:00 a.m.
What an amazing way to invite female students to pursue STEM programs!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:58 p.m.
Thanks, Melissa!
Karen Reilly
Higher Ed Administrator
May 6, 2020 | 09:25 a.m.
This is awesome Deb! You always have such innovative ideas. KUDOS!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:58 p.m.
Thanks for the encouragement, Karen!
Marilyn Barger
May 6, 2020 | 03:44 p.m.
Hi Deb!
Great to see you here. Really nice video - I hope you are successful recruiting more girls. Good luck with your program - Marilyn
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:59 p.m.
Thanks, Marilyn! Great to "e-see" you as well...
Allie Yadav
Higher Ed Administrator
May 6, 2020 | 03:55 p.m.
Great job, Deb! I love this idea for engaging females in STEM!
What a creative outreach booth! I think the toy aspect may be appealing to many people, and a miniature demo could be done with various themes to connect to various audiences. Thanks for sharing this, and good luck with your program. Can you share anything about the design of the program, curriculum, or student supports that will support females or other underrepresented students once they enter the program?
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 02:59 p.m.
Most definitely, Renee. We have proactively designed our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program to embed student support strategies such as hiring a full time EMCT Career Program Advisor for students to reach out to for any course registration, degree completion, and/or career guidance questions. One of the first courses that students are encouraged to take is our “EMCT Fundamentals” course where we bring in a variety of industry guest speakers to highlight the vast career opportunities available within the Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls industry. Another support strategy is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a BAS controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College. Rather than have students wait until the very end of their degree to complete their industry internship, we wanted them to see the relevance of their EMCT coursework to the real world as soon as possible. Therefore, we reached out to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members to let us know what would be the bare bones basic concepts that our students would need to know before being ready to complete an internship and made sure to include those concepts within our EMCT courses being offered during the first two semesters of our degree. Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which provides an effective learning environment for the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners. Another example of a student support strategy that has been included within our curriculum is a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their EMCT A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within this capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester. This provides our students with even more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills which is also highly sought after within the BAS controls industry.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Michael I. Swart
Jameela Jafri
Facilitator Project Director
May 7, 2020 | 06:53 a.m.
Thanks for sharing your creative booth for recruiting females. Once they enter the program, can you share how the college supports women and other students from communities traditionally underrepresented in engineering to persist?
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 03:34 p.m.
Sure, Jameela! Valencia College supports women and other students from communities traditionally underrepresented in engineering to persist via offering students the ability to join a wide variety of STEM related student clubs where they can network, attend conferences, enter design competitions, hear from industry guest speakers, and tour various industry work sites such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Club, Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Club, Florida Engineering Society (FES) Club, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Club, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Club, the Cyber Security Club, and the STEM Club.
We also have proactively designed our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program to embed student support strategies such as hiring a full time EMCT Career Program Advisor for students to reach out to for any course registration, degree completion, and/or career guidance questions. One of the first courses that students are encouraged to take is our “EMCT Fundamentals” course where we bring in a variety of industry guest speakers to highlight the vast career opportunities available within the Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls industry.
Another support strategy is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College. Rather than have students wait until the very end of their degree to complete their industry internship, we wanted them to see the relevance of their EMCT coursework to the real world as soon as possible. Therefore, we reached out to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members to let us know what would be the bare bones basic concepts that our students would need to know before being ready to complete an internship and made sure to include those concepts within our EMCT courses being offered during the first two semesters of our degree.
Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which provides an effective learning environment for the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners.
Another example of a student support strategy that has been included within our curriculum is a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their EMCT A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within this capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester. This provides our students with even more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills which is also highly sought after within the BAS controls industry.
Celine Kavalec
Higher Ed Faculty
May 7, 2020 | 12:08 p.m.
Great work, Deb! This outreach helps counter embedded gender norms and encourages women to dream different dreams. :-)
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 04:57 p.m.
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Celine! The neatest part of our outreach experiences has been when a student’s eyes light up as she first realizes that she made something work in the Barbie hotel that she just programmed...those students gain immediate insight into what Controls Technicians get to experience every day. Before Controls Tech Barbie, we were lucky if even one girl stopped by our outreach table to experience that same powerful learning moment or to even briefly consider the possibility of another career path full of opportunities to better herself, her family, and her world.
Admittedly, I was dragged into playing with my sister and her Barbie Camper Van as a child. It is great to see how far we have come since the '70s. I hope Mattle is paying attention to your project. It could really open up new frontiers for young women. Great work!
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 7, 2020 | 07:12 p.m.
Thanks for the encouragement, Steven!
What a nifty cool brother you were...I had that same Barbie Camper Van as your sister!!!
Simon Ruiz
May 8, 2020 | 12:19 a.m.
Wow this is so clever and creative I work as a controls tech and stumbled on this through LinkedIn.. I have been in the industry for 12 years and have only encountered 1 female controls tech... hopefully this will encourage more... great work
Deb -- your Barbie hotel looks like a great way to appeal to young ladies. I think of my own granddaughter and what it might take to get her interested in control technology and think this would certainly help. From that standpoint, do you have materials that you can share that describe activities for girls? I am thinking that if I can even get her to take notice of this type of career path would be a first step. Great video! Thanks.
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 9, 2020 | 07:18 p.m.
Jack,
I definitely have some superlative female student STEM related resources to suggest for your granddaughter to check out that I share with students and their teachers at the end of our hands-on STEM outreach activity workshops at their schools:
Thank you Deb! I have captured your links in a Word document so that I can go through them at my leisure. Great work!
Kelley Matlock
May 11, 2020 | 01:57 p.m.
Wonderful presentation!
What an effective hook. The iconic "girl's toy" has tied girls and women to a particular mindset for as long as we can remember. But now, everyone needs to look behind the scenes to witness the cleverness of women. Programs like this show girls they can achieve more than great hair and a cool car.
Thank you for guiding girls to new avenues of achievement.
Kelley Matlock
Deb Hall
Lead Presenter Program Chair and Professor
May 11, 2020 | 02:14 p.m.
You are most welcome, Kelley!
What's really neat is now if girls do decide to pursue a BAS Controls Tech career just like Barbie, they will most definitely be able to sustain a lifestyle to afford not only that great hair style and a cool car for themselves, but also nice holiday destinations to travel to in their cool car with their loved ones!
Very neat work. Engineering, comp sci, scientific reasoning, a great curriculum. Do you have metrics on how this has increased interests, participation, professional pursuits for students? Short and or long-term?
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Welcome! Many thanks for visiting our Controls Tech Barbie and her Smart Barbie Grand Hotel video presentation! At Valencia College, I am the Principal Investigator of our NSF ATE Proposal 1601403, the Energy Management and Controls Technology Program Chair, and an Electronics Engineering Technology Professor. We are just about ready to wrap up our NSF ATE grant. This grant has provided Valencia College with the opportunity to develop Florida’s first ever Associate in Science degree in Energy Management and Controls Technology and to create a state-of-the-art Building Automation Systems (BAS) Controls lab. Another one of our NSF ATE grant objectives was to increase the number of female students enrolled within our degree program. This video will highlight some of our grant outreach work. Please feel free to share your own STEM outreach ideas and thoughts on the video. If anything, this video will at least make you smile…enjoy!
Ruby Alvarez
Deb, thanks for sharing! You have done a great job!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks, Ruby!
Patti Curtis
Robert Noyce/Ellen Lettvin STEM Education Fellow
Thanks Deb for bringing STEM Barbie to Life. She not only needs the right look, but she needs the tools and workplace to demonstrate her skills. I hope you have shared this with Mattel as well! Can you share any impacts you have been able to document with this outreach effort? Do you continue to use the Grand Hotel in your classes? Can it easily be replicated? Has it been replicated? Do your students also use this in outreach events? If only Eloise had Bldg Mgt skills in her next edition.
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
You are most welcome, Patti!
Thus far, Controls Tech Barbie has been hitting the road with us to various outreach events at local area K-12 schools, tech college STEM events, Junior Achievement middle school STEM career events, and of course around Valencia College's different campus career and STEM related events. The impacts witnessed up to this point are a significant increase in the number of female students that we are able to interact with and the amount of time that we are able to talk to them about this particular STEM career. Before Controls Tech Barbie walked into our lives, at countless outreach tabling events during the first couple of years of our grant, we considered it a good day if we had even one female student walk up to our EMCT AS degree table so that we could interact with her a bit and share our enthusiasm about the amazing career opportunities available to her within the building automation systems control industry. We plan to continue to bring along Controls Tech Barbie to our K-12 outreach events and as our EMCT AS degree program continues to grows, we definitely plan to invite our own Valencia EMCT students, both male and female, to interact with and share their own enthusiasm about the building automation systems control industry. This outreach idea can most definitely be replicated. My hope is that this video will inspire some folks to invite Controls Tech Barbie along on their outreach events as well.
Chelsea Carnes
I remember seeing Controls Tech Barbie at the NSF ATE Conference. What a great idea! Makes me think of Paulo Freire's generative themes concept: Learn what themes capture the interest of your students, then use those themes to make the learning interesting and applicable. I work on a related project, GRRATE, that uses guitar-building, rocketry, and robotics to teach entry-level STEM skills in north central Florida. We draw students in with hands-on projects that they find interesting and then they are compelled to learn the entry-level STEM skills required to engage with those projects. Check out our project if you get a chance: https://videohall.com/p/1683
Michael I. Swart
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
I absolutely love your GRRATE project, Chelsea! It definitely evokes Freire's concepts as well. Also, Tanis' idea that fun equals effective learning seems to also be at "play" here (no pun intended!).
Tanis, D. J. (2012). Exploring play/playfulness and learning in the adult and higher education classroom. (Doctoral Dissertation). ProQuest LLC.
Irina Struganova
Great job, Deb!
I really like it and I think it will work!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks, Irina!
Bob Gessner
Terrific job, Deb!! Barbie doesn't need Ken to help her with a "honey-do" list anymore. She is in charge. Thank you and all our women engineers for showing young women that they can explore any field of study and that they can dream of becoming and doing anything they want.
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks, Bob!
Marjorie Bequette
Director
Thanks for the video and it's so cool to see the creativity in your project. It sounds like Barbie is doing a good job at bringing more women into your program -- what happens once they join you all? Is retention something you are working on as well?
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Retention is definitely something that we are also focused upon. We have embedded a few different strategies within our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program. One of these retention improvement strategies is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the required 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College so that early on within their degree progress, they can begin to see the relevance of their coursework to the real world. Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which will help to retain the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners. We also have included within our curriculum, a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within our capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester which provides them more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills.
TED WILINSKI
That is a great, quick video that covers a lot of ground for introducing people to BAS. Well Done!
I am going to try to use that video at my next marketing event for MATC's BAS program.
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Excellent news, Ted!
Kathleen Plinske
Thanks so much for your creativity and leadership!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the encouragement, Kathleen! It took a team of superlatively talented individuals from Valencia College to make this work happen, for which Controls Tech Barbie and I are most grateful.
Christine Sachs
I love how the Smart Barbie Grand Hotel puts electronic technology within a setting that appeals to girls. I can see this being effective in classes at many levels. Thank you for this!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
You are most welcome, Christine!
Melissa Pedone
What an amazing way to invite female students to pursue STEM programs!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks, Melissa!
Karen Reilly
This is awesome Deb! You always have such innovative ideas. KUDOS!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the encouragement, Karen!
Marilyn Barger
Hi Deb!
Great to see you here. Really nice video - I hope you are successful recruiting more girls. Good luck with your program - Marilyn
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks, Marilyn! Great to "e-see" you as well...
Allie Yadav
Great job, Deb! I love this idea for engaging females in STEM!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the encouragement, Allie!
Renee Fall
What a creative outreach booth! I think the toy aspect may be appealing to many people, and a miniature demo could be done with various themes to connect to various audiences. Thanks for sharing this, and good luck with your program. Can you share anything about the design of the program, curriculum, or student supports that will support females or other underrepresented students once they enter the program?
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Most definitely, Renee. We have proactively designed our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program to embed student support strategies such as hiring a full time EMCT Career Program Advisor for students to reach out to for any course registration, degree completion, and/or career guidance questions. One of the first courses that students are encouraged to take is our “EMCT Fundamentals” course where we bring in a variety of industry guest speakers to highlight the vast career opportunities available within the Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls industry. Another support strategy is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a BAS controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College. Rather than have students wait until the very end of their degree to complete their industry internship, we wanted them to see the relevance of their EMCT coursework to the real world as soon as possible. Therefore, we reached out to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members to let us know what would be the bare bones basic concepts that our students would need to know before being ready to complete an internship and made sure to include those concepts within our EMCT courses being offered during the first two semesters of our degree. Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which provides an effective learning environment for the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners. Another example of a student support strategy that has been included within our curriculum is a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their EMCT A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within this capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester. This provides our students with even more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills which is also highly sought after within the BAS controls industry.
Michael I. Swart
Jameela Jafri
Project Director
Thanks for sharing your creative booth for recruiting females. Once they enter the program, can you share how the college supports women and other students from communities traditionally underrepresented in engineering to persist?
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Sure, Jameela! Valencia College supports women and other students from communities traditionally underrepresented in engineering to persist via offering students the ability to join a wide variety of STEM related student clubs where they can network, attend conferences, enter design competitions, hear from industry guest speakers, and tour various industry work sites such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Club, Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Club, Florida Engineering Society (FES) Club, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Club, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Club, the Cyber Security Club, and the STEM Club.
We also have proactively designed our Energy Management and Controls Technology (EMCT) Associate in Science degree program to embed student support strategies such as hiring a full time EMCT Career Program Advisor for students to reach out to for any course registration, degree completion, and/or career guidance questions. One of the first courses that students are encouraged to take is our “EMCT Fundamentals” course where we bring in a variety of industry guest speakers to highlight the vast career opportunities available within the Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls industry.
Another support strategy is to require a 3-credit hour industry internship with either a Building Automation Systems (BAS) controls vendor or a building owner that is part of the 60 credit hours mandated by the State of Florida for an A.S. degree. Students are able to begin their paid internships as early as their 3rd semester here at Valencia College. Rather than have students wait until the very end of their degree to complete their industry internship, we wanted them to see the relevance of their EMCT coursework to the real world as soon as possible. Therefore, we reached out to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members to let us know what would be the bare bones basic concepts that our students would need to know before being ready to complete an internship and made sure to include those concepts within our EMCT courses being offered during the first two semesters of our degree.
Also, all of our EMCT courses are hands-on, lab based so that whatever theoretical concept that is being presented in class is immediately backed up by some sort of hands-on lab exercise which provides an effective learning environment for the majority of our students who seem to be kinesthetic learners.
Another example of a student support strategy that has been included within our curriculum is a capstone course where students can apply what they have learned within their EMCT A.S. degree to proactively address a real-world issue that is being faced today by one of our Central Florida BAS Controls related industry partners. Students within this capstone course are then asked to present their research to our EMCT Industry Advisory Council members at the end of the semester. This provides our students with even more industry networking opportunities and the ability to fine tune their communication skills which is also highly sought after within the BAS controls industry.
Celine Kavalec
Great work, Deb! This outreach helps counter embedded gender norms and encourages women to dream different dreams. :-)
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Celine! The neatest part of our outreach experiences has been when a student’s eyes light up as she first realizes that she made something work in the Barbie hotel that she just programmed...those students gain immediate insight into what Controls Technicians get to experience every day. Before Controls Tech Barbie, we were lucky if even one girl stopped by our outreach table to experience that same powerful learning moment or to even briefly consider the possibility of another career path full of opportunities to better herself, her family, and her world.
Steven Taylor
Admittedly, I was dragged into playing with my sister and her Barbie Camper Van as a child. It is great to see how far we have come since the '70s. I hope Mattle is paying attention to your project. It could really open up new frontiers for young women. Great work!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the encouragement, Steven!
What a nifty cool brother you were...I had that same Barbie Camper Van as your sister!!!
Simon Ruiz
Wow this is so clever and creative I work as a controls tech and stumbled on this through LinkedIn.. I have been in the industry for 12 years and have only encountered 1 female controls tech... hopefully this will encourage more... great work
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the encouragement, Simon!
Jack Broering
Deb -- your Barbie hotel looks like a great way to appeal to young ladies. I think of my own granddaughter and what it might take to get her interested in control technology and think this would certainly help. From that standpoint, do you have materials that you can share that describe activities for girls? I am thinking that if I can even get her to take notice of this type of career path would be a first step. Great video! Thanks.
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Jack,
I definitely have some superlative female student STEM related resources to suggest for your granddaughter to check out that I share with students and their teachers at the end of our hands-on STEM outreach activity workshops at their schools:
Become a SWEnexter!
http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/swenext
Physics Girl
http://physicsgirl.org/
Turn imagination into reality…
http://www.engineergirl.org
“Discover Engineering” Careers
http://www.discovere.org/discover-engineering/engineering-careers
“Discover Engineering” Activities (click on “I’m a Student”):
http://www.discovere.org/our-activities
Design Squad:
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/index.html
Instructables:
http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/
Jameco Electronic Projects:
http://tinyurl.com/jufhz3t
A Mighty Girl…the world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls:
https://www.amightygirl.com/?s=logo&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200407&ts=20200407
Jack Broering
Thank you Deb! I have captured your links in a Word document so that I can go through them at my leisure. Great work!
Kelley Matlock
Wonderful presentation!
What an effective hook. The iconic "girl's toy" has tied girls and women to a particular mindset for as long as we can remember. But now, everyone needs to look behind the scenes to witness the cleverness of women. Programs like this show girls they can achieve more than great hair and a cool car.
Thank you for guiding girls to new avenues of achievement.
Kelley Matlock
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
You are most welcome, Kelley!
What's really neat is now if girls do decide to pursue a BAS Controls Tech career just like Barbie, they will most definitely be able to sustain a lifestyle to afford not only that great hair style and a cool car for themselves, but also nice holiday destinations to travel to in their cool car with their loved ones!
Doug Scott
Thanks Deb for sharing this amazing unit that encompasses all of #stem and welcomes female students in through a familiar unit plan. You got a vote from me via https://twitter.com/mrscottbot/status/1259919289617915905
Doug Scott
Also Deb...love the Tesla watch...spotted that in the video!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Good catch!
Deb Hall
Program Chair and Professor
Thanks for the support and encouragement, Doug!
Michael I. Swart
Very neat work. Engineering, comp sci, scientific reasoning, a great curriculum. Do you have metrics on how this has increased interests, participation, professional pursuits for students? Short and or long-term?
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.