Project Helps Create a More Employable Workforce

Assistant professor Raymond Dixon is helping create a larger employable workforce in Idaho.

Under a National Science Foundation grant called “Creating a Regional Workforce for Rural Manufacturing,” University of Idaho is collaborating with the administrator of the grant, Lewis-Clark State College, as well as Northwest Intermountain Manufacturers Association and the Clearwater Economic Development Association.

Dixon, a technical education assistant professor, is helping oversee LCSC’s $200,000 grant that helps train students in the use of solid modeling software used in technical education classes called Solidworks. To further increase STEM integration and the competency of the students, math and science teachers in six schools in northern Idaho and eastern Washington were trained on the software. In learning the software’s capabilities, the students connect STEM subjects to the software and increase their understanding and competency.

Dixon says that giving more high school graduates access to knowledge in this area will allow them to better compete for technical jobs in Idaho.

In the project’s conception, Dixon said the question arose: “For those who are not going to college, it was asked ‘Why not make sure they have the competency to go to work?’ ”

Learning this software in high school can make it easier for those students to make the transition to work and create a more employable workforce within Idaho.

Curriculum to integrate all subject matters was developed in a STEM Reflective Guide, which allows student teams to use math, science and engineering concepts while using Solidworks in building a dragster model car. The curriculum created a hands-on experience where the student teams work outside the classroom, thus minimizing extra hours at school.

The project pushes students to consider subjects such as the properties of wood from which the dragster is being created, aerodynamics, propellants, emissions, mass and volume in the design of the car in Solidworks.

The grant started in August 2011 and will fund the project through July 2014. For more information, go to www.lcsc.edu/nsf.