Purdue News
Purdue NewsWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - With a $1.35 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Purdue's School of Technology is creating an educational center to improve the opportunities of students preparing for careers in manufacturing.
The three-year grant will open the Midwest Center for Advanced Technology Education. Director Dennis R. Depew envisions a national center being built from the regional framework that also will focus on developing technology faculty and curriculum materials for high schools, community colleges, universities and technical societies.
''Our goal is to build a national repository of curriculum materials that serve the needs of industry and technology-based organizations,'' says Depew, also head of the Department of Industrial Technology. ''Faculty members who come to the center will learn about current technology and teaching techniques, and they'll develop curriculum materials to disseminate nationally.''
By better preparing today's teachers of technology, they, in turn, can better prepare tomorrow's generation of technology teachers and practitioners who enter industry, Depew says.
''It is imperative that we strengthen teachers' understanding and application of technology,'' he says. ''If we can produce the most highly trained educators in technology education, that expertise will be passed on to produce the most highly trained graduates and industry professionals in the world.''
The center will develop a Web site and printed publications, and will conduct 10 regional and national workshops each year for faculty education. The workshops, to begin in April, will focus heavily on such manufacturing topics as automation, robotics and computer-assisted design, but will be organized according to other timely topics in industry.
CONTACTS: Depew, (765) 494-1101
Don K. Gentry, dean of School of Technology, (765) 494-2552
To order the text of a news release about the technology center, send an e-mail that says ''send punews 9608f38'' to this address: almanac@ecn.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
