St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: Gateway to Technology: An integrated study of Mathematics, English, Reading and Engineering/Tech
PROJECT #1 INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING/TECHNOLOGY CAREERS
Problem Scenario
Objectives

Research information about career options for
technicians, technologists, and engineers and
develop a multimedia report (i.e., brochure,
videotape, research report, PowerPoint presentation,
etc.) suitable for high school juniors and seniors

Use computer software for page layout and design

Investigate and report information about technical
career paths, using available college materials,
library, and online sources

Summarize characteristics or electrical, mechanical
and other physical systems
Your team is in charge of communicating to
high school juniors and seniors occupational
differences of engineers, technologists, and
technicians using a PowerPoint presentation.
These high school students will need brief,
reliable information in the electrical, mechanical,
fluids, thermal, optics, and materials areas to help
them make suitable career choices. Information
about job opportunities and career paths, salaries,
physical ability requirements, education
requirements, work environment, and other
relevant information about these careers should
also be included.
Lists, tables, or data charts should be used to
compare the benefits for technicians with two-year
degrees with other jobs requiring four-year
degrees. Also using appropriate visuals helps to
maintain interest in the presentation. To locate
information about these occupations, your team
should consult state and federal publications and
web sites, on-line databases, professional journals,
and other sources. Each team will choose a
different technical or engineering career area.
Performance Expectations

Instructors will evaluate student teams and individual
students on the project; the evaluation will include
problem-solving and teaming skills used by students
and student teams.

Students will have the opportunities for selfevaluation; peer evaluation, and team evaluation.

Individual instructors will test and grade students
individually on content workshops and activities.

The team product (6-15-slide PowerPoint
presentation, depending upon number of team
members) will be evaluated and graded by the faculty
team.
©2005 STLCC at Florissant Valley
Gateway to Technology
The terms engineer,
technologist, and technician
are frequently used
interchangeably; however,
in the industrial/engineering
field, they do not have the
same meaning. Education
requirements, job duties,
salaries, and many other
characteristics of these
occupations vary widely.
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St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: Gateway to Technology: An integrated study of Mathematics, English, Reading and Engineering/Tech
PROJECT 1—TEAM CAREER POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Research three careers from the Engineering or Technology listings at Florissant Valley. These
careers should be those that your team thinks will be vital ones in the 21st century. You may use
career magazines, library materials, internet resources, field research, college brochures,
whatever you wish. As a team present your findings in a short PowerPoint presentation that would
be interesting to college or high school students (keep under 15 slides or so). Make sure that each
person in the team has a part in the presentation. Look at these careers (perhaps an engineer, a
technician and a technologist) from various perspectives. Some ideas are listed below.

Importance for future industry, business, medicine, etc.; trade unions/professional affiliations

Education/training required

Demand in the job market

Salary and benefits

Duties, responsibilities, etc.; job hours
SOME CAREER LINKS
America's Career Kit http://www.acinet.org
This is a Department of Labor sponsored web page for working people. It contains information
from every state in the US, including Missouri.
FV Career Counseling http://www.stlcc.edu/fv/counseling/resources.html
This site has numerous career links
Department of Engineering and Technology at Florissant Valley http://www.stlcc.edu/fv/engtech
This site has much information about the career choices at FV.
©2005 STLCC at Florissant Valley
Gateway to Technology
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St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: Gateway to Technology: An integrated study of Mathematics, English, Reading and Engineering/Tech
Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
This lesson is designed to help you create an oral presentation using a powerful but easy-to-use feature of the
Microsoft PowerPoint application. You can use an already drafted outline, put it into slides, overhead
transparencies, or even a webpage in order to present your ideas to an audience. PowerPoint allows text,
sound, clip art, animation, and movies to be integrated into a presentation.
Make a simple outline in Microsoft Word first. Organize the outline the way you want to present your
material later in PowerPoint.
Create the presentation:
Open
PowerPoint from the Office Menu.
the application opens, select AutoContent Wizard from the “Create a new presentation using:”
dialog box. Click OK.
When
When
the next window opens, from the left side options, select the first square, “Presentation type.” On the
right side of the window you have a number of choices for types. Select one.
Go
to the next square, “Output options, “ and unless you are making a webpage presentation, click the first
choice, “Presentations, etc.”
Select
the next square, “Presentation style,” and click on the type of presentation you want to make, onscreen or overhead transparencies. Also you can click an option to make handouts for your audience.
At
the last square, “Presentation options, “you can type in the title of your presentation, your name and any
other information you want to include in your presentation. Click the Finish button.
An
outline of the presentation format will display. Now you can add your content.
For inserting your outline into the preformatted presentation:
From
the Insert menu, select Slides from Outline. When the dialog box opens, select your file named
“outline.doc” or “outline.” Look in Drive A if you do not readily see your file listed.
Your
outline content will fill into the presentation format. You can view the presentation in several ways
besides the outline. On the horizontal scroll bar in the lower left-hand corner of the window are several
view buttons: “Slide View,” “Slide Sorter View,” “Notes Page View,” and “Slide Show View.”
To
change the order of the slides or pages, you can drag & drop or delete them in the “Slide Sorter View.”
To rearrange a page, do so just as you would in Word.
You
can use the menu at the top of the PowerPoint window to add clip art, sounds (even your own voiceovers), animation graphics, or even movie clips to enhance your presentation.
your file as “slideshw.ppt” or “slideshow.”
EVALUATION (5 C’s—Clear, Coherent, Complete, Concise, and Correct):
1. Clear and Concise (understandable, not wordy)
20%
Save
2.
Cohesive (organized and unified)
15%
3.
Competent and complete (content)
50%
4.
Correct standard English
15%
©2005 STLCC at Florissant Valley
Gateway to Technology
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St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley: Gateway to Technology: An integrated study of Mathematics, English, Reading and Engineering/Tech
CRITERIA FOR TEAM CAREER EXPLORATION POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (student designed
fall ‘05):
1 = Weak 2 = Moderately Weak 3 = Average 4 = Moderately Strong 5 = Strong
Career Exploration Problem:
1. The team determined the problem and found information needed to meet the requirements of the
assignment.
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2. Content contains accurate and appropriate information
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3. Information is presented clearly enough for audience to understand.
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4. Teamwork is evident with individual work combined effectively.
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5. Career information is specialized for each team member's preferences
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Presentation:
1. Thesis statement gives main idea at beginning of presentation.
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2. Presentation is organized with not too much information or too little on each slide and in overall
project.
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3. Information is presented in various visual ways like lists and tables, in addition to sentences and short
paragraphs.
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4. Specific material borrowed from outside sources is documented.
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5. Presentation uses standard English grammar, mechanics, spelling, and sentence structure.
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Additional Comments: ___________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Instructor: ______________________
Total Points/Grade: __________
©2005 STLCC at Florissant Valley
Gateway to Technology
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