Student Co-Curricular: (March 11th, 2015)

For my Student Co-Curricular event, I helped coordinate the CSU-hosted Colorado TEAMS
competition. This event brings Engineering and Math-minded students together for a team-based
competition to analyze and solve hypothetical engineering problems. Students are required to assess
and manipulate data, as well as propose designs and solutions to these problems. My duty was to
both support students professionally, as well as to proctor the test environment. Additionally, proctors
served as tour guides for the new PowerHouse Energy Campus building on North College. Through
this, students were introduced to the different Engineering vocations offered at CSU, as well as the
types of research performed, and the facilities housed.
I have assisted with this event four of the past five years, and am always pleased with the
outcome. It is an excellent chance for student outreach in engineering, as well as providing them an
outlet for scientific curiosity, as well as rewards for indulging that curiosity. Unlike MathCOUNTS and
ScienceBowl, TEAMS particularly fosters a teamwork environment towards solving one large,
comprehensive problem, and focuses less on the correct answer as opposed to reliable, logical thought
processes.

Professional Co-Curricular: (February 19th & 20th, 2015)

Earlier this year, I attended the CTEA (Colorado Technology Educators Association) conference
at Warren Tech in Lakewood. This two day conference hosted classes for educators, group
collaboration, and meetings with valuable technology vendors and publishers relevant to our content
fields. The conference is set up on an a-la-carte method so that attendees may choose classes at will,
depending on interest and content relevance, particularly as many classes are offered year-to-year. I
was able to view workshops on 3D printing, woodworking, flight, welding, as well as learn from 30 year
veterans generously donating their lesson plan ideas to us in lecture format. Besides being an
opportunity to network, it provides professional development in the form of exposure to out-of-district
ideas, bringing multiple levels of state and university collaboration together. We also have the chance
to visit with vendors and see demonstrations of products prior to investment. The final component of
the CTEA conference is state communication with the national level, ITEEA. Policies, goals, standards,
and representatives are voted on during these events, though only by registered members of CTEA. I
find this a critical organization to participate in each year. As Engineering Educators are limited in
number, we suffer from an inability to frequently interact with content-specific colleagues. CTEA is a
keystone opportunity to bridge this gap, learning from others on curriculum development, as well as to
present ones own ideas. For example, CTEA is currently in a transitional phase to CTEEA (Colorado
Technology and Engineering Educators Association). As newly-degreed members from Engineering
Education enter the field, we provide an alternative (and sometimes dissonant!) voice in the
associations development.