Questar III staff participated in the SEMI High Tech U Teacher Edition at New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) headquarters Aug. 23 and 24.
This professional development program was similar to the experience that students had in a summer camp sponsored by the Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium August 17-20
Questar III REC Integrated Science Teacher Hilary Reilly, REC Integrated Math Teacher Signe Knutson, REC Career Development Facilitator Pamela Mertz and Work-Based Learning Coordinator / Coordinator of Consultant Committees Dennis DiDonato were among the 25 teachers and counselors that participated in 16 hours of high-tech training.
The goal of the training was to help educators successfully infuse high-tech learning and hands-on experiments into Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Non-instructional staff gained valuable understandings about high tech career pathways that can be shared with prospective CTE students and their parents.
Hands-on activities were facilitated by presenters from GlobalFoundries, AMAT, M+W Zander USA Construction, Tech SMART and Toshiba. Teachers and staff worked together to troubleshoot and solve problems involving solar energy, binary logic, chip fabrication, circuit board design, and microprocessors.
Participants also toured the GlobalFoundries complex in Luther Park and Hudson Valley Community College’s TEC –SMART facility in Malta.
“This was an exciting opportunity for me to better understand the future of nanotechnology. It was helpful to work side-by-side with our Math and Science teachers. At first, I was intimidated, but quickly learned this can be fun, and that’s what I want to impart to students to get them excited about high-tech careers”, said Mertz.
The teacher and student editions of the SEMI High Tech U program were created by the SEMI Foundation.
