We have a national STEM Skills Gap Crisis. Industry needs skilled and educated employees.
When students are engaged and excited about a STEM project properly managed through their engineering design process (EDP) steps with their teachers, the student outcomes for each team will be met with success breeding success. The HEAT Corp Design System with an Electronic EDP STEM notebook as the core, integrated with STEM Activities and Challenges/Competitions, is the bridge to success in closing our national STEM skills gap!
Early in the last century it was recognized by industry and education that youth needed training to prepare for the workforce, with congress initiating the Smith Hughes act of 1918, then throughout the United States programs grew that were centered around vocational training and academic learning. Here we are over 100 years later facing unprecedented growths in technology affecting every facet of our lives, especially in business and industry, and we aren’t keeping up. We have gone off track along the way with the education system having created a growing division between academic and vocational training, with vocational training given a “less than” label. Efforts have been made to correct this with much local, state and federal funding to schools to combine academic and vocational learning—yet we here are still with a GROWING Skills Gap. Missing is a significant tool and process to assist teachers to engage, manage and excite their students into STEM careers through skills challenges.HEAT Corp built the web based tool to fill this gap-EDEN©-The Engineering Design Electronic Notebook.
We do not have adequate numbers of programs engaging enough students, due the need for much time needed for after school hours and weekend STEM events (FIRST, FPSI, VEX, BEST, SKILLS USA, LEGO etc) typically with no or little additional training or pay for the additional after school STEM duties.
We have diminished teacher vocational education programs and have virtually eliminated Technology Education teacher preparation programs, whom have led most STEM and creative design programs, being replaced with untrained teachers for hands on applications based training programs (for makers space style activities with 3D printing, CAD, CNC milling, laser cutting for manufactured processes) from academic areas being forced to take the lead without the pedagogical training and background to prepare and engage students into STEM careers.
Student’s do not naturally gravitate to planning, organizing and documenting information as the EDP warrants. This is due to the developmental process of the brains frontal lobe, accentuating the need for transformational tools to assist teachers managing their students through the EDP.
There are not adequate tools for STEM educators to manage students in an EDP.
What programs that do exist, are expensive, time intensive, and do not engage the numbers of students needed to diminish the skills gap, especially manufacturing careers.
The HEAT Corp Design System, addresses the issues, outlined above, by providing the ability to engage more students, in an electronic format utilizing pedagogical processes of proven industry and educational practices to manage any STEM hands on makers’ space style projects and competitive STEM activities, such as FIRST Robotics, VEX Robotics, Drone Challenges, BEST robotics, the Technology Student Association (TSA) and more. Students with projects not adhering to, and well documenting, the EDP do not experience the successful outcomes otherwise achievable. STEM educators and Project Managers, with EDEN, have the tools to guide their STEM teams through the EDP, and do so affordably while meeting specific outcomes. What we are doing is not working effectively as can be achieved, the solution is in the classroom between the teacher and the student. The project managers/teachers’ guidance of their STEM teams EDP in the engineering notebooks, is the key.
To meet these challenges to assist Teachers and Schools, HEAT Corp created the Engineering Design & Electronic Notebook (EDEN©), providing STEM programs the tools to manage STEM students engaged in engineering focused and STEM competitive environments, directed to outcomes correlated to specific knowledge & skills sets. EDEN will significantly increase student success in STEM projects and programs. It is a critical tool for teachers to manage each project to ensure the STEM project team is adhering to the EDP. With increased programs success, more students will become engaged through a growing number of programs nationally utilizing the HEAT Corp Design System tools and STEM activities/challenges, thus increasing students seeking STEM careers and closing the skills gap.
EDEN is unique, it is an app & web based electronic engineering notebook. There are electronic binders, journals, and portfolios – but these are not the same products as they do not meet the standards of an engineering notebook, portfolios, journals and binders are not engineering notebooks. Here are some–see the comparison chart for more detail and EDEN’s overview from EDEN’s Help/FAQ
Missing is a coherent focus to infuse the base of knowledge and skills for applications based learning, adhering students to the Technological/Creative Engineering Design Process (EDP) as the methodology for program management and student STEM project/competition documentation. The EDP is used in industry for a reason—it works. Students/STEM teams whom adhere to the EDP have predictably high success rates for their product/project, and are excited and motivated to continue. Students with projects not adhering to an EDP do not experience the successful outcomes otherwise achievable.
“Academics and Applications as One,” through HEAT Corp’s EDEN© at its core. EDEN stands above all as it provides teachers with a STEM activity classroom management process, as well as STEM competition team guidance. EDEN enhances the traditional hardbound engineering notebook through online connectedness to manage by each step of the EDP to assist project/product design as well as team cohesiveness, all the while easily accessible by the instructors to assist each STEM project team along the way as well as providing STEM judges access via EDEN’s URL to for each project notebook for STEM competition.
| Features | E- Portfolios/Journals | HEAT Corp’s EDEN |
|---|---|---|
| Add Pictures/Videos/Text/CAD Drawings | Yes | Yes |
| Dates Locked and Date Stamped | No | Yes |
| Feature which locks a Final Entry from deletion-all entries are permanent | No | Yes |
| Forces the use of a cross through to identify deletions—locks page removal- | No | Yes |
| Provides Project Manager/Teacher ability to guide and check teams EDP steps with advanced approval by engineering design area. | No | Yes |
| Private Project Manager/Teacher to Team date stamped notes in entries | No | Yes |
| Provides Team members notes to add-date stamped in specific entries | No | Yes |
| Adheres entries to the individual steps of the engineering/creative/technological design process | No | Yes |
| Provides STEM Comp Judges Feedback to Teacher to Share Per STEM Challenge | No | Yes |
| Provides an opportunity for coach teacher affidavit to verify student only work | No | Yes |
| Provides Video Links for STEM Challenge Activity Verification and Sharing | No | Yes |
To access and use EDEN’s free resources, and order EDEN© for your projects go to:
Go to EDEN© - Learn more, Take advantage of EDEN’s free resources:
There is no fee to register and access EDEN’s resources until you are ready to set up your student/team notebooks for your STEM team projects. Go to EDEN’s HELP/FAQ for more information in EDEN. Payment is Credit Card, Pay Pal or Purchase Order -PO (there is a minimum purchase for a PO-more info in EDEN’s HELP FAQ)