ATE Impacts 2020-2021

Clean Tech ATE Shoreline Community College, Shoreline, WA http://shoreline.edu/clean-energy Clean Tech ATE Prepares Energy Innovators Clean Tech ATE prepares students to join the community of innovators working to solve the challenges of climate change, resource depletion, and renewable energy technologies distribution. With advice from 12 industry partners, the project has identified the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are incorporated in three new courses that blend theoretical learning with practical, hands-on practice using high-tech tools and software. After installing a solar array during the Solar Institute, teachers create solar photovoltaic technology lessons to implement in their classrooms. Graduates of the Clean Energy Technology Program-20 associate degrees and 11 certificates were awarded from 2016 to 2019-are employed doing tasks that include energy modeling, renewable energy evaluation, and energy life cycle cost analysis. Educators who have attended the project's Solar Institute have used its alternative energy lessons with 4,000 students from 2017 to 2019. Developing a Precision AgricultureWorkforce Lad der {LIFT-PA) Northeast Community College, Norfolk, NE https://northeast.edu/NSF LIFT-PA Lifts Precision Agriculture Education to New Levels LIFT-PA utilizes modular courses and combines real-world scenarios with hands-on learning to teach teens, college students, and technicians. The curriculum helps each group advance and move up the workforce "ladder." The mobile Precision Agriculture Learning (PAL) simulator that the project team created allows students to gain hands-on experience with precision hardware and software in real-world settings, such as actual farm fields. Teachers at 20 high schools use five LIFT-PA modules to increase students' awareness of precision agriculture technologies and careers. Three precision agriculture college courses have been modularized and use data from the college's farm. Technicians attend LIFT-PA workshops to update their knowledge. Learning to deploy software that operates precisionagricultural equipment helps technicians improve return on investment.