While SCTCC serves students from all walks of life, many of those attending graduated from high school in the past five years. And many of those students likely remember a teacher in high school who advised them or helped them along the way.
That’s why SCTCC has been striving to increase its commitment to Minnesota high school teachers in their training and professional development. Not only do these partnerships help those teachers, but it exposes to them the many options that their graduates have when they choose a two-year college.
SCTCC and AgCentric displayed a symbiotic relationship like this in the past by hosting and providing support for agriculture, STEM, and trades teachers. In 2023, a three-day workshop with CEUs was held in the Advanced Manufacturing Center that explored resources for student career exploration and training from SCTCC instructors. While this specific training was delivered to those close to the St. Cloud region, it provided a template for Dean of Skilled Trades, Steve Hoemberg, to work with and expand.
“Very few activities exemplify our SCTCC Vision Statement more than bringing teachers onto our campus for professional development,” noted Hoemberg. “And we recognize the essential role our K-12 educators play in inspiring and preparing today's children for tomorrow's workforce.”
As a result, SCTCC hosted two teacher trainings over the summer, one with a emphasis on robotics and automation and another focused on drone technology.
Agriculture Robots and Automation Technologies
In late June, SCTCC was host to teachers from 11 states and Puerto Rico. The professional development opportunities focused on implementing robotics, automation, sensors, coding, and plant systems technology into the agriculture classrooms. With the always-changing technology needs of agriculture, the training is vital to staying current.
With the hands-on training, teachers will be able to teach students better understand crop production; linking classroom activities to tech that’s already being used, the examples showed how all the pieces work with human decision making in modern agriculture.
The training, which is developed by AgCentric and CASE 4 Learning and supported by the National Science Foundation’s ARAT project through AgCentric, was a perfect complement to SCTCC’s Farm Business Management program.
FFA Summer Conference
One of the technologies that has been increasingly used in farm production is drones. From mapping to crop spraying, they are a versatile addition to making farms as businesses more efficient. It’s not just farming—they are being used in civil engineering, law enforcement, and other fields.
After receiving a grant for integrating drones into their classrooms, Future Farmers of America educators reached out to Zack Nicklin, Director of Aircraft Maintenance Technician, about how to safely bring drones to their students. The day-and-a-half training was a professional development opportunity as part of the Minnesota Association of Agricultural Education Summer Conference.
“Zack's expertise in the field and his strong reputation as a supporter of teachers have made him a highly sought after leader of this kind of professional development,” Hoemberg shared. “It's exciting to have teachers from across the state here on our campus for this exciting learning opportunity!”
More to Come
The opportunities for teacher training at SCTCC have expanded both in nature and in reach. With statewide and nation-wide attendees on campus, the value goes beyond that provided to the teachers who are on campus for professional development. The experience they have on our campus, from SCTCC’s central location to our instructors’ skills and knowledge, have worth beyond the couple days they are physically here.
The teacher/SCTCC model that Hoemberg has initiated and grown is one that is sure to expand beyond the Skilled Trades division as other organizations see the significance of partnering with SCTCC.
Hoemberg summed it up: “As a ‘community of learners rooted in meaningful relationships,’ we are able to pair our state-of-the-art facilities with our highly skilled, down-to-earth faculty to really support K-12 educators as they work hard to stay current in their technical knowledge and skills. We feel grateful to have them here at SCTCC for professional development opportunities like these.”