The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Project Description
Cuyahoga Community College respectfully requests support from the National Science Foundation for
the Robotics Corridor Collaborative, an initiative enhancing educational opportunities for youth in the
high-technology field of robotics that is transforming the regional economy from the Rust Belt into the
Robotics Corridor.
Introduction of Partners:
Cuyahoga Community College’s Youth Technology Academy (YTA) is a program designed to
prepare in-school youth for careers in engineering and technology by providing seven major activities that
give students a broad array of educational experiences:

enrollment in Cuyahoga Community College’s college engineering/technology/manufacturing
courses through Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEOP) that allows students to bank
college credit toward a certificate or degree while they are still in high school;

training in soft-skills through seminars and competitions that prepare students to function in the
workforce;

participation in robotics tournaments (such as FIRST and VEX) that provide opportunities for
students to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom in a real-life hands-on situation;

training and mentorship by technicians and engineers from industrial partners who teach by
example;

tutoring on an as-needed basis to help students maintain their grades;

participation in job-shadowing and paid internship experiences that expose students to the real
workplace situation; and

involvement in mentoring younger students in robotics camps that provides students to review,
organize, and present their knowledge and skill sets to others
Cuyahoga Community College, also known as Tri-C, opened in 1963 as the first community college in
Ohio and is now not only the largest college in Greater Cleveland but also the largest community college
in Ohio, serving more than 55,000 credit and non-credit students each year and offering more than 70
programs for Associate Degrees and one-year certificates. Tri-C also offers many programs for
continuing education and for business, industry, and workforce development.
The College is a leader in public education, academic innovation, cultural enrichment, and preparation of
the workforce to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow. Tri-C’s is the largest PSEOP (Post-Secondary
Enrollment Options) program in the state, with more than 11,000 students participating. Over 40 percent
of Tri-C’s graduates continue their education at four-year institutions and more than 85 percent of its
graduates continue to live in Northeast Ohio, providing a pool of skilled workers for area employers.
Tri-C is a member of the prestigious League for Innovation in the Community College, a consortium of
the 20 most innovative two-year colleges in the nation.
Carnegie-Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) is the nation’s foremost research and technology
development organization in agile robotics. The RI also offers PhD and Master’s Degree programs in
robotics. In addition, the RI has pioneered the development of agile robotics education curriculum in
various forms through its Robotics Academy (RA) at lower levels, from junior high school all the way up
to bachelor’s programs. The RA markets and distributes its highly regarded educational materials, trains
hundreds of teachers per year both online and face-to-face, designs software that helps teachers facilitate
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Robotic Camps for children across the United States, hosts middle- and high-school robotics
competitions, actively supports high-school robotics teams in national competitions such as FIRST and
BotBall, and otherwise champions and supports scores of other agile robotics educational programs. RA
curriculum and software is being used by over 3000 middle and high schools across the United States.
California University of Pennsylvania (CUP), with the third largest Technology Education program in
the United States, has secured significant funding through the DOD and is partnering with the RA to
develop technician-level training materials to grow the Southwestern Pennsylvania regional robotic and
automation workforce. One of the stipulations to CUP’s winning the training materials development
award was that it partner with CMU on design and implementation of the new curriculum. The new
curriculum has a different focus than previously developed RA materials, and the technical level of this
material is much higher than that of previous work. It puts more emphasis on the development of skills
that will be used in industry than did previous RA work that involved the use of robots to demonstrate
academic concepts. The curriculum places a higher emphasis on troubleshooting, wiring, using meters,
building circuits, designing and building sensors, etc. The CMU/CUP team began by conducting a
DACUM to gather feedback from robotic and manufacturing companies regionally. Industry feedback
(included in the Appendix of this Proposal) told the developers that it is important for the curriculum not
only to develop skills but also to develop an “engineering methodology” in future workers that will give
them skills to attack a problem when they don’t know the answer. The CMU/CUP team has a mandate to
recruit Western Pennsylvania schools to use this curriculum in order to grow a technologically literate
regional workforce in Western Pennsylvania. The RC project proposed here provides an opportunity for
Northeast Ohio to grow its own technologically literate regional workforce through the CMU/CUP
partnership with Tri-C that offers the same CMU/CUP coursework to CMSD and in turn to other
Northeast Ohio school systems.
CUP is interested in developing the nation’s first-ever two-tier associates and undergraduate degree
programs in robotics engineering technology. This program will be targeted at educating a nextgeneration of agile robotics technicians and application engineers that will be needed to meet the growing
workforce demand in this new and emerging sector of the robotics industry. Specifically, this program is
expected to meet the future demand for such technicians and engineers for the defense industry in
Southwestern Pennsylvania, including United Defense’s production facility in nearby Fayette County.
CUP also expects to offer a continuing education certificate program in robotics engineering technology
for engineers and technicians with associate and bachelor degrees in mechanical, electrical, and computer
engineering that work for regional companies and need to increase their knowledge and skills in agile
robotics. CUP will partner with regional employers to offer the certificate training program on-site at
employers’ facilities and/or via distance-learning technology. CUP expects to grow its degree and
certificate education programs in robotics engineering technology over the next five years to a level
where 50 – 100 students are enrolled. Longer term, CUP is also interested in developing a bachelor’s
degree program in robotics engineering science. This set of courses is also being integrated into a CUP
Technology Education teacher preparation program.
Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) is the K-12 public education system that serves the city
of Cleveland, Ohio. CMSD will provide the students and the teachers/Technology Ambassadors for the
project in Year One. In Years Two and Three, the project will establish similar relationships with other
Northeast Ohio school systems in order to begin the project’s expansion throughout the Northeast OhioSouthwest Pennsylvania corridor. Please see A
Current Industry Advisors include Batelle, Jergens, NorTech, and Swagelok, and the project will
continue developing industry relationships on an ongoing basis. These will provide invaluable input into
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
both the professional development and the program improvement foci of this project. Please see letters of
support and commitment in the Appendix for more information.
Other sources of significant support include the City of Cleveland, the office of Senator Mike Dewine,
National Robotics Educators (California State University, Northridge), Youth Opportunities Unlimited (a
YTA partner that provides soft-skills training to participating students), and Cleveland TechWorks (a
partnership of Northeast Ohio K-12 educators, representatives from government workforce and
economic development offices, civic and professional organizations, business and industry, and
citizen volunteers exploring innovative ways to support the development of Northeast Ohio’s
future technology workforce). Please see letters of support and commitment in the Appendix for more
information.
Motivating Rationale:
The motivating rationale behind this project is Cleveland’s current economic decline. The decline is so
severe that in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cleveland experienced the highest poverty rate
among America's big cities, with nearly a third of its population and nearly one-half of its children living
in poverty. In addition, the Cleveland Schools’ $1 million dollar deficit required 1,400 layoffs, which
resulted in more students walking to school or taking public transportation, extracurricular programs
being eliminated, and class sizes being increased by five to seven students (E. Reed, 2004).
Cleveland’s economic situation is largely blamed on the decline of manufacturing jobs in recent years.
According to Northeast Ohio Campaign for American Manufacturing (NEOCAM, 2004), three million
manufacturing jobs have been lost on a nationwide scale since 1998. Ohio’s share of the lost
manufacturing jobs is close to a quarter million (NEOCAM, 2004). NEOCAM puts the significance of
lost manufacturing jobs in perspective: A dollar of lost manufacturing production leads to another $1.50
in losses to the service sector. The loss of manufacturing payroll dollars has led to state and local budget
crunches and cutbacks in public services and education. The loss of manufacturing capacity undermines
our national defense and innovation capability (NEOCAM, 2004).
It is logical to expect that our schools will train a new generation of technicians who will be capable of
revitalizing the manufacturing sector, but the schools are woefully inadequate. In the words of Bill Gates,
"Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about
today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. . . . Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet
the needs of another age. Until we design schools to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep
limiting - and even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year" (Gates). Bill Gates’s voice is
not the only voice warning us that science and technology education is out of step with the needs of the
21st century and has to be revamped. The same warning is being echoed by many voices, all the way up
to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
PCAST Findings: In its report entitled Maintaining the Strength of our Science & Engineering
Capabilities (2004), PCAST warns that our nation’s entire national innovation ecosystem is at risk, and
therefore our competitive standing in the world market as well as our national security are at risk, since
this innovation ecosystem is what produced the global economic leadership, the high standard of living,
and the high level of national security this country enjoyed in the 20th century.
Because at the base of the innovation ecosystem lie science and technology, the PCAST report focuses on
improving education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as one means to maintain our
economic standing and our defense. PCAST’s report makes three recommendations that pertain to
education as a first step in combating the threat the US faces: Improve the K-12 educational system by
imposing more math & science instruction on the students; improve K-12 teacher preparation; and
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
improve graduate and undergraduate STEM training and retention. This project responds to PCAST’s
clarion call.
Robotics Corridor (RC) partners believe that a fourth recommendation should be added to PCAST’s list:
The U.S. must aggressively market STEM, particularly engineering, to K-12 students, helping them to
identify the significance of STEM in their lives and the relationship of STEM to their career paths. For
this reason, the RC project is designed to motivate a larger number of students to enter the STEM pipeline
and also to improve technician-level training, recognizing that traditional US education is not preparing
students for innovation and discovery and is not preparing students with good “Habit of Mind.”
Habit of Mind: In the view of RC partners, developing good "Habit of Mind" has to be the mission of
educators. Good "Habit of Mind" means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when
confronted with problems, the answers to which are not immediately known: dichotomies, dilemmas,
enigmas, and uncertainties. It means getting into the habit of behaving intelligently when one DOESN'T
know the answer. RC partners share the following beliefs:

All students can and want to learn but need to have the right environment and motivators.

This generation of American children must use all of their potential in order to compete.

Preparing students to work in today's world means teaching them that the only thing constant is
change, and to remain marketable they must become life-long learners.

Technological literacy not only includes understanding computer hardware and software, but it
also relies on three academic principles: knowledge about technology; ways of thinking about and
acting on technology; and understanding the capabilities of technology.

Teaching students engineering process and challenging them with appropriate level work will
increase good "Habit of Mind" as it increases students' academic performance.
The Robotics Corridor project is designed to stimulate teaching that promotes good Habit of Mind.
If we look at the results of other nations’ educational systems, we will note that according to some
sources China graduates 700,000 engineers per year (Colvin, 2005; Kanellos, 2002; Bialik, 2005), each
trained in a specific area of engineering. Can the U.S. compete with this workforce? According to Bill
Gates, the U.S. is graduating only one-sixth the engineers that China is graduating (Bialik, 2005; Mundy,
2005). And what about the U.S. defense system? By 2015, one third of our military vehicles will be
operated either by remote control or in autonomous mode (Chang, 2005), and robotics and automation
play key roles in the development of Future Combat Systems. Will American schools be capable of
graduating enough skilled technical workers to sustain our national defense? It’s not in the interest of the
US to entrust its national security to foreign technicians!
This project is motivated not only by national concerns but by regional concerns as well. It responds to
the need for economic revitalization of the Northeast Ohio and Southwest Pennsylvania corridor, which
has earned the nickname “Rust Belt.” With a well prepared high-tech workforce, the proposers foresee a
re-emergence of this region as the economically viable powerhouse it once was, a transformation of this
“Rust Belt” into the Robotics Corridor.
The three-year Robotics Corridor (RC) collaborative project will focus on the work of several
predecessors: CMU’s exemplary Robotics Academy curriculum, CMU/CUP’s collaborative DODfunded technician-level training program, National Robotics Educators’ ATE-funded curriculum, and
their test bed -- the nationally known and award-winning Tri-C YTA program.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
In Year One, the RC project will focus on two areas of study: (1) professional development for
technology/STEM teachers and community-college faculty from Northeast Ohio and (2) the testing and
integration of CMU/CUP technician training materials into technology education and community college
classrooms. This effort will address Northeast Ohio regional technician, technologist, and engineering
needs.
In Year One, the Tri-C/CMU team will conduct surveys designed to assess the ability of the curriculum
to teach technicians, teachers, and faculty. The results of the assessment surveys will be shared with
CMU/CUP enabling them to improve their content based on testing. Tri-C is the perfect partner for the
CMU/CUP project, which is interested in national dissemination, because it is far enough away from
CMU that much of the training will involve distance learning, but close enough for partners to get
together for face-to-face meetings as needed.
In Year Two, CMU will recruit other community colleges to work with and will continue to build the
corridor of robotic training partnerships with schools and industry from Northeast Ohio through
Southwest Pennsylvania. The CMU/CUP/Tri-C team will continue to iteratively test RC training
methodologies to improve the curriculum content. CMU is already disseminating its training materials
nationally. As noted before, CMU/CUP’s curriculum is being used in over 3000 schools, and CMU RA
holds a number-one ranking in Google when “Robotic Curriculum” is searched. In Year Three, CMU
will offer national dissemination of its Train-the-Trainer approach to professional development, which
this project demonstrates.
The starting point for the project will involve program improvement to the existing Tri-C YTA model,
which recruits WIA-qualified low-income predominantly minority high-school students for engineeringand technology-related training. This award-winning program uses a multifaceted approach to teaching
STEM to its stakeholders and provides them with key benefits:

High-school students have an opportunity to take college technology courses at Cuyahoga
Community College through the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Program (PSEOP) and earn
college credit while they are still in high school.

High-school teachers are paid a stipend to undergo professional STEM training and to attend the
PSEOP classes with their students. The teachers serve a dual role in the program: they serve as
Technology Ambassadors or liaisons between the YTA and their respective high schools, and
they mentor groups of 25 YTA students from their respective schools during the school year.

Participating YTA students learn academic concepts in context. Student learning of STEM is
cemented with hands-on mind-on learning modules developed by community-college instructors.

Participating students gain experience mentoring younger students during summer robotics camps
at local library sites.

Participating students receive soft-skill training so that they are prepared to function in the
technical work environment.

Participating students gain experience in a technical work environment through job-shadowing
and internship opportunities.
Goals, Objectives, Deliverables, and Activities
Since the project encompasses two foci (professional development for educators and program
improvement), goals, objectives, deliverables, and activities will be treated separately for each. For both
the professional development workshops and the student training program, the project will have access to
Tri-C’s state-of-the-art computer lab designed for engineering training and to Tri-C’s Manufacturing
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Center, which has a 15,000-plus square-foot shop floor that was upgraded recently with a $1 million U.S.
Department of Labor IST grant.
A. Professional Development for Educators:
The project seeks to remedy the lack of adequate staff technology training that professional
development studies have cited (Brand, 1997; Tenbusch, 1998) by engaging high-school and twoyear-college technology instructors in the fields of robotics, education, and styles of learning.
Carnegie Mellon, a world leader in robotics education, will lead training opportunities designed
to help high-school teachers teach STEM, to help community-college faculty to teach robotics
and automation, and to help both groups upgrade their technical capacity.
In line with the findings of major studies about professional development (Arter, 2001; Garmston,
1999; Johnson & Johnson, 1999), the project will incorporate follow-up workshops designed to
deepen the understanding of the teachers, allowing them to feel comfortable working with this
new and exciting engineering technology. The follow-up workshops will serve a number of
functions:

Keeping these educators abreast of new technological developments/changes and strategies
for introducing them into the classroom.

Bringing educators together for collaborative learning and allowing them to share their
classroom experiences and individual insights -- elements identified by several researchers as
being important to the success of a program (Brown & Ritchie, 1991; Dobbs, 2000; Persky,
1990; Stager, 1995).

Offering teachers opportunities to obtain further explanation of key concepts as needed after
they have tested new teaching strategies in their classrooms.

Reassuring participating educators that the professional development is ongoing.
The staff development will pivot on the CMU/CUP robotic workforce development project,
providing hands-on learning along with classroom instruction. The design of the program allows
instructors the opportunity to individualize portions of the learning for individual teachers, an
important element in helping teachers to assimilate new material adequately enough to be able to
impart it to their students (Brand, 1997; Guhlin, 1996; Shelton & Jones, 1996).
Studies have shown that strong support from school administrators is crucial to the success of a
staff development program (Persky, 1990; Tenbusch, 1998). This project will take advantage of
the strong support for the YTA project by both Tri-C and CMSD administrations. The project
team foresees that the positive impact on teaching skills of participating educators and on
students’ learning will strongly influence more high-school administrators to place the same kind
of high priority on professional development for other high school teachers (particularly those in
STEM areas).
The project staff will serve as a mentoring unit to the educators who have participated in the
professional development sessions. Such mentorship is very important to educators who are
faced with questions about how to best incorporate new concepts and strategies into their
teaching.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Goals and Objectives
Goal 1: In each of the three years, the project will recruit one (1) new Tri-C instructor and five
(5) new Northeast Ohio (NEO) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors interested
in undergoing professional development training.
Objective 1: In the spring of each program year, project staff will approach
engineering/technology/manufacturing departments at Tri-C to recruit and interview one
(1) new Tri-C instructor.
Objective 2: In the spring of each program year, project staff will approach NEO highschool advisory committees to obtain recommendations for five (5) new NEO teacher
recruits.
Objective 3: The project will offer compensation/incentives to the participating NEO
teachers for the time and effort they devote to their professional development.
Goal 2: During the summer, prior to the inception of the program at the start of the new academic
year, CMU staff will conduct educator workshops for both the Tri-C instructors and for the highschool STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors.
Objective 1: By the end of Year 3, the project will have three (3) trained Tri-C
instructors and 15 trained NEO teachers/Technology Ambassadors.
Objective 2: Both the Tri-C instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will become
thoroughly familiar with the CMU robotics training curriculum.
Objective 3: Both the Tri-C instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will receive
curriculum materials from CMU staff.
Objective 4: Both the instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will gain familiarity with
current industry standards.
Objective 5: Both the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will learn the same
instructional strategies.
Objective 6: Both the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will cooperate in
developing lesson plans.
Objective 7: As a result, the college instructors and the Tech Ambassadors will form an
effective teaching team for the students.
Goal 3: CMU staff will conduct quarterly follow-up educator workshops for both the Tri-C
instructors and for NEO high-school STEM teachers during the academic year.
Objective 1: New technological advancements and industry requirements will be
introduced to the educators.
Objective 2: Educators will have the opportunity to share specific problem areas they
encounter in their teaching and gain valuable feedback from colleagues and CMU
experts.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Objective 3: Educators will share additional curriculum materials, strategies, and other
useful information that they find exceptionally helpful to them in their work.
Goal 4: The project will provide a resource center for the participating educators during the
regular school year.
Objective 1: A resource room, which will include a resource library for supplementing
the curriculum, will be established at the YTA center at Tri-C for participating educators.
Objective 2: Participating educators will have access to computers, printers, and a copy
machine for duplicating materials they require.
Objective 3: A project staff member will be available after school to answer questions
and provide other assistance to participating educators.
Deliverables
The professional-development component of the project will have deliverables in two areas that
will begin to be replicated across the RC in years two and three:
Deliverables I - Teacher Professional Development

Improved capacity of teachers and faculty to integrate industry standards and workplace
competencies into classroom lessons;

Improved understanding of mechanics, programming, electronics, and engineering design
for faculty and teachers including methodology to use it in their classrooms;

Improved use of electronic technician tools (meters and oscilloscopes) to aid in teaching
technician-level troubleshooting techniques;

Improved understanding of sensors, controllers, and vision systems and how they are
integrated to control robotic and automated systems;

Improved ability of teachers and faculty to assess work at industry-standard levels.
Deliverables II -Curriculum and Educational Material Testing

A major component of this plan involves giving CMU feedback on its technician-level
robotic training materials (the evaluation plan is covered in the evaluation and assessment
section of this proposal);

The project team will solicit feedback from industry advisors and teachers.

o
The industry advisors will focus on the curriculum’s appropriateness to teach
technicians skills aligned with today’s manufacturing and automation companies
as well as robotic companies in the region;
o
Teachers will focus on the methodologies used to teach STEM: Are the
connections to STEM clear and measurable? Does the STEM learning have
rigor? Can the lessons be implemented in the traditional STEM classroom?
CMU will take this feedback and incorporate it into their curriculum, which is already
being disseminated nationally.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Activities
CMU is working closely with the Technology Collaborative, a regional economic development
initiative with over 100 industry partners, on the development of the CMU/CUP robotics
workforce training materials which will form the core of the training materials presented to NEO
teachers and Tri-C faculty in the professional-development focus of this project.
CMU will conduct a series of professional-development workshops designed to provide growth
and knowledge in both the academic and technical aspects of the robotics industry. Professional
development will include summer educator training workshops, online instruction, and quarterly
educator training workshops. Training will begin with a week-long summer intensive training
workshop for NEO teachers, Tri-C faculty, and a Tri-C teacher-trainer designed to make teachers
comfortable using the educational technologies. Training will continue with CMU providing
interactive online course materials designed to increase teacher/faculty learning and to be used as
a lesson plan for course instruction throughout the year.
The Tri-C teacher-trainer will identify quarterly workshop needs by observing teacher/faculty as
they work with students and by soliciting input from industry partners, as indicated in the flow
chart below.
Weeklong intensive
summer training
Online training
and bulletin board
Online training
and bulletin board
Workshops held
quarterly with industry
participation
The methodology that the project team will use to identify training needs of teachers and faculty
is diagramed in the flow-chart below.
Tri-C teacher trainer
monitors faculty,
teacher, and student
interaction
Tri-C/CMU prepare for
quarterly workshops
Tri-C/CMU follow
online discussion and
Q&A
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Industry advisors identify
workplace needs
The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
B. YTA Program Improvement:
In improving the existing YTA program, the proposers plan to focus on several areas:
1. The project will increase the quantity and quality of industry input into the skills being
taught in the program.
2. The project will create a team of high-school STEM teachers and Tri-C
engineering/technology faculty with high-level CMU professional development training
who will work together to develop a curriculum that responds to the needs of industry
and who will participate in a team-teaching relationship for imparting instruction to
students.
3. The project will instill the proper mindset in participating YTA students: they must be
willing to master the STEM skills that they will need in order to meet the demands of
industry four to six years in the future, and they must be willing to develop the “Habit of
Mind” skill sets.
4. The project will open up the YTA program to all students desiring to pursue
technology/STEM training rather than restricting participation to only those students who
qualify for WIA (Workforce Investment Act) services as is currently the case, since the
YTA is 100% supported by WIA funding. This last area is important because it will add
diversity to the body of students participating in YTA – diversity of experience, of
abilities, and of attitudes among students creates a fine mix in levels of interest and
motivation so that the more reluctant learners are helped along by the more motivated
ones.
The existing YTA program will be fine-tuned so as to increase its impact by focusing on all of the
elements of program improvement identified by L. W. Reed (2001): It will fine-tune the process
for curriculum development and implementation. It will provide a balance of sequenced Tri-C
coursework, laboratories (robotics-focused), and work-based experiences (job-shadowing and
internship opportunities). It will emphasize STEM standards, communication skills, critical
thinking, advanced technology courses, and workplace competencies. It will lead to an associate
degree or certificate in engineering or technology. It will provide industry with an increased pool
of highly skilled technicians. And it will provide students with a maximum array of educational
experiences. It will also increase recruitment for Tri-C and improve student retention because,
after all, while in the YTA program, the students have one foot in high school and one foot in
college. With all the support provided, it will be an easy transition for them to continue their
education at Tri-C, and they will have an opportunity to develop good habits that will help them
complete their education.
The improved curriculum places a heavy emphasis on rigorous stem content. Please note the
CMU/CUP course syllabi for Agile Robotics 101 and 201 that are included in the Appendix for
specifics regarding the material that will be covered.
Goals and Objectives
Goal 1: The project will enhance the YTA program by incorporating the CMU Robotics
curriculum into it.
Objective 1: Tri-C instructors and high-school STEM teachers/Tech Ambassadors will
be teaching the same CMU Robotics curriculum to the participating students.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Objective 2: Participating students will learn the most current industrial-standard
technical skills, as presented in the CMU Robotics curriculum.
Goal 2: The project will establish a distance-learning model for instruction and for sharing
curriculum materials between remote locations.
Objective 1: The project will create a web-based server and network for sharing
information and conducting remote instruction.
Objective 2: The distance-learning model will provide a means for many more students
to participate in the PSEOP courses than the classroom can accommodate – while one
group is physically present in the classroom, several other groups are attending at remote
locations. On a rotation basis, each group can take its turn being physically present in the
Tri-C classroom on alternating meeting days, while the others are present at the remote
locations. It is anticipated that 120-150 more students per year will participate in YTA
through the addition of distance learning.
Goal 3: The YTA will open its existing program to all high-school students interested in
technology training and technology career paths.
Objective 1: Project staff will visit 20 NEO schools per year to talk with principles,
guidance counselors, teachers, students, and parents in order to recruit students without
restrictions on income.
Objective 2: Project staff will conduct at least 20 informational meetings per year at
various locations as a recruitment tool.
Objective 3: The project will offer the incentive of potential college credit towards an
engineering/technical certificate or associate degree to students who participate as well as
other incentives. Students will have the opportunity to earn up to 4 college credit hours
towards an associate degree per year of YTA participation.
Deliverables
The program-improvement component of the project will have the following deliverables that
will begin to be replicated across the RC in years two and three:

Addition of rigorous STEM academic concepts into the Tri-C PSEOP program through
the adoption of the CMU/CUP training materials: fundamental electronics; motion
planning using algebra, geometry, and trigonometry; kinematics; technical writing; and
building responses to technical requests for proposals;

Integration of advanced control devices into both the NEO high school and the
Tri-C programs
Activities
The YTA program model is a year-round work-based learning experience, incorporating the
following major components: academic/occupational training via college-level courses at
Cuyahoga Community College and reinforced outside the classroom through interaction with a
teacher/Tech Ambassador; practical application of college training through hands-on robotics
activities and competitions; job readiness and life skills activities through after-school workshops
and competitions; and tutoring, summer job placement, job shadowing, and internship for youth
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
on an as-needed basis. Please note appendix for a fuller description of the existing YTA program
activities.
The YTA strives to work around many of the barriers that plague students in the classroom: lack
of funding for programs; outdated, non-existent, or unusable equipment; teachers unprepared to
teach current technological standards; defeatist attitudes of many in the educational system.
Within this environment, the project aims to train the students – America’s greatest resource – to
take their places in a very competitive workforce.
The YTA is making headway against these barriers, but the Robotics Corridor collaborative is the
impetus needed to take the YTA program to the next level and successfully train the future
workforce of the Robotics Corridor region, as it brings together creative minds and leaders of
innovative teaching to develop an educational model that will provide the catalyst for promoting
the skills and knowledge that our industries are clamoring for.
The project is taking an award-winning and very successful YTA program to the next level by
several means:
o
By providing CMU professional development training for high school teachers and
college faculty who are directly responsible for teaching the students
o
By improving the quality and quantity of industry input into the program , and
o
By instilling into the students the proper mindset – “Habit of Mind” skill sets that are
valuable now and will be valuable six years into the future when the students complete
their education and enter the workforce.
All of these elements of program improvement will contribute to the dissemination of the
program throughout the RC, from Northeast Ohio through Southwest Pennsylvania, and to the
transformation of the “Rust Belt” into the new “Robotics Corridor.”
Timetable
A chart outlining the project timeline is included in the Appendix.
On an ongoing basis, the project will publicize the ATE award and form/confirm industry advisory
boards. In May of Year One, the project will advise CMSD teachers and Tri-C instructors currently
participating in the YTA program of summer training dates. In April of Years Two and Three, the project
will begin recruiting new teachers from the Northeast Ohio Robotics Corridor region for participation and
will advise them of summer training dates.
In June of each year, the project will hold a three-day train-the-trainer orientation for CMU/CUP/Tri-C
faculty and staff. In the summer of each year, the project will conduct a one-week summer training
workshop for Tri-C faculty and NEO teachers, followed by an evaluation completed by all stakeholders.
In August of Year One (2006), CMU will develop online course materials and make them available in
September 2006. In Years Two and Three, the online course materials will be improved on the basis of
teacher feedback, and the improved materials will be made available in September of 2007 and September
of 2008. Each year, quarterly one-day follow-up training workshops will be held in October, January, and
March.
In September of each year, YTA students will be tested to evaluate their STEM knowledge. In each year,
students will participate in the year-long YTA activities: PSEOP courses on a weekly basis for two
semesters, YOU soft-skills training on a weekly basis throughout the academic year, tutoring on an as-
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
needed basis, participation in building competitive robots and in robotics competitions from September
through May under the mentorship of technicians and engineers from industry, participation in jobshadowing and paid internship experiences on an ongoing basis, and summer robotics camp. Students will
be tested for STEM growth in June of each year.
Management Plan
The RC Collaborative will be managed by the Youth Technology Academy Director, who will devote
25% of his time to the project. CMU will provide training facilities, staff, and support throughout the
program year. One other staff member, a YTA Teacher-Trainer, will devote 100% of his/her time to the
project. Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) will provide a soft-skills trainer at a per-student fee. The
project will engage five (5) high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year One, ten (10)
high-school STEM teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year Two, and fifteen (15) high-school STEM
teachers/Technology Ambassadors in Year Three and will pay them a stipend for their after-school
participation in professional development. In addition, and one Tri-C instructor per five high-school
teachers will participate in the program.
Roles and Responsibilities of the PI and Co-PI
George Bilokonsky, Director of Tri-C’s Youth Technology Academy, will serve as the Principal
Investigator (PI) for the Robotics Corridor project. He will be responsible for communicating with the
staff of NSF regarding all project reporting and administrative management, overall management and
oversight of the ATE program grant, supervision of all program staff, ensuring the success of the project
in reaching all program goals, recruiting school and community support. Please see Appendix for Mr.
Bilokonsky’s resume.
Mary Reis, Associate Dean of Business, Mathematics, and Technology at Tri-C, will serve as co-PI and
will oversee the integration of the CMSD and Tri-C STEM-engineering-technology curricula with the
CMU/CUP curriculum. Please see Appendix for Ms. Reis’ resume.
Key Advisor
Robin Shoop, Director of Educational Outreach for Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics
Engineering Consortium, is a master teacher who earned Teacher of the Year recognition in 1999. After
28 years with Pittsburgh Public Schools, where he led numerous curriculum development teams in
transitioning from Industrial Arts Education to Technology Education, Mr. Shoop currently teaches
robotics in the Schenley High School Technological Studies Magnet, and each spring and fall he teaches a
robotics professional development class for teachers at Carnegie Mellon. In 1997, Mr. Shoop authored
the training manual for Digital Tool, Inc. (a computer numerical control company that entered the
education market), and in 1998, he authored the Robotics and Automation Technology curriculum for the
Pittsburgh Public School System. Mr. Shoop is currently a co-PI on an Engineering Directorate NSFfunded Research Experience for Teachers.
Sustainability Plan
At the conclusion of the grant period, the program will be incorporated into the public school systems as a
major part of their STEM curriculum, and the schools’ part will be paid for by the schools and by various
grants obtained locally from the project’s industry partners and from foundations.
Evaluation Plan
The RC partners are guided by ATE-funded assessment research (Gold & Powe, 2001) as they teach
professional development designed to improve Tri-C outreach into CMSD/NEO schools. The model
pictured below shows the iterative cycle the team will use to assess/improve the program.
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Industry advisors
identify workplace
needs
Improvements of professional
development and implementation based
on assessment results
Ongoing professional
development for educators
Assessment of program
implementation by
teachers, and STEM
learning by students,
and CMU curriculum
Tri-C program improvement cycle
The team will measure the success of the project using the following questions: Did the learners have the
time to gain new knowledge and skills in the areas studied? Was the opportunity to learn ongoing and
responsive to the learners’ needs? Did the methodology use hands-on, classroom-based, student-centered
activities that could be implemented into today’s classroom? Did the training present analytical
problems, using inquiry techniques; promote modeling; rely on instructors and teacher-trainers working
together to create plans, present information and skills, evaluate and redefine educational programs; and
present refined curricula to meet student and marketplace needs? Did the plan include mentoring and
time for professionals to exchange ideas and techniques? Was there a teacher-trainer component included
in the program? Were the new methodologies successfully implemented in the affected schools?
Project evaluation will follow the implementation and training cycle and will comprise three components:
teacher/faculty training, implementation/revision of content, and student learning.
Evaluation of teacher/faculty professional development involves examining the administrative support
provided for implementing teacher and Tri-C faculty professional development. The assessment team will
include industry advisor review of CMU/CUP training materials, survey professional development
sessions, and use the data collected to iteratively improve the content. Guiding questions include the
following: Are the lessons aligned with industry standards for technician-level training? Do the materials
align with skill sets needed in industry today? Do the materials and sessions include rigorous applied
STEM concepts? Are teachers provided with industry-standard scoring rubrics to allow them to
adequately assess industry-accepted practices? Is the instruction individualized for the learner? Is there
follow-up training to deepen the understanding of the learner?
Evaluation of program improvement will identify strengths and weaknesses of CMU/CUP curriculum
integration into Tri-C/CMSD programs. RC partners will design and administer pre- and post-tests
designed to assess student understanding of content, student STEM competency, and student awareness of
technical careers. Industry advisors will observe selected classroom instruction and examine student work
to see if it aligns with current industry practices. Guiding questions include the following: Do the lessons
presented adequately prepare students for technician-level jobs? Does classroom instruction inspire
students to study STEM? Do the lessons elicit and build on students’ existing conceptions? Are students
learning the targeted concepts and processes?
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The Robotics Corridor Collaborative
Response to Program Solicitation NSF 05-530
Evaluation of CMU/CUP instructional modules involves examination of the impact of the project at the
classroom level for both the instructor and the learner. The team will use the “Rubric designed for
assessing quality ATE materials” (Evaluation Center, 2001). They will analyze data from teacher
evaluations, industry advisors, faculty evaluations, and student evaluations. Guiding questions include the
following: Does the material represent current industry practices? Is the material sequenced
appropriately? Does the material support multiple levels of learning? Are there rubrics for instruction for
all stakeholders so they are able to determine what good work looks like?
Evaluation tasks conducted and data collected will be analyzed and rated for CMU curriculum developers
to guide their curricular improvement efforts. Throughout the funding period, evaluation results will be
shared with the RC advisory team to inform them of the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and the
results will be used to guide program improvement, professional development, and curricular reform.
Dissemination Plan
Since Cuyahoga Community College’s Youth Technology Academy is a member of the National Council
on Student Development (NCSD) and has been recognized by this organization as a 2005 Exemplary
Practice, other community colleges are looking to the YTA for assistance in establishing programs similar
to the YTA. The PI and co-PI are executive board members of National Robotics Educators, an NSF
grant recipient, and will utilize both the NCSD and the National Robotics Educators network of schools
for dissemination.
On the regional level, the project will be able to spread the word by giving presentations to the school
administrators/students/parents of the Northeast Ohio and Southwest Pennsylvania school districts. At
the national level, project newsletters, special mailings, and a website will highlight and promote the
project’s activities. The project will compile a database of all curriculum materials used in professional
development and in the improved Youth Technology training program. It will develop and maintain a
web site that will provide remote access to these materials, and it will publish a newsletter in order to
broadly disseminate program updates to schools, companies, and organizations in the Robotics Corridor.
Finally, the project will promote the project model in local, regional, and national school systems by
providing guest speakers, by taking student-built robots on tour, by distributing CD recordings of
competitions, and by other means.
15