Hello Karen! 

The continued networking with high school teachers has definitely continued after the PD experience.  Just last week, a high school teacher, who participated in the PD opportunity last year, visited our campus and brought two group of students (chemistry and biology).  They spent the entire day with us doing lab activities and learning more about the chemical technology program.  Hopefully, this trend will continue!

We hope that students who are participating in the C-TECH and CT-Discovery meetings eventually enroll in our two-year program.  We tap into their knowledge and awareness of the CT program when they enroll/register.  We have discovered that the majority of students do not know anything about our program and these events provide an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves and showcase what our program has to offer.  However, many participants are high school sophomores and juniors and we will not see an impact of these activities until a couple of years from now.  Again, we survey these participants and more than half have stated that they have not completed a chemistry or other science course before joining the C-TECH or CT-Discovery meetings.  We hope that we are sparking an interest in STEM and possibly changing some minds about career and academic paths after their visit with us!    

Thank you for responding and providing more information about the project.  It is encouraging when educators continue to make contact with a project after they are no longer, officially, involved.  The example you shared of the high school teacher bringing groups to campus makes me wonder whether some of your high school teacher participants might become ambassadors who share their follow-up up activities/actions with fellow teachers from the PD. As a PI, I often suggest ways that participants might stay engaged in following years...but that doesn't spark as much interest as when we highlight what other teachers are doing and invite others (no pressure!) to do so, as well.  I thought the C-TECH program was amazing--any data you collect from those who continue on will be so helpful for the field.  Best wishes for this excellent work.

Hi Chris!  Your inquiry about other companies could not be asked at a better time!  As we learn, adapt, and create a model that works for us as well as the company, we are sharing these results with other potential employers in our area and our advisory board members.  Already, another local company has inquired about a possible internship position throughout our academic year.  The project would concern method development and students would mainly complete these projects while they are on campus, in our laboratory facilities, using equipment provided by industry.  In exchange, this equipment will also be available for our current CT students, faculty, and staff.  

Teachers involved in the PD opportunity are provided tips, tricks, and ways to implement the learning activity in a high school laboratory environment.  For example, one of our procedures focuses on the USP-NF dissolution method of a general medication.  We train teachers on dissolution equipment, the purpose of USP-NF, and how to determine if a pill would pass those standards.  Many high schools cannot afford a dissolution system, so how do they implement something like this?  It's simple!  These concepts can easily be taught using a large 1000 mL beaker, a magnet, and a hot/stir plate.  High school students can easily maintain the temperature of a solution and drop a tablet into the beaker.  After the designated time, they pull an aliquot of sample and analyze it for the concentration.  Smaller equipment and glassware can be borrowed from our laboratory, and we are just a phone call away from these teachers.  The high school classroom now can introduce topics on dissolving, concentrations, molarity, and the missing pieces of government regulations and the USP-NF.  This provides a much broader context of the chemical field/industry. 

Finally, the relationships that we have created with these teachers have continued since their enrollment in the C-TEaCH Academy.  Just this past week, a teacher from last year's cohort brought two groups of high school students to our campus.  We provided a tour of our lab facilities, explained the field and program of chemical technology, and aided students through hands-on lab activities involving thin layer chromatography and gel electrophoresis.  They spent the entire day with us.  We feel confident that these relationships will only continue to improve in the future!

Outstanding, keep it up!  A few examples of academia/industry partnerships for students with disabilities:  AAAS EntryPoint! and the USGS Step-UP program. May or may not be useful, but even if you just get one idea.... 

Thanks, Tracy!

Hi Catherine!  We have a local pharmaceutical company (featured in the video) that was expanding their footprint and workforce.  We believed that this would be a prime opportunity to improve our relationship with local industry.  In the past, we have had to overcome the barriers and misconceptions surrounding AAS graduates with many STEM employers, as most have minimum requirements for a BS degree holder.  We knew that our AAS graduates could outperform BS graduates in the laboratory environment; we just had to prove it.  The internship was the first step in showcasing our graduates and their knowledge.  Having the company trainers work closely with our faculty, students, and laboratory facilities, helped them realize the full potential of what our program could provide their company.  We fully believe that this opportunity has laid the pathway for future graduates of our program for years to come!  Now our job is to replicate this process with other STEM laboratory-related employers.  

We require that our interns are in their second year of studies and are willing to commit to two semesters of work-based learning.  We require each intern to devote a minimum of 160 hours, throughout the semester, toward company-related activities.  Additionally, a blend of on-campus and off-campus learning has been effective and encouraged.  

Sustainability has been a topic of discussion, even from our early grant submission process.  Now that our students and graduates are becoming more well-known and understood, we are in negotiations to continue this paid internship after our award ends (we often say that this will allow the company to "headhunt" our graduates in the future).  Furthermore, our stronger relationship with this growing company has also led into the creation of another two-year degree in pharmaceutical manufacturing.    

Thanks, so much, for the detail and the important work. Particularly appreciate your negotiation efforts to work toward sustained paid internships. We are thinking a lot about how to do that in our different spaces too!

Thank you for your comments and sharing these resources.  The Biofab looks like a wonderful prorgram and learning opportunity!  It's so interesting, I want to sign up!