Deb, thanks for sharing! You have done a great job!

Thanks, Ruby!

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 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.

Thanks, Irina!

Thanks, Bob!

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.

Excellent news, Ted!

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.

You are most welcome, Christine!

Thanks, Melissa!

Thanks for the encouragement, Karen!

Thanks, Marilyn! Great to "e-see" you as well...

Thanks for the encouragement, Allie!

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.

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.

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.

Thanks for the encouragement, Simon!

Thank you Deb! I have captured your links in a Word document so that I can go through them at my leisure.  Great work!

Also Deb...love the Tesla watch...spotted that in the video!