One of the fastest growing fields in the broad field of engineering is Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing. AM is being used in many fields including, among others, design, STEM, construction, art, and healthcare. Many educational institutions however, do not have the requisite capacity and resources to effectively educate students in this area particularly when it comes to rapid transition from design to small-volume level production. A coalition of several higher education institutions under a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Project has been working towards providing educators with the skills and material resources to effectively teach their students about 3D printing. The ultimate beneficiaries are high school and post-secondary students and include those in vocational fields. Before and during Fall 2019, Train the Trainer Studios (TTS) were conducted to train instructors, drawing participants from many institutions across neighboring states designed to provide hands-on instruction to participants. In addition, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and webinars have also been made available to all participating instructors and other collaborators to openly share the information being generated through this ATE AM coalition. Evaluation of the TTS revealed many positive results, with the participants sharing many success stories after implementing the learned concepts at their institutions. From the evaluation findings, participants were largely satisfied with the delivery and quality of instruction they received from all the TTS presenters, with almost all of them, in all instances, indicating that the training they received would be useful in their programs. The current paper and proposed presentation will report on the lessons learned through this process, including sharing some of the success stories from the instructors and their students.
Michael Littrell is a graduate research and teaching assistant at Tennessee Tech University. He is pursuing a PhD in Exceptional Learning with an Emphasis in Program Planning and Evaluation. He is interested in quantitative research methodology in education, student assessment, and applied statistics. Michael Littrell has conducted research and evaluation of a wide range of education and non-education focused programs.
George Chitiyo is a Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation at Tennessee Tech University. He teaches courses in research methods, statistics, and program evaluation. His research interests include the psychosocial aspects of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa as well as economics of health and higher education both in the U.S. and in Southern Africa. He is involved in designing and implementing evaluation initiatives of several educational programs and interventions in PreK-12 and higher education settings.
Currently, Dr. Fidan serves as a Professor of the Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology at Tennessee Tech University. His research and teaching interests are in additive manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, distance learning, and STEM education. Dr. Fidan is a member and active participant of SME, ASEE, ABET, ASME, and IEEE. He is also the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology and International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing.
Mel Cossette is the Executive Director and Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation-ATE funded MatEdU: Online Instructional Resources for Material Science Technology Education and the Technician Education in Additive Manufacturing & Materials (TEAMM) project housed at Edmonds College in Lynnwood, WA. Mel has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing education and has developed technician-training programs for industry and educational institutions. She serves on numerous committees and national boards, and worked in various industries prior to holding administrative positions in the community and technical college system.
Tom is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Sinclair Community College in the areas of design and manufacturing. Tom serves as a Co-PI for the NSF funded AM-WATCH project focusing on design and curriculum development on additive manufacturing at Sinclair. Tom also serves as the Principal Investigator on the NSF funded STEM Guitar Project and manages the guitar manufacturing lab @ Sinclair which produces over 1600+ guitar kits a year distributed across the United States. He is a NISOD Teaching Excellence award winner, Certified Autodesk instructor and ETAC-ABET Commissioner.
Ed Tackett is the Director of Workforce Development at the University of Louisville. Ed has over 25 years of experience in additive manufacturing education and has developed numerous technician-training programs for industry and educational institutions. He also provides industry training programs to several emerging industry clusters. Throughout his career, Ed has provided technical workforce development expertise to several community colleges, technical colleges, universities, governmental organizations and the Department of Defense.
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