O*NET: Free Career Source

by Renee Tonquest
CTE Cluster Specialist
Health Science

Working over the past few months with the development of our new Career Portals materials has allowed me to become more familiar with the O*NET website.  O*NET is the nation’s free source of occupational information which contains hundreds of occupation-specific career descriptions.  This site is much more than a tool for the Career Portals course.  You can search for careers by keywords, your interests or you can browse over 900 career options sorted by specific industry. It may be used throughout your life in the event you decide to change jobs later on. 

Listed below are just some of the many resources you can access through the O*NET site. 

Career Exploration Tools http://www.onetcenter.org/tools.html

You can use these tools for self-directed career exploration tools to plan career options. These tools are also a great resource for students who are thinking about their future career plans. 

O*NET Work Importance Locator  http://www.onetcenter.org/WIL.html?p=3

The O*NET Work Importance Locator is a self-assessment career exploration tool that allows you to identify what is important in a job. It will help you identify occupations that you may like based on the similarity between your work values and the characteristics of the occupations.

Green Occupations  http://www.onetcenter.org/green.html

You can also specifically search for green increased-demand occupations, green enhanced skills occupations, and green new and emerging occupations on the O*NET website. 

Bright Outlook  http://www.mynextmove.org/find/bright

The Bright Outlook section highlights careers that will grow rapidly over the next few years; will have large numbers of openings; and are new and emerging. 

Professionals face aggressive competition for the most desired positions in the workforce.  It is essential to be able to use a variety of online tools to research careers and occupations.  Take a few minutes to explore the O*NET website; it may be perfect for you classroom or your personal life. 

Resource

O*NET OnLine. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.onetonline.org/

Year-end Awards and Recognition

By Kathy Belcher
CTE Cluster Specialist for STEM and Manufacturing

 

As we are approaching the end of another school year, consider a fun and easy way to have your students document and show off their accomplishments in a short video that can be shown at the school’s year-end awards banquet. This project aligns nicely with the student expectations in the Practicum in STEM TEKS. 

 

130.374 (6) The student documents technical knowledge and skills. The student is expected to update a professional portfolio to include:

• (i) attainment of technical skill competencies;
• (ii) licensures or certifications;
• (iii) recognitions, awards, and scholarships;
• (iv) extended learning experiences such as community service, active participation in career and technical student organizations and professional organizations; and
• (vii) samples of work.

Animoto is a very user-friendly, video-making platform with a subscription for educators. When you sign up, you will receive a six-month free Plus subscription promo code and may create up to 50 accounts for your students by using the assigned classroom code. Each student will need a Gmail account. Students need to know not to provide personal information where they could be identified, and they should also be reminded about copyright permission and infringement. The content in the student videos remain the student’s and not Animoto’s. 

 

To get started, have your students organize the photos and videos they have accumulated from event competitions, awards they have won, and samples of their work, etc. It will make production easier if photos are digitally in the order they will be used so they can be highlighted and all uploaded at once. 

 

Next, it is as simple as this: 

1. Choose a design theme template 
2. Upload photos (JPG and other file extensions) and videos (MP4 and other file extensions) 
3. Select music soundtrack from the Animoto music library, or upload your own (MP3) 
4. Add text to your images 
5. Add a title 
6. Spotlight a special photo for emphasis 
7. Save your video and preview before “publishing” 
8. Publish your video when you are ready for your final version (published versions can be edited to create a new version) 

Some features that make Animoto so easy to use are: 

• Extra images are held in a tray for future use 
• Selected images can be shuffled and the order changed easily 
• Images and videos can be easily deleted 
• Songs may be trimmed and images easily paced to match the song 
• Songs from Animoto’s library are licensed for your use (no need to obtain permission from the copyright owner) 

To see an example, go to Winning Team and Robot:

 

 

New Framework for CTE

by Kristin Petrunin Marketing Cluster Specialist

This fall I had an opportunity to attend the Association for Career and Technical Education Research conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference was full of great ideas for CTE students, educators, and administrators. Across all of the information presented at the conference, one specific idea seemed to answer CTE’s most pressing need. What is CTE?

Dr. Jay Rojewski and Dr. Roger Hill (2014) created an evolutionary framework for 21st Century CTE. The framework was not cluster specific and did not promise to contain all of the answers for the field. It was a solid starting point for addressing what CTE needs to become. Three components were suggested to create lasting and durable outcomes for students in the 21st century workplace. 

Final Thoughts
CTE is often accused of cluster loyalty instead of holistic career success. What if we started to address this framework within all career clusters? Have we become engrossed in relaying course content instead of preparing students for individualized career decisions? Is it possible to include this framework within current coursework?

Patents for Inventions of High School CTE Students

by Kathy Belcher

Cluster Specialist

STEM and Manufacturing

 

Recently a STEM teacher was bragging enthusiastically about his CTE students and the patents they have been granted for inventions while attending high school and after graduation. One student was granted a patent (with five other inventors) for a water meter that is now being sold. Another student received a patent (with a computer design software company) for a method of saving, filing, and rewriting materials. Another student in his robotics program went to work at NASA and worked on patents for parts and programming for a satellite that is in space. This conversation stimulated my interest to learn more about the patent application process. Please read on to learn about the process so you can encourage your CTE students to submit an application for one of their inventions or designs. 

 

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The right is to “exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in the United States, or importing the invention into the United States.” The term of a new patent is normally for 20 years from the date the application has been filed. 

 

To obtain a patent, the subject must have a useful purpose, be operative, and not be merely an idea. A complete description of the subject is required in the application. There are three types of patents—utility, design, and plant. Two of the three types (utility and design) are highly relevant to CTE students in STEM and Manufacturing. 

1. A utility patent may be granted to a student who invents or discovers a new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter, or a new or useful improvement of one of these. 
2. A design patent may be granted to a student who invents a new, original, and design for an article of manufacture. 
3. A plant patent may be granted to a student who invents or discovers a new variety of plant.   

The utility patent protects the way the invention is used or works, while the design patent protects the way the invention looks. Both patents may be obtained on an invention.  

 

Non-provisional and provisional applications for a patent are made to the Director of the USPTO. This office receives a reported 500,000 applications per year. A provisional application provides for lower-cost filing, establishes an early effective filing date for a later non-provisional application filed, and permits the terms “Patent-Pending” applied to the invention. The student has up to 12 months to file a non-provisional application, or lose all rights to the provisional application. During this patent-pending phase of the application, a student may sell their invention without fear of losing any rights to the invention, but there is no guarantee that any application will eventually receive a patent. A provisional application may be made for a utility patent and a plant patent, but not for a design patent.

 

Provisional Application for a Patent must include: 

1. A written description of the invention to secure a filing date 
2. Drawings, if necessary to understand the invention  
3. Filing fees  
4. Cover sheet identifying  
• a. It is a provisional application 
• b. Name and residence of inventor(s) 
• c. Title of invention 
• d. Name of agent or attorney (if applicable)  
• e. U.S. Government agency (if there is a property interest in application)

Provisional applications should not include oath or declaration since provisional applications are not to be examined. 

 

Non-provisional Application must include: 

1. Transmittal form or letter 
2. Application data sheet 
3. Drawings (if necessary for a utility patent, primary importance for a design patent) 
4. Oath or declaration (executed) as the original inventor or original joint inventor 
5. Filing, search, and examination fees (file electronically to avoid additional $400 fee) 
6. Written documentation specification (description and claims) including 
• a. Title of Invention 
• b. Cross Reference to related applications (if any) 
• c. Statement of federally sponsored research or development (if any) 
• d. Names of the parties to a joint research agreement 
• e. Background of the invention 
• f. Brief summary of the invention 
• g. Brief description of the several views of the drawing (if any) 
• h. Detailed description of the invention 
• i. Claim(s) of subject matter 
• j. Abstract 
• k. Sequence listing (if any) 
• l. Reference to a sequence listing 

Non-provisional utility applications must be filed via the Internet to avoid a substantial non-electronic filing fee. Design, plant, and provisional applications, can be filed by mail or hand-delivered to the Commissioner for Patents in Alexandria, Virginia, without incurring the non-electronic filing fee. A student may prepare an application, but most inventors work with a registered patent attorney or agent to secure the greatest protection.  

 

Before your student submits an application for a patent, he/she should conduct a search of the published patents. An online patent search may be conducted at www.uspto.gov, or a public patent search may be conducted at the Scientific and Technical Information Center of the USPTO and the Public Search Facility in Alexandria Virginia. For example, to locate the student applicant of the water meter, you may do a “quick” search for the title Water Meter, an “advanced” search of the applicant’s name in this format Doe-John-R, or a “patent number” search of 8,690,117. The application was filed on January 27, 2012 by six applicants (US and Canada) and the publication date was April 8, 2014. The application is a continuation-in-part of a U.S. patent filed in 2007 and 2009, claiming priority to a Provisional Patent Application filed in 2006. 

 

For a CTE lesson outlining a four-step process for a robot design patent, see Robotics and Patents at www.cte.unt.edu (click on STEM). The Robotics and Automation TEKS in this lesson state: 

• (10) The student designs products using appropriate design processes and techniques. The student is expected to: 
• o (H) describe potential patents and the patenting process. 

To learn more about patents and how to submit non-provisional and provisional patent applications, refer to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce website (www.uspto.gov). Encourage your CTE students to apply for a utility patent or a design patent to take their high school inventions and designs to the next level. 

 

For extended learning, there is an interesting patent article in the October 2014 edition of TexasMonthly magazine titled Patently Unfair by Loren Steffy. The article highlights Marshall, Texas (small town of 24,000 people), which has become the patent litigation capital of America for some of the largest high-tech companies. Marshall is known for speedy patent trials and has gained a reputation as “the intellectual property equivalent to a speed trap” (2014). http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/patent-law-in-marshall-texas 

 

References 

• United States Patent and Trademark Office an agency of the Department of Commerce website http://www.uspto.gov/ 
• Patently Unfair. Retrieved October 15, 2014 from TexasMonthly website: http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/patent-law-in-marshall-texas/page/0/1.

©2014 Reminders

By Kathy Belcher

Cluster Specialist

Architecture & Construction

Manufacturing

Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

 

Copyright is based on U.S. constitutional rights and the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) that protect original works of authorship from the moment the work is created or fixed in a tangible form as a copy or a phonorecord (sounds). The original work may or may not be published and/or registered in order to have a copyright, although both have advantages. Original works protected include literature, books, drama, music, poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation are not protected. Copyright differs from a patent, which protects inventions and discoveries, and copyright differs from a trademark, which protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of a product or service. 

 

Ownership rights may be transferred by an owner to another and passed down by a will or inheritance. Permission to use an owner’s work may be obtained by contacting the owner directly. The Copyright Office can conduct a search to identify an owner, but they will not provide a copy of an author’s work unless they have written authorization from the owner to do so. 

 

The term of the copyright varies. If the author is known, the term could be from the first publication date until 70 years past the life of the author. In other circumstances, the term could be as much as 95 years from first publication or 120 years after the year of creation of the work. Work that is no longer copyright- protected is said to be in the public domain and may be used without asking permission of the owner. Copyright notice is no longer required under U.S. law, so make sure work is in the public domain before using another’s work without permission.

 

A copyright owner has the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work, subject to a limitation found in sections 107-108 of the copyright law (title 17, U.S. Code) known as fair use. Section 107 lists purposes for which reproduction of work may be considered for comment, criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. Four factors are considered in determining if the use of another’s work falls within the fair use limitation. 

1. Is the use of commercial nature, or is it for nonprofit, educational purposes?
2.  What is the nature of the copyrighted work?
3.  What is the amount of the work used in relation to the work as a whole?
4. What is the effect of the work used upon the market?

 

“As a general matter, copyright infringement occurs when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, or made into a derivative work without permission of the copyright owner” (2012). Refer to Title 17 of the United States Code to comply with the copyright law.

Following are 10 reminders to consider when using another’s work.

1. There are no set rules on what amount of use constitutes “fair use.”
2. Original work located on a website may be protected by copyright.
3. Website domain names are not protected by copyright.
4. Uploading and downloading copyrighted works is an infringement, and it is best to go through an authorized Internet service to purchase copyrighted works online.
5. Ownership of a copy of a photograph is not considered ownership of the work (which is intellectual property). 
6.  Architectural work, including a building, plans, and drawings, are copyright protected (with some exceptions for designs prior to 1990).
7. A copy of an original computer program may be made providing the owner is making a copy for archival (back-up) purposes and destroys or transfers the archival copy with the original copy when they sell or transfer the original copy. (See Section 117 of the Copyright Act.)
8. Teachers in a nonprofit school may show a lawful version of a movie without obtaining permission for use with teaching activities, but not for recreational or entertainment purposes.
9. An employer is considered to be the author of the work an employee is hired to prepare according to Section 101 of the copyright law. 
10. Permission to create derivative works from an original work requires permission from the owner.

For locating text, videos, or images on Google that may be fair use, set the usage rights filters on the advanced search and the advanced image search. Google Images contain copyright protected content, so it is important to know if use is fair use or infringement.   

Copyright is a constitutional right protected by the laws of the United States to the authors of original work. Refer to the U.S. Copyright Office and Title 17 of the United States Code when determining what is fair use and infringement. “The safest course is to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material” (2012). 

 

References

• United States Copyright Office (2012). Copyright basics. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from U.S. Copyright Office website: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf.
• United States Copyright Office (2012). Frequently asked questions about copyright. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from U.S. Copyright Office website: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/.

The Ramification of Gamification in Education

by Kathy Belcher

“Games are the most elevated form of investigation.”    

 - Albert Einstein

Cluster Specialist
Manufacturing and STEM

Introduction
Wouldn’t it be great to have a classroom full of engaged, motivated, and loyal students having fun and solving real-world problems? Gamification, a term coined by Nick Pellar in 2002, could be the key. In the past decade, Pellar’s original definition has evolved into several variations. One variation I favor has particular relevance in the classroom: “gamification is the process of taking something that already exists—a website, an enterprise application, an online community—and integrating game mechanics into it to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty” (Bunchball, 2013). By purposefully integrating game mechanics into your online lesson plans, activities, and classroom websites, you can achieve desired behaviors from your students.   

Who Uses it and Why?
According to Van Grove (2011), “gamification has been widely applied in marketing. Over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies plan to use gamification for the purposes of marketing and customer retention.” It has also been used as a tool for customer engagement and for encouraging desirable website usage behavior. One website, DevHub, announced they have increased the number of users who completed their online tasks from 10% to 80% after adding gamification elements (Wikipedia, 2013). It can potentially be applied to any industry and almost anything to create fun and engaging experiences, converting users into players, such as, business, art, entertainment, environment, design, government, health, life, marketing, mobile, news, social good, commerce, web, work, and education (Gamification Wiki, 2010). “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $20 million to support new ‘game-based learning’ applications in math, English, and science, incorporating social networking platforms and other online tools to help kids learn” (GeekWire, 2011). 

Games vs. Gamification
“Gamification isn’t about turning your site into a game; it’s about incentivizing the right behavior that is aligned with your business goals” (Gigya, 2012), or your classroom goals. It works because it leverages the principles of rewards and incentives to help create customer action, while it subtly taps into one’s competitive nature. Think about the many loyalty programs that encourage you to play their games, and the social recognition you receive to help promote a brand or content, while you are having fun (Gigya 2012). Remember when J.C. Penney’s took away the coupon game in exchange for a “Square Deal”? They encountered a backlash from customers and were forced to give the game back. You can “gamify” curriculum and offer rewards, recognition, and social standing for participating in website activities, discussion boards, and blogs. There are numerous online educational games that can be linked to the website and used to keep students engaged and motivated to learn.

 Game Mechanics

“Applying game mechanics skillfully is almost a fail-proof way to engage students and incentivize learning” (Meredith, 2011). Well-structured and carefully designed gameplay is an excellent motivator because it is fun to play (win, and even lose), as long as it is made voluntary and intrinsically motivating (Gamification Examples, 2012). Bunchball (2013) asserts that gamification is built upon 10 primary game mechanics you can integrate into your curriculum and classroom website for desired results:

1.       Immediate feedback or response to actions

2.       Transparency to show users where they stand on metrics that matter

3.       Goals to achieve (short and long-term)

4.       Badges as evidence of accomplishments or mastery of a skill

5.       Status within a community

6.       Video games train you to play as you play; users learn by doing

7.       Competition and how you are doing compared to others (as individuals or in teams)

8.       Collaboration to connect users as a team to accomplish larger tasks, drive competition, and encourage knowledge sharing

9.       Community to give meaning to goals, badges, competitions

10.   Points, measureable evidence of accomplishments

 Online games provide students with immediate feedback, clear rules to achieve goals, a narrative or story that engages students, and tasks that are challenging but achievable to motivate students to move to the next level. Integrating game mechanics into your course content and classroom websites serve to engage, motivate, and keep your students coming back for more.

In the whitepaper, Gamification Five Plays for Winning the Game, the authors identify five keys to succeed at keeping customers engaged and getting them to return to your website again and again. Most of these keys to success apply to education as well. (Gigya 2012)

1. Encourage more user-generated content and feedback with comments, ratings, and reviews, and reward top commenters

2. Savvy sharing (not just clicking, but having a purpose) where users work toward a larger goal of ranking on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

3. Feedback rewards users for sharing content on the website

4. Social Login is a powerful tool for engagement and it brings an invaluable ingredient for gamification—the user’s social graph. Wanting to be a valued and respected part of a community is a big part of human nature and users are more inclined to participate if there is a real-world benefit behind the rewards.

5. Scorekeeping- be clear on the rules of the game and the rewards for participation; users need to know how to advance within the system; rewards must have meaning and be understood by the entire community; the social value is prestige and influence. (Gigya 2012)

Encourage student, user-generated content through discussion boards, blogs, and publications with comments and feedback by students. Many blogging platforms offer surveys and polls. Tap into social media technologies allowed by your school district, or consider an alternative to Facebook, such as Edmodo. Text messages and emails from teachers provide immediate feedback, recognition, and rewards to students. Think about innovative methods for keeping score and rewarding performance for participation.    

 Gamification Pitfalls

There are some pitfalls with game mechanics that apply to industry and education to be aware of when “gamifying” your course content and classroom websites:

1. Badges and points have a short shelf life, can’t resuscitate a disengaged online community, and carry little likelihood of generating long-term customer (student) retention or activation.

2. Loyalty backlash and disengagement can occur when a customer (student) realizes their behavior has been manipulated with no personal gain.

3. There are no quick fixes because solving problems within a complex environment generally requires more than simple solutions.

4. Customers (students) need to be managed, retained, and activate the culture of their community.

5. Online engagement systems should be self-motivating and self-rewarding and associated with true video game designs.

6. Leaderboards are damaging and demotivating towards the culture; the competitive elements don’t make things more fun or more social.

7) Setting up a strictly competitive environment does not help to build teamwork and peer interaction (Gamification Examples, 2012).

Extrinsic motivation can be helpful, but “learning for the sake of learning” is more sustainable and meaningful than learning for an extrinsic reward. Students appreciate a straightforward discussion of the rules and expectations, a solid investment plan, and a big learning goal to work towards. To be effective for curtailing behavior, the teacher has to convey what skills need to be rewarded (Meredith, 2011).

 How is Gamification Used in Education?

MIT’s whitepaper, Moving Learning Games Forward, discusses how to integrate gaming in education. Good games always involve play, in which a child at play exercises the freedom to fail, experiment, fashion identities, and have the freedom of effort and interpretation.

Games in school can be used as

·         Authoring platforms to produce an artifact (game, video, text, avatar, body of code);

·         Content systems to deliver understanding about a content area;

·         Manipulating systems to test theories about how systems work;

·         Trigger systems to create an experiential context for understanding a topic, issue, or principle;

·         Gateway systems to give students experience with technology;

·         Reflective systems to give contexts for student reflection;

·         POV systems to take on certain identities and points of view;

·         Code systems to use writing as the primary game mechanic as mode of action and experience;

·         Documentary systems as documentary evidence of student ideas and understanding;

·         Ideological systems read as texts that express certain underlying ideologies;

·         Research systems or research activity, which produce material to be used in later learning experiences; and

·         Assessment systems for assessing student learning of curricular content or state standards (MIT, 2009).

 Game Elements in Education

According to Classroom-aid, “Games should be about the experience of learning, rather than the experience of being taught.” Many game elements are covered by learning and gamification expert Karl Kapp in his book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. Among the elements identified, story and character are the most important.

Other elements include

·         A story or plot (the premise of the game, and the scenarios within it);

·         Game play used to attain mastery of the enabling and terminal learning objectives;

·         Characters that are realistic enough for the learner to relate to and learn from;

·         Competition, either between the learner and the game simulator or between a cohort of learners;

·         Recognition and rewards based on achievement levels attained during the game;

·         Increasing levels of complexity to extend skill development and imbed the acquired skills;

·         Challenges that build skill mastery and relevancy to the learner’s performance; and

·         Continual, individualized feedback to reinforce correct behavior and remediate incorrect behavior (Classroom-aid, 2013).

 Summary

Gamification is not about turning the curriculum and classroom website into a game. It is about integrating game mechanics into the course content and website to offer fun, educational learning possibilities that help create a classroom of fully engaged, motivated, and loyal students who are capable of solving real-world problems and are better prepared for postsecondary success. Focusing on the proven keys to success and minimizing the potential pitfalls of integrating game mechanics should result in positive ramifications for your students.

 Are you integrating gamification in your classroom? What is working? What are some challenges? What should be avoided? Let’s continue the conversation.

 References

·         Bunchball The Leader in Gamification (2013). What is Gamification?  Retrieved October 23, 2013, from Bunchball The Leader in Gamification Website: http://www.bunchball.com/gamification 

·         Classroom-aid.com (2013). How to Design Mobile Game-Based Learning (#GBL, #mlearning) – Part I. Retrieved October 18, 2013, from http://classroom-aid.com/2013/10/18/how-to-design-mobile-game-based-learning-gbl-mlearning-part-i/

·         Gamification Examples (2012). Gamification Pitfalls: Badge Fatigue and Loyalty Backlash. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from Gamificationexamples Website http://gamificationexamples.com/

·         Gamification Wiki (2010). Gamification. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from Gamification Wiki Website: http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification

·         GeekWire (2011). Bill Gates pledges $20M to support game-based learning. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from GeekWire Website:

http://www.geekwire.com/?s=bill+gates+pledges+%2420+M+to+support+game-based+learning

·         Gigya (2012). Gamification five plays for winning the game. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from Gigya Website: www.gigya.com

·         Klopfer, E. , Osterweil, S., Salen, K., Haas, J., Groff, J., & Dan Roy (2009). Moving Learning Games Forward Obstacles Opportunities and Openness. The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Retrieved November 5, 2013, from MIT Website: http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf

·         Meredith (2011). 3 Reasons NOT to Gamify  Education. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from LearnBoost Blog Website:  https://www.learnboost.com/blog/3-reasons-not-to-Gamify-education/

 

·         Wikipedia (2013). Gamification. Retrieved October 25, 2013, from Wikipedia Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification

What do the Arts have to do with STEM?

by Kathy Belcher

Manufacturing and STEM Cluster Specialist

 

Many educators and professionals advocate including the Arts with the integrated disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Including the Arts will lead to the proposed change to STEAM. Whether STEM or STEAM, the major emphasis is integration of the curricula, in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, rather than curricula taught as five isolated disciplines.

Including the Arts is a natural component that enhances and supports STEM curricula:

·         Arts education is a key to creativity

·         Creativity is an essential component of and spurs innovation

·         Innovation is necessary to create new products and industries

·         New industries, with their jobs, are the basis of future economic well-being (White)

An interesting example of the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and the Arts was recently featured in the Arts & Life section of The Dallas Morning News. The article highlights Kevin Page, a character actor in Robocop, and artist who created an innovative technology to assist him with pointillism painting. This is a painting technique in which many small dots of color are applied to the canvas to form an image. Georges Seurat, who is considered to be the father of pointillism, spent two years creating the famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte shown in the picture above. The painting is approximately 7-by-10-foot in size.

In only six weeks, Kevin Page created Sunday Afternoon: A New Pointillist Interpretation, his 8-by-6-foot interpretation of Seurat’s masterpiece.  How is this possible?  Page has a couple of patents pending on the robotic technology he used to apply the tiny dots of color to his canvas. The software-driven robotic paint tool, with a video camera mounted near the tool, allowed him to create in weeks the same effect that Seurat spent two years creating. 

Page reflects, “Science is the why of things, technology is the how of things, art is the meaning of things”. His occupation as an actor and artist was the creative stimulus to innovate robotic technology that assisted him in painting his interpretation of Seurat’s masterpiece in a fraction of the time. This is an excellent example of what the Arts have to do with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. So, how can CTE teachers integrate the Arts in STEM and other disciplines to stimulate creativity and innovation needed to ensure new products, new industries, and a growing economy?

References:

Granberry, M. (2013, January 28). Character actor adds robotic painting tool to his resume: POINT MAN. The Dallas Morning News, p. E2, E6. 

White, H. (2010). Why STEAM? Retrieved from STEAM Website http://steam-notstem.com/

What Impact Do Robots Have on Jobs?

Kathy Belcher, STEM and MFG Curriculum Specialist

Meet Cody, a service robot
from the Center for
Healthcare Robotics
at Georgia Institute
of Technology

When the first industrial robot, the Ternstedt die-caster, joined an assembly line at a General Motors plant in 1961, the possibility of American worker’s jobs being replaced by robots became a reality.

The report Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment based on a study conducted for the International Federation of Robotics, shows new job creation from the use of robots (2011). The study looks at employment in six countries (Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, and USA) and concludes that one million industrial robots in use in the world have been directly responsible for the creation of nearly three million jobs and indirectly for up to five million more.

“The report highlights that between 2000-2008 manufacturing employment increased in nearly every major industrialized country, even as the use of robotics increased sharply”, as summarized by the International Federation of Robotics. The potential for new job creation by the use of robots between now and 2016 is estimated to be one million in five major categories: 

 

1. Continued development of new products based on electronics and communication technology - service robots and renewable energy technologies 
2. Expansion of existing industries such as automotive 
3. Greater use of robots by companies that have 20-249 employees 
4. Greater use of robots in the food industry  
5. Expansion of the robotics sector itself

Recently featured in professional and business website articles, robots are having a positive impact on job creation in the United States in the following ways: 

• The robot industry expands as people build robots and market, sell, and provide technical support. New job creation involves designing, programming, integrating, installing, servicing, maintaining, managing, and refining the machines. (www.spectrum.ieee.org)  
• Skilled robotics operators replace the blue collar jobs when robotic automation is introduced into a company. This created nearly 14,000 jobs between 2020 and2012. (www.kukaconnect.com) 
• “Reshoring” brings jobs back to America as rising wages in the developing world and higher energy costs have made it more efficient to make and sell products in the US. (Time Business)  
• Service applications for robots are growing faster in the United States than elsewhere. And the United States has about 60% of the robotics service industry. (Today’s Engineer)  
• Defense has grown in the past two years as we have deployed 10,000 robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the United States has about 80% of the robotics military industry. (Today’s Engineer) 
• The demand for robotic engineers is projected to grow by as much as nine percent through 2018. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Robots are becoming inexpensive enough to help bring jobs back to the United States. For example, a robot called Baxter is inexpensive enough to do the rote tasks workers in other countries were doing, thus freeing up US workers to do more complicated jobs (TIME Business). Robots are doing jobs that would be unsafe for humans, such as in dangerous mining and factory settings. Robots are going places where humans cannot go. Through the use of the da Vinci® Surgical System, robots assist surgeons with minimally invasive surgery, resulting in less pain and shorter hospital stays (Intuitive Surgical, Inc.).

The top seven projected new jobs, the two fastest growing occupations, and eight of the highest paying occupations (2010) are in service and healthcare (US Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012). This suggests that the use of service robots will be a positive impact in the workplace and not a threat to American workers’ jobs, just as the use of industrial robots was found to be a Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment.
 

References

Dietsch, J. (2010). Do Robots Take People’s Jobs? Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/051110-do-robots-take-peoples-jobs

Eaton, K. (2010). Meet Cody: Your Future Non-Terrifying Health-Care Helper Robot. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/1587924/meet-cody-your-future-non-terrifying-health-care-helper-robot

Gorle, P., & Clive, A. (2011). Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment. Retrieved from http://www.ifr.org/robots-create-jobs/

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (2012) Surgery Enabled by da Vinci® . Retrieved from http://www.davincisurgery.com/davinci-surgery/?id=ycc

Kuka Connect (2012). Robots & Automation Bring Jobs Back to the U.S. Retrieved from http://www.kukaconnect.com/reshoring-robots-bring-jobs-us/

Matthews, C. (2012, September 27). Can robots bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.? Time Business & Money. Retrieved from http://business.time.com/2012/09/27/can-robots-bring-back-manufacturing-jobs-to-the-u-s/

Platt, J. (2012). The Real Steel: Robotics Careers Ready to Boom. Retrieved from http://www.todaysengineer.org/2012/Feb/career-focus.asp

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012, March 29). Most New Jobs. Retrieved from http://bls.gov/ooh/most-new-jobs.htm

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012, March 29). Fastest Growing Occupations. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012, March 29). Highest Paying Occupations. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/highest-paying.htm