March 31, 2025 • 32 mins
Let's hear from Jake Taylor, Technical and Training Manager of the Great Opportunities in Technology and Engineering Careers (GO TEC®) program managed by IALR. GO TEC is an innovative career initiative providing middle school students across Virginia with engaging, hands-on experiences in technology, manufacturing and engineering careers.
Jake shares how GO TEC rapidly expanded from a pilot program in Danville and Pittsylvania County to over 50 middle schools statewide, with further growth anticipated. He explains the strategic approach to maintaining consistency while addressing regional industry differences and details the logistical complexities involved in equipping classrooms, training educators and ensuring continuous program improvement.
Highlights include:
- What is GO TEC? (00:36)
- Rapid statewide growth (01:42)
- Hands-on career exploration (04:00)
- Partnering across Virginia (05:43)
- Supporting teachers and classrooms (14:38)
- Bridging the high school gap (23:54)
- STEM Innovator of the Year Award (27:00)
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR.
Thanks for joining us today.
This is a fun one.
Somehow, Jake Taylor, who isour technical and training
manager for our GoTech program,has not been on this podcast yet
.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've dodged you pretty good over the last few
months, Caleb.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So we have Jake here to tell us all about GoTech.
So thanks for being here, Jake.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Quick overview of GoTech first and then you can
we'll get into kind of your roleand how this program's growing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah.
So GoTech stands for greatopportunities in technology and
engineering careers A fancy wayof saying.
We embed programs in middleschools across the state that
get students excited, engaged,exposed to and give them
meaningful hands-on experiencesin a variety of career pathways,
and these career pathways havebeen identified by an
(00:57):
organization that we partnerwith as being very important for
economic development,sustainability and the state as
a whole.
So the whole idea is to givethem a meaningful experience so
they can find out what they like, what they don't like, let them
know what income potential ispossible for these careers.
The careers we focus on arehigher than average pay, so
(01:18):
we're trying to get studentsexcited and thinking about those
opportunities.
But that's kind of in anutshell what the Go Tech
program does.
We started at the middle schoollevel with the idea that they
will have an experiencethroughout their educational
pathways.
So from middle school all theway to graduation,
post-secondary opportunities.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You've been in this program for five years now.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, a little over five years.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I know when you started this was was I mean
basically a baby pilot programthat started for danville and
pittsylvania county.
I know this year, this academicyear, we're talking 52 middle
schools.
That's, that's what it's incurrently, and then next year
you guys have been saying thenumber 73, 73 yeah, 73 is
projected tell us a little bitabout how do you take that?
(02:03):
yeah, I guess that that modelthat was created in the middle
school level here in Danville inPennsylvania, where it's still
in all of the schools here, andthen expand that out to not so
in 2019, when I started, withthe Institute as a training
(02:26):
coordinator.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My role was training the teachers, installing the
equipment, troubleshootingequipment, providing
instructional support,developing curriculum.
We spent a lot of time in thoseearly years, you know, doing
those things, supportingteachers, recognizing that you
know this program is only goingto be strong if our student
outcomes are strong and the onlyway that that takes place is if
we're supporting the teacherscorrectly.
(02:48):
So a lot of effort went intomaking sure that we were doing
those things to support teachers, to make sure that they could
do the job we needed them to do.
But yeah, so, thinking back totwo pilot schools which ended up
being three prior to myonboarding here at the Institute
, and how we grew from those twoto six, to 13, to 18, to, a
(03:12):
couple years later, 52, wherewe're at now, it's been a really
nice journey.
I look back on it and I'm kindof proud of where it's come and
I look forward to what we havein store for us in the future.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I want to talk a little bit more and we'll for us
in the future.
I want to talk a little bitmore and we'll get back.
We'll get more to the growth.
I want to.
I want to talk about that somemore too, but I want to get back
a little bit to the model.
So it's basically and Iactually went out a few weeks
ago to you, helped me, you know,set up a time to go out to one
of the middle school classroomsto take some pictures and
interact with the students and Imean, basically, these students
(03:43):
are getting super hands-onexperiences.
That's the whole idea is thatit's whether it be robotics or
welding or automation orprecision machining or indoor,
all of these different careerfields the whole idea is that
it's very hands-on.
I guess kind of what's thethought process behind that?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
So we want to make sure that inall the career paths we address
that we're meeting all of thesethe goals for the model to have
.
So we want there to beinstruction about, you know, the
types of jobs that they canhave inside those career paths,
the education experience thatthey need to enter those careers
at different levels.
(04:21):
So it's not all about entrylevel, it's not all about
management level or bachelordegree level type positions.
It's showing entry points atmultiple levels and so then they
can make informed decisionsabout you know how long do they
need to go to school to make Xamount of money so they can
start thinking through thosethings.
For the hands-on part, you knowevery single instructional
(04:44):
module that we have has anidentified piece of equipment
with it that is industryidentified or relevant in those
pathways.
So we make sure that studentsare introduced to that equipment
, understand what it's like tointeract with it, talk about
really what does a day in thejob look like for those
particular career pathways.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So we're not giving them misinformation, we're
making sure that it's veryrelevant to what they would
experience and if they went intothose career paths having gone
in those classrooms, it's socool to see sixth, seventh,
eighth graders playing withrobots and playing with the Haas
CNC machines, which are, I mean, that's what you're going to
find out in industry.
I've heard you guys talk aboutthat all the time.
(05:24):
How it's, these are tools thatindustry helped identify, that.
These are the brands thatshould be in here.
These are the types ofequipment I guess, to keep going
with that.
You know the GoTech model.
Who are, I guess?
Who is involved?
I know, obviously, theInstitute.
We kind of are the mainadministrators of this program,
but who are all the differentpartners that help make this
program successful?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's right.
So, as the program expandedinside of our current region and
the Danville footprint, ilr hasbeen the driving force for that
.
As we've moved out intodifferent regions of the state,
we recognize that it was notpractical, nor was it feasible
for institute-based staff,danville-based employees, to be
aware of the ecosystems of theseregions, the political pitfalls
(06:06):
of these regions and and andyou know, know all of the
partners that it's important touh, you know partner with, with
their roles inside of theseregions.
So, as we've done this work andmoved across the state, we've
partnered with what we call inregion coordinating entities.
We like acronyms in education,so we call them IRCEs.
Too many acronyms here Way toomany acronyms and we make them
(06:29):
up daily, sometimes just as alittle side joke.
But in different regions of thestate where we've gone to we've
kind of reached out and triedto find who's going to be that
key player to help us continuethis work and expand that work
in their region.
A lot of times it'sorganizations who are familiar
with educational programs.
They may be community-based orthey may be more higher ed-based
(06:51):
, but that's kind of the varietythat we've seen so far across
the state in terms of who wepartner with.
But in Southwest Virginia wepartner with EO and that's the
former United Way SouthwestVirginia.
They recently had had kind of arebranding and a split of
programming.
So EO is our partner inAbington, virginia.
They house our remote staffthat are doing our work in
(07:14):
Region 1.
They host our training lab inRegion 1.
And in different regions of thestate, if you go all the way to
Richmond in our Richmond area wepartner with CCAM, the
Commonwealth Center for AdvancedManufacturing.
It's located in Disputana inPrince George County, virginia,
and also they house our staff.
(07:34):
They house a training lab there.
They help us map out schooldivisions that are interested,
find funding sources, writegrants to fund those middle
school labs In Region 5, whichis the Hampton Roads Newport
News area.
It's been ODU and we have ourtraining lab is at a location
currently called Brooks Crossing.
(07:55):
It's a facility in Newport Newsowned by the city and we're
currently in the process ofmoving that training lab.
So we're landing a new home atthe Penn Center, which is on the
campus of Peninsula CommunityCollege, also in Newport.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
New Hampton Awesome, and I know you mentioned you
know working with a lot ofdifferent partners.
I know GoVirginia has been adriving funder for a lot of this
Talk.
I guess talk a little bit aboutthat and then some of the other
partners involved as well.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
When I was first hired in 2019, I came in in the
first year of a three-yearcompetitive grant that seeded
the program in Region 3, and italso funded a lab in Region 4,
which is now in CCAM's coveragearea, and it funded a lab in
Region 1, which is in coveragearea, and it funded a lab in
(08:48):
region one, which is in uh eo'scoverage area in region one but
um in go virginia, they um.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
They provided all of the funding to initially staff
and scale the program in regionthree and those two programs
just on the outskirts of regionthree which, for those listening
that don't know, region threeis 15 localities that include
danville, pennsylvania countyand kind of the surrounding
localities in all directionsexcept south, because that's
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's right.
It goes as far west as PatrickCounty, as far east as
Mecklenburg County and on thenorthern kind of boundaries of
Amelia, buckingham, cumberland.
That's all part of Region 3.
So, yeah, govirginia has been agreat partner in the initial
startup of the program and theycontinue to fund our expansion
(09:32):
into the middle schools withregional per capita requests.
So, without getting too deep init, govirginia has a couple
different buckets of money.
They have per capita moneythat's available for programs
that are very specific to theirregion.
There's a certain amount ofmoney awarded to programs based
on the population.
That's what the per capitabucket's for.
(09:54):
Then they have a competitivebudget Some of our grants.
Where it crosses multipleregions, they would qualify for
different competitive grants.
We've been able to utilize bothfunding mechanisms from
GoVirginia and we look forwardto utilizing those in the future
as well.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And I know that funding is important because the
equipment is not cheap.
You know you guys aren't givingstudents cheap equipment to
play with.
This is the real deal, thatthey're getting real hands-on
experiences.
That, as you said in thebeginning, obviously the idea is
to give that awareness andexcitement level and-on
experiences.
That, as you said in thebeginning, obviously the idea is
to give that awareness andexcitement level.
That then and then show themhow, if they were interested in
pursuing that, where to go fromthere.
But talk a little bit about Iknow the equipment is the same
(10:34):
across all of the places, buttalk about how how the program
is different in SouthwestVirginia versus in Virginia
Beach and even from school toschool.
I know it kind of varies fromschool to school how this is
rolled out.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I guess kind of piggybacking on your model
question too, to kind of talkabout those differences, is one
of the things that we'vediscussed a lot internally with
the model is how do we maintainconsistency in the program but
also allow for those regionaldifferences when there's
industry sectors that are vastlydifferent across the state of
(11:09):
Virginia?
How do we respond to the needsthat are very specific to those?
And we've done that by a coupledifferent ways.
We have specific modules so wewill adopt new modules if we
find out that there is anexplicit need for that new
module if it maps to one of theindustry sectors in a new region
of GoVirginia, if our currentprogramming does not meet what
(11:32):
we feel and what other industryand we go through a lot of
vetting processes with ourcontent to where, if it doesn't
meet what it should, we'll goback and we'll develop a new
module to kind of meet thoseneeds.
In some instances and I'll giveyou a specific it's like
manufacturing across the state.
So there are differentmanufacturing sectors identified
(11:54):
as being regionally importantacross the state.
But when we look down into themiddle school experience, what
the students are doing in ourmanufacturing engineering module
experience, what the studentsare doing in our manufacturing
engineering module.
There's a lot of opportunityinside that module where it's
the fundamental concepts andskills in manufacturing and
those will transcend into theregional differences and it may
(12:16):
be just using the rightvocabulary and making sure we're
introducing students topharmaceutical manufacturing, if
they're in Region 4, thegreater Richmond area.
Maritime, if they're in Region5, thinking of the shipyard and
everything associated withmaritime, and then other sectors
across the state.
For Region 1, it's food andbeverage manufacturing.
(12:36):
So inside the model there'sconsistency and then there's
also opportunity for regionaldifferences based on specific
need.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
What does the actual student experience look like?
Because I know that can varytoo, depending on school
capacity, teacher capacity, howmany students can even go
through it?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So on average our classrooms have about 20
students per section.
But it depends on a lot ofthings that you mentioned Grade
level, how long are theirgrading periods, how long is the
class?
Is it a 45 minute class, 60minutes, 70 minute, 75, 90.
We have a lot of differentflavors across the state because
schools get to decide theircalendar, they get to decide
(13:16):
their master schedule.
So what we have that you knowstudent experience could be nine
modules.
So nine modules is our modeland in our lowest dosage of that
, a student would receive amodule per week.
So five days at 45 minutes.
That is on the lowest dosage ofour model.
(13:36):
The highest dosage of our modelwould be four weeks at 45
minutes inside of a module.
So that could be some of thedisparity we see across the
state.
And it's all just how schoolsdo their scheduling, grading
periods, all the things that youknow schools have the autonomy
to do and that's how we can help, you know, map our resource
(13:57):
into their school.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And I know a lot of the work that you guys do is
making sure that thoseexperiences obviously they're
going to differ a little bitdepending on how much time, but
that those experiences, thosemodules, remain the same across
the entire state and across allthose different divisions and
time constraints and things likethat.
What I really want to talk toyou about, though, is you went
(14:20):
from a training coordinator,where you were responsible for
training a few teachers for afew schools, to now you are sort
of overseeing theimplementation of all of this
different technology andtraining.
I would assume there's hundredsof how many teachers are we
talking?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right now.
So in our 52 schools we havesome schools that have multiple
teachers.
I think the last count I hadwas 68 teachers currently in our
program.
Okay, so in our 52 schools wehave some schools that have
multiple teachers.
I think the last count I hadwas 68 teachers currently in our
program.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, so currently 68 teachers, obviously about to be
a lot more if we're adding 21schools next school year.
What kind of goes into thatprocess of you and your team
implementing, maintaining thistechnology and then also
training these educators?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, so we outline a lot of our best practices.
So we have a training plan fornew teachers that we use as kind
of our guide when we startengaging with new teachers.
So you know, there's everythingthat goes into making a
training successful and we haveagendas and we have pacing and
everything that we use for ourtrainings across the state.
(15:22):
But that gets kind of veryspecific into the training.
One of the things we also do iswe track how we train our
teachers.
So if you picked a singularteacher in our program, we could
tell you every time they'vebeen trained what topics were
covered, who trained them, whatday it was on.
So we are very diligent inmaking sure that we keep track
(15:43):
of when we train teachers, whatwe train them on and all of the
things, and that way we can, youknow, identify gaps, respond to
those gaps to make sure thatwe're providing the best support
we can to these teachers.
So you know, there's thetraining side and how we track
training.
There's the ordering.
So when you think aboutexpanding a program, like you
(16:04):
said, the equipment's not cheap.
There's a lot of differentequipment that goes into it.
So we utilize a lot of vendors,so we maintain relationships
with our vendors to be able toleverage bulk buying.
We maintain relationships withthem to where they'll let us
know when a price is gettingready to go up.
That way, if're getting readyto purchase equipment but we
haven't finalized processing,get it in before this date and
(16:27):
you might save some money.
So we want to be really goodstewards of Go Virginia money,
which ultimately is taxpayermoney, so we take that job very
seriously.
So we maintain a lot ofdifferent documents to make sure
we streamline those processesacross the state and any chance
we have to where we can makesomething better.
That continuous improvementthat you see in manufacturing,
(16:50):
we utilize that in a lot of ourprocesses in Go Tech as well.
So we have four trainingcoordinators that report to me.
I'm fortunate to work with agreat team, but, yeah, we have a
training coordinator that'sstationed in each region and,
like you said, we do have oneposition.
It is posted.
So, uh, yeah, if anyone'sinterested, I'll use this as a
chance for a plug, maybe, ifwhich location is that yeah,
(17:11):
region four at ccam, our regionfour training coordinator.
Uh, we just reposted theposition.
We made a few changes uh to theto the posting uh, but that's
now uh live the ILR's website,ilrjobs, so you can find that
and if interested, please doapply.
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, I think that's just really cool that you and
your team is basicallyresponsible for, yeah,
implementing this technology.
I'm sure teachers are callingyou guys all the time with.
I mean, we're talking at least10 machines or 10 pieces of
equipment in each classroom,right?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Oh, it's a lot more than that.
A lot more than that.
What's?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
our number.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, so we probably have.
If you had pieces of technology, a number, it's well over 100.
In each classroom.
Oh yeah, If you count everyArduino Uno, every robot, every
machine, 3d printer, lasercutter, it's well over 100
pieces of technology, and thatdoesn't even count the
supporting software that goeswith it.
Right?
(18:08):
So it's a system of you knowmaking sure we support that full
implementation of the rightsoftwares to manipulate the
equipment and everything theyneed to effectively deliver
instruction and the students youknow get that instruction.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So how often are there teachers calling you
saying, hey, this piece ofequipment is broken.
Can you help me figure out howto fix it?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It could.
So it might not necessarily bebroken, but we field questions
daily or, you know, inquiriesdaily from teachers, whether
it's hey, I might have got thiserror message and I didn't know
exactly what to do, or you know,or this particular piece of
equipment the last time I ran itit did this there's going to be
(18:47):
a way that we can prioritizeand move things around and talk.
This is important.
We need to really fix this fast, but our staff maintains
constant contact with theteachers.
We want them to develop arapport with their teacher to
where the teacher doesn't feellike it's a.
You know that they feelcomfortable asking for help.
We want to.
We want the teacher to knowwe're here to support them and
(19:10):
we want them to ask for helpwhen they need help.
We don't want them to sit witha piece of equipment that's not
able to be used that a studentcould be using to get a
meaningful experience.
We want to get that piece ofequipment back online so the
teachers can go back to teaching.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
How are these teachers selected?
Because all the teachers in theGo Tech program don't directly
work for Go Tech.
They work for the schooldivision.
So how are these teacherschosen?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, that's one of those.
Julie calls it a sticky wicket.
So Julie, our VP of advancedlearning here, she always talks
about sticky wickets.
So yeah, as a partner, we'renot a supervisor of the teacher,
we're a partner of the schooldivision.
We're a partner of that teacher.
So what we try to make sure iswe just keep an open line of
communication.
(19:50):
We outline the roles.
You know, when we partner witha school division, there is an
agreement in place between GOTech, ilr and that school
division.
It's a MOU and in that MOU theroles of each entity are
outlined and so we make sure wecommunicate that so everybody
knows what their roles are.
And then we just try to supportthem the best we can, develop
(20:13):
that rapport with the instructorand respond to the need.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
What's your over five years your best story from
working with, whether it be youknow technology, trying to try
to set up the technology in aclassroom or a last minute
something broke with the teacher.
You know what's what's.
What's the best story we got.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
We fielded questions with teachers and you know
teachers when they're thinkingabout all the instruction that
they have to do, all the thingswhen students come through the
door, sometimes it's some simplethings that are just forgotten.
It could be the simplest thingsand I'll give you a prime
example.
Is you know, get a call, thispiece of equipment's not working
(20:51):
.
I've tried everything, I pressthe button, nothing happens.
I've done everything.
Could be as simple as is itplugged in.
So we always start super simple.
You know we've had instancesand then the teachers they'll
get.
You know they might getembarrassed but it's not a big
deal.
They're focused on a lot ofthings in their day and if we
can take any of those off ofthem, we're providing levels of
(21:12):
support that we're we should beproviding.
We've had, we've had instanceswhere things weren't plugged in
or pieces of equipment like themilling machine has multiple
power plugs.
Well, if you plug in thecontroller but you don't plug in
the actual milling machineitself, the controller boots up
and you get all kinds of errormessages.
You're like whoa, and thoseerror messages are just a result
(21:35):
of both machines not havingpower at the same time.
I'm trying to think of somefunnies, I guess you know we
have a competition each year andwe do have a team that always
comes dressed up in costume andI think that surprised us a
little bit that first year.
But they're full of spirit.
You know school spirit.
The teacher's very spirited andthey come fully dressed up in
(21:58):
Halloween-style costumes, fullbody suits of different.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
That competition you mentioned, that's the robotics
competition.
That's in a week and a halfright.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, coming up April 10th here at ILR.
Yeah, that's right, this willbe our third one coming up, but
yeah, so that's been a good one.
I'm trying to think of anystandout funnies.
You know, I think in each timewhen our training coordinators
go out and assist in instructionand from my previous
experiences as assisting ininstruction there's always some
(22:28):
student feedback you get thatyou didn't necessarily expect,
and I think that's what's uniqueabout middle school teachers
and their experiences with theirstudents, and that middle
school age group is tough.
So you gotta, you gotta know toexpect the unexpected.
And then that's something thatwe talk about in our group
trainings all the time is, youknow you put all this equipment
in a classroom.
(22:49):
You try to predict what's amiddle school student going to
do that could, you know, hurtthemselves or hurt the equipment
, or so all those best practices, you know safety and making
sure the equipment lasts in theclassroom.
But at the end of the day,middle school students are going
to do middle school studentthings sometimes, and that's I
would say that there's probablya book of stories out there
(23:09):
somewhere of those, and I'vejust forgotten some of the more
you know more common ones.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
To go back to the whole kind of mission of Go Tech
.
You know we're trying to bringawareness to these career
opportunities early.
You know, not introducing themin 11th grade, 12th grade, when
the opportunity is already therefor them for these programs,
but show them early so then ifthey're interested, they can
pursue those things.
I know a big next part of thisthat you all have been working
(23:37):
on is that 9th and 10th gradeGenerally there's a lot of good
11th and 12th grade programs,dual enrollment programs, cte
programs, 9th and 10th not somuch.
Talk a little bit about thatwork you guys are doing to
bridge, kind of, to bring somelevel of CTE or career and
technical education, stemeducation to the 9th and 10th
grade.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, that 9th and 10th grade gap for CTE pathway
style programs exists in a lotof, especially in a lot of your
rural school divisions and yoursmaller school divisions where
resources are not as plentiful.
So some of the things thatwe've been fortunate to partner
with with Pennsylvania County,with Danville City, with Henry
(24:15):
County, they have each someninth and 10th grade programming
.
The idea there is that thatentire pathway is a continuous
pathway for students.
So we have them in sixth,seventh and eighth grade in Go
Tech and they get all excitedabout a very specific career
path or multiple career paths.
How do we maintain thatexcitement to not lose them by
(24:35):
the time it's ready to sign upfor 11th and 12th grade, dual
enrollment, cte programs andthings of that nature?
So that's the need for thatcontinuation of experiences and
it looks a little different for9th and 10th grade depending on
the local resources for thosedivisions.
That's been one of the biggerchallenges that I think all of
(24:56):
us on the Go Tech team recognize.
You know the middle schoolprogram has been one we can
standardize and scale.
But with ninth and 10th grade,resources vary so much that for
some school divisions, likePennsylvania County, they have a
centralized facility that theyutilize to provide ninth and
10th grade programming at theirSTEM Academy and they have two
(25:19):
different pathways.
They have a medical sciencepathway and they have an
advanced manufacturing pathwayand so that's a centralized
facility.
Students get bused there, theytake a science course in
addition to their CTE course andthen they're bused back to
their home school, danville City.
They have a centralizedfacility on their campus to be
(25:40):
able to bring students to that.
Henry County a little moreunique they do have a
centralized facility for their11th and 12th grade programs,
but they don't have a facilitywhere they could centrally bus
all of their feeder programs for9th and 10th.
So what they did was theyembedded it in their local high
schools and existing CTEprograms.
So there was a collection ofequipment purchased through a
(26:04):
separate grant from Grove,virginia.
This was actually a Departmentof Defense grant.
Anybody that's listening thatmight have heard about the ATDM
program and other programs inthe Manufacturing Advancement
Division of ILR.
You may have heard about theDefense Manufacturing Community
Support Program.
So one of the branches of thatwas to fund some of these 9th
(26:25):
and 10th grade programs locallyin our region.
So each of those schooldivisions were able to utilize
some of that funding to be ableto bridge that gap for 9th and
10th grade.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, I think that's a really cool well one.
I mean that's good that you allrecognized that this is not
just about the middle school,that this is, you know, to
funnel all the way through andrecognizing that gap, and that
you guys are working onholistically.
How can you do that?
And I know, I mean I've heardyou say it I mean now and before
that that's a division bydivision level thing that you
have to do A little moreprescriptive Yep.
(27:00):
So I think I buried the leadhere.
You just won STEM Innovator ofthe.
Year from Starbase Victory,based in Portsmouth.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, so for the last three years I've been fortunate
enough to partner withPortsmouth City Schools and
their Starbase Victory programthat also supports their city
school system.
It's kind of a supplemental toPortsmouth City Schools.
But in the past three yearswe've done a variety of mobile
lab engagements our GoTechmobile lab, which is that
(27:25):
46-foot-long freightliner deckedout in all the things GoTech.
We've taken it down there andenriched different summer school
programs providing mathenrichment.
So when you think GoTech youdon't necessarily think of math
class, but math concepts areabound in a lot of the
activities that we do.
But we did some roboticsactivities that would enrich
(27:48):
some of the weaknesses of theperformance on their Math 6 SOL.
So we did some targetedremediation with students at a
summer school one year utilizingthe bus and the robotics
equipment on the bus.
The following year we supporteda robotics camp down there for
their STAR-based program and itwas in partnership with the
Children's Museum of Portsmouth.
(28:09):
So the bus was used to buildrobots and test robots on.
But our competition fields thatwe reuse each year from our VEX
competition we execute campswith them.
So those were inside of theChildren's Museum and camp
participants bounced from thebus to the museum, and it all
culminated to a competition atthe end of the week.
(28:29):
In the middle of all of thisprogramming with the bus in the
last three years is the peopleof Portsmouth work together with
their CTE advisory boards, citycouncils, starbase, the city
school system, all the way tothe mayor.
Everyone was involved withfiguring out a way to
strategically enhance theoutcomes for their students and
(28:51):
they identified Go Tech as theyneed to put it in their school
system.
So currently, all three middleschools and Portsmouth City
Schools have a GoTech program,and so, by all of these things
and the work of the Institute asa whole and my GoTech team,
they singled me out for theaward, which I was happy to
accept.
But yeah, it was an honor beingdown there to accept the STEM
(29:14):
Innovator of the Year Award fromStarbase Victory Academy.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, I think that's a cool title.
You should put that on your, onyour linkedin name.
You know some people put likemass, you know, phd or something
behind their name on linkedin.
You just stem innovator of jaketaylor, stem innovator of the
year.
Yeah, um, I think that that's areally cool example of you know
, traditionally our serviceregion is southern virginia and
that has clearly expanded beyondthat with a lot of what we do.
(29:39):
And seeing that, you know inPortsmouth, all the way in the
coast, that you know we're beingrecognized.
You're being recognized for thework of this really, really
innovative middle schooleducation program.
That's all the questions that Ihave.
You know, I think this programis so cool I love telling people
about.
When I tell people about whatthe Institute does, first you
(30:01):
say a lot and then, right thenyou start talking about
specifics and I think this one Ialways come back to because
it's such like people can wraptheir heads around this as being
a very needed, cool, excitingtype of program.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
And it has elements of multiple departments here.
You know it's, it's, it's it'smanufacturing advancement
education, and you know ourmanufacturing advancement team
does that with adult learnersand ATDM.
We just happen to have itembedded in the AL department,
or advanced learning department,because it's in K-12.
So there, you know, early onthere was talk like which, which
division should this even landin as a program?
(30:34):
And so you know, we, we workacross programs.
So well, I don't think itmatters, but you know it's, you
know it's been one of thoseinteresting things.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Good luck training however many new teachers you
guys have coming on board in thenext several months and
bringing all the equipment in,and that sounds like a logistics
.
I don't want to say nightmare,because it's not going to be a
nightmare, but that sounds likea lot of a lot of fun to figure
out.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
A lot of fun.
A lot of fun.
Yeah, some of the growing pains.
You know inflation and tariffsand you write grants and the
timeline from when you write thegrants to where you're awarded
those grants.
You know, sometimes a lot oftime has gone by and a lot of
pricing can change in six months.
So we try to write some wiggleroom inside of these grants to
anticipate those changes.
(31:16):
So lots of strategies and bestpractices, but continuous
improvement.
You know that manufacturingconcept of continuous
improvement it's all in ourprocesses with as we move this
program forward in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, Jake, you're doing great work.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Mr.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
STEM innovator of the year.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Thanks for being here .
Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR.
Thanks for joining us today.
This is a fun one.
Somehow, Jake Taylor, who isour technical and training
manager for our GoTech program,has not been on this podcast yet
.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I've dodged you pretty good over the last few
months, Caleb.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So we have Jake here to tell us all about GoTech.
So thanks for being here, Jake.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Quick overview of GoTech first and then you can
we'll get into kind of your roleand how this program's growing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah.
So GoTech stands for greatopportunities in technology and
engineering careers A fancy wayof saying.
We embed programs in middleschools across the state that
get students excited, engaged,exposed to and give them
meaningful hands-on experiencesin a variety of career pathways,
and these career pathways havebeen identified by an
(00:57):
organization that we partnerwith as being very important for
economic development,sustainability and the state as
a whole.
So the whole idea is to givethem a meaningful experience so
they can find out what they like, what they don't like, let them
know what income potential ispossible for these careers.
The careers we focus on arehigher than average pay, so
(01:18):
we're trying to get studentsexcited and thinking about those
opportunities.
But that's kind of in anutshell what the Go Tech
program does.
We started at the middle schoollevel with the idea that they
will have an experiencethroughout their educational
pathways.
So from middle school all theway to graduation,
post-secondary opportunities.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
You've been in this program for five years now.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, a little over five years.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I know when you started this was was I mean
basically a baby pilot programthat started for danville and
pittsylvania county.
I know this year, this academicyear, we're talking 52 middle
schools.
That's, that's what it's incurrently, and then next year
you guys have been saying thenumber 73, 73 yeah, 73 is
projected tell us a little bitabout how do you take that?
(02:03):
yeah, I guess that that modelthat was created in the middle
school level here in Danville inPennsylvania, where it's still
in all of the schools here, andthen expand that out to not so
in 2019, when I started, withthe Institute as a training
(02:26):
coordinator.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My role was training the teachers, installing the
equipment, troubleshootingequipment, providing
instructional support,developing curriculum.
We spent a lot of time in thoseearly years, you know, doing
those things, supportingteachers, recognizing that you
know this program is only goingto be strong if our student
outcomes are strong and the onlyway that that takes place is if
we're supporting the teacherscorrectly.
(02:48):
So a lot of effort went intomaking sure that we were doing
those things to support teachers, to make sure that they could
do the job we needed them to do.
But yeah, so, thinking back totwo pilot schools which ended up
being three prior to myonboarding here at the Institute
, and how we grew from those twoto six, to 13, to 18, to, a
(03:12):
couple years later, 52, wherewe're at now, it's been a really
nice journey.
I look back on it and I'm kindof proud of where it's come and
I look forward to what we havein store for us in the future.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I want to talk a little bit more and we'll for us
in the future.
I want to talk a little bitmore and we'll get back.
We'll get more to the growth.
I want to.
I want to talk about that somemore too, but I want to get back
a little bit to the model.
So it's basically and Iactually went out a few weeks
ago to you, helped me, you know,set up a time to go out to one
of the middle school classroomsto take some pictures and
interact with the students and Imean, basically, these students
(03:43):
are getting super hands-onexperiences.
That's the whole idea is thatit's whether it be robotics or
welding or automation orprecision machining or indoor,
all of these different careerfields the whole idea is that
it's very hands-on.
I guess kind of what's thethought process behind that?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.
So we want to make sure that inall the career paths we address
that we're meeting all of thesethe goals for the model to have
.
So we want there to beinstruction about, you know, the
types of jobs that they canhave inside those career paths,
the education experience thatthey need to enter those careers
at different levels.
(04:21):
So it's not all about entrylevel, it's not all about
management level or bachelordegree level type positions.
It's showing entry points atmultiple levels and so then they
can make informed decisionsabout you know how long do they
need to go to school to make Xamount of money so they can
start thinking through thosethings.
For the hands-on part, you knowevery single instructional
(04:44):
module that we have has anidentified piece of equipment
with it that is industryidentified or relevant in those
pathways.
So we make sure that studentsare introduced to that equipment
, understand what it's like tointeract with it, talk about
really what does a day in thejob look like for those
particular career pathways.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So we're not giving them misinformation, we're
making sure that it's veryrelevant to what they would
experience and if they went intothose career paths having gone
in those classrooms, it's socool to see sixth, seventh,
eighth graders playing withrobots and playing with the Haas
CNC machines, which are, I mean, that's what you're going to
find out in industry.
I've heard you guys talk aboutthat all the time.
(05:24):
How it's, these are tools thatindustry helped identify, that.
These are the brands thatshould be in here.
These are the types ofequipment I guess, to keep going
with that.
You know the GoTech model.
Who are, I guess?
Who is involved?
I know, obviously, theInstitute.
We kind of are the mainadministrators of this program,
but who are all the differentpartners that help make this
program successful?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's right.
So, as the program expandedinside of our current region and
the Danville footprint, ilr hasbeen the driving force for that
.
As we've moved out intodifferent regions of the state,
we recognize that it was notpractical, nor was it feasible
for institute-based staff,danville-based employees, to be
aware of the ecosystems of theseregions, the political pitfalls
(06:06):
of these regions and and andyou know, know all of the
partners that it's important touh, you know partner with, with
their roles inside of theseregions.
So, as we've done this work andmoved across the state, we've
partnered with what we call inregion coordinating entities.
We like acronyms in education,so we call them IRCEs.
Too many acronyms here Way toomany acronyms and we make them
(06:29):
up daily, sometimes just as alittle side joke.
But in different regions of thestate where we've gone to we've
kind of reached out and triedto find who's going to be that
key player to help us continuethis work and expand that work
in their region.
A lot of times it'sorganizations who are familiar
with educational programs.
They may be community-based orthey may be more higher ed-based
(06:51):
, but that's kind of the varietythat we've seen so far across
the state in terms of who wepartner with.
But in Southwest Virginia wepartner with EO and that's the
former United Way SouthwestVirginia.
They recently had had kind of arebranding and a split of
programming.
So EO is our partner inAbington, virginia.
They house our remote staffthat are doing our work in
(07:14):
Region 1.
They host our training lab inRegion 1.
And in different regions of thestate, if you go all the way to
Richmond in our Richmond area wepartner with CCAM, the
Commonwealth Center for AdvancedManufacturing.
It's located in Disputana inPrince George County, virginia,
and also they house our staff.
(07:34):
They house a training lab there.
They help us map out schooldivisions that are interested,
find funding sources, writegrants to fund those middle
school labs In Region 5, whichis the Hampton Roads Newport
News area.
It's been ODU and we have ourtraining lab is at a location
currently called Brooks Crossing.
(07:55):
It's a facility in Newport Newsowned by the city and we're
currently in the process ofmoving that training lab.
So we're landing a new home atthe Penn Center, which is on the
campus of Peninsula CommunityCollege, also in Newport.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
New Hampton Awesome, and I know you mentioned you
know working with a lot ofdifferent partners.
I know GoVirginia has been adriving funder for a lot of this
Talk.
I guess talk a little bit aboutthat and then some of the other
partners involved as well.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
When I was first hired in 2019, I came in in the
first year of a three-yearcompetitive grant that seeded
the program in Region 3, and italso funded a lab in Region 4,
which is now in CCAM's coveragearea, and it funded a lab in
Region 1, which is in coveragearea, and it funded a lab in
(08:48):
region one, which is in uh eo'scoverage area in region one but
um in go virginia, they um.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
They provided all of the funding to initially staff
and scale the program in regionthree and those two programs
just on the outskirts of regionthree which, for those listening
that don't know, region threeis 15 localities that include
danville, pennsylvania countyand kind of the surrounding
localities in all directionsexcept south, because that's
North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's right.
It goes as far west as PatrickCounty, as far east as
Mecklenburg County and on thenorthern kind of boundaries of
Amelia, buckingham, cumberland.
That's all part of Region 3.
So, yeah, govirginia has been agreat partner in the initial
startup of the program and theycontinue to fund our expansion
(09:32):
into the middle schools withregional per capita requests.
So, without getting too deep init, govirginia has a couple
different buckets of money.
They have per capita moneythat's available for programs
that are very specific to theirregion.
There's a certain amount ofmoney awarded to programs based
on the population.
That's what the per capitabucket's for.
(09:54):
Then they have a competitivebudget Some of our grants.
Where it crosses multipleregions, they would qualify for
different competitive grants.
We've been able to utilize bothfunding mechanisms from
GoVirginia and we look forwardto utilizing those in the future
as well.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And I know that funding is important because the
equipment is not cheap.
You know you guys aren't givingstudents cheap equipment to
play with.
This is the real deal, thatthey're getting real hands-on
experiences.
That, as you said in thebeginning, obviously the idea is
to give that awareness andexcitement level and-on
experiences.
That, as you said in thebeginning, obviously the idea is
to give that awareness andexcitement level.
That then and then show themhow, if they were interested in
pursuing that, where to go fromthere.
But talk a little bit about Iknow the equipment is the same
(10:34):
across all of the places, buttalk about how how the program
is different in SouthwestVirginia versus in Virginia
Beach and even from school toschool.
I know it kind of varies fromschool to school how this is
rolled out.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I guess kind of piggybacking on your model
question too, to kind of talkabout those differences, is one
of the things that we'vediscussed a lot internally with
the model is how do we maintainconsistency in the program but
also allow for those regionaldifferences when there's
industry sectors that are vastlydifferent across the state of
(11:09):
Virginia?
How do we respond to the needsthat are very specific to those?
And we've done that by a coupledifferent ways.
We have specific modules so wewill adopt new modules if we
find out that there is anexplicit need for that new
module if it maps to one of theindustry sectors in a new region
of GoVirginia, if our currentprogramming does not meet what
(11:32):
we feel and what other industryand we go through a lot of
vetting processes with ourcontent to where, if it doesn't
meet what it should, we'll goback and we'll develop a new
module to kind of meet thoseneeds.
In some instances and I'll giveyou a specific it's like
manufacturing across the state.
So there are differentmanufacturing sectors identified
(11:54):
as being regionally importantacross the state.
But when we look down into themiddle school experience, what
the students are doing in ourmanufacturing engineering module
experience, what the studentsare doing in our manufacturing
engineering module.
There's a lot of opportunityinside that module where it's
the fundamental concepts andskills in manufacturing and
those will transcend into theregional differences and it may
(12:16):
be just using the rightvocabulary and making sure we're
introducing students topharmaceutical manufacturing, if
they're in Region 4, thegreater Richmond area.
Maritime, if they're in Region5, thinking of the shipyard and
everything associated withmaritime, and then other sectors
across the state.
For Region 1, it's food andbeverage manufacturing.
(12:36):
So inside the model there'sconsistency and then there's
also opportunity for regionaldifferences based on specific
need.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
What does the actual student experience look like?
Because I know that can varytoo, depending on school
capacity, teacher capacity, howmany students can even go
through it?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So on average our classrooms have about 20
students per section.
But it depends on a lot ofthings that you mentioned Grade
level, how long are theirgrading periods, how long is the
class?
Is it a 45 minute class, 60minutes, 70 minute, 75, 90.
We have a lot of differentflavors across the state because
schools get to decide theircalendar, they get to decide
(13:16):
their master schedule.
So what we have that you knowstudent experience could be nine
modules.
So nine modules is our modeland in our lowest dosage of that
, a student would receive amodule per week.
So five days at 45 minutes.
That is on the lowest dosage ofour model.
(13:36):
The highest dosage of our modelwould be four weeks at 45
minutes inside of a module.
So that could be some of thedisparity we see across the
state.
And it's all just how schoolsdo their scheduling, grading
periods, all the things that youknow schools have the autonomy
to do and that's how we can help, you know, map our resource
(13:57):
into their school.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And I know a lot of the work that you guys do is
making sure that thoseexperiences obviously they're
going to differ a little bitdepending on how much time, but
that those experiences, thosemodules, remain the same across
the entire state and across allthose different divisions and
time constraints and things likethat.
What I really want to talk toyou about, though, is you went
(14:20):
from a training coordinator,where you were responsible for
training a few teachers for afew schools, to now you are sort
of overseeing theimplementation of all of this
different technology andtraining.
I would assume there's hundredsof how many teachers are we
talking?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right now.
So in our 52 schools we havesome schools that have multiple
teachers.
I think the last count I hadwas 68 teachers currently in our
program.
Okay, so in our 52 schools wehave some schools that have
multiple teachers.
I think the last count I hadwas 68 teachers currently in our
program.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, so currently 68 teachers, obviously about to be
a lot more if we're adding 21schools next school year.
What kind of goes into thatprocess of you and your team
implementing, maintaining thistechnology and then also
training these educators?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, so we outline a lot of our best practices.
So we have a training plan fornew teachers that we use as kind
of our guide when we startengaging with new teachers.
So you know, there's everythingthat goes into making a
training successful and we haveagendas and we have pacing and
everything that we use for ourtrainings across the state.
(15:22):
But that gets kind of veryspecific into the training.
One of the things we also do iswe track how we train our
teachers.
So if you picked a singularteacher in our program, we could
tell you every time they'vebeen trained what topics were
covered, who trained them, whatday it was on.
So we are very diligent inmaking sure that we keep track
(15:43):
of when we train teachers, whatwe train them on and all of the
things, and that way we can, youknow, identify gaps, respond to
those gaps to make sure thatwe're providing the best support
we can to these teachers.
So you know, there's thetraining side and how we track
training.
There's the ordering.
So when you think aboutexpanding a program, like you
(16:04):
said, the equipment's not cheap.
There's a lot of differentequipment that goes into it.
So we utilize a lot of vendors,so we maintain relationships
with our vendors to be able toleverage bulk buying.
We maintain relationships withthem to where they'll let us
know when a price is gettingready to go up.
That way, if're getting readyto purchase equipment but we
haven't finalized processing,get it in before this date and
(16:27):
you might save some money.
So we want to be really goodstewards of Go Virginia money,
which ultimately is taxpayermoney, so we take that job very
seriously.
So we maintain a lot ofdifferent documents to make sure
we streamline those processesacross the state and any chance
we have to where we can makesomething better.
That continuous improvementthat you see in manufacturing,
(16:50):
we utilize that in a lot of ourprocesses in Go Tech as well.
So we have four trainingcoordinators that report to me.
I'm fortunate to work with agreat team, but, yeah, we have a
training coordinator that'sstationed in each region and,
like you said, we do have oneposition.
It is posted.
So, uh, yeah, if anyone'sinterested, I'll use this as a
chance for a plug, maybe, ifwhich location is that yeah,
(17:11):
region four at ccam, our regionfour training coordinator.
Uh, we just reposted theposition.
We made a few changes uh to theto the posting uh, but that's
now uh live the ILR's website,ilrjobs, so you can find that
and if interested, please doapply.
Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, I think that's just really cool that you and
your team is basicallyresponsible for, yeah,
implementing this technology.
I'm sure teachers are callingyou guys all the time with.
I mean, we're talking at least10 machines or 10 pieces of
equipment in each classroom,right?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Oh, it's a lot more than that.
A lot more than that.
What's?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
our number.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, so we probably have.
If you had pieces of technology, a number, it's well over 100.
In each classroom.
Oh yeah, If you count everyArduino Uno, every robot, every
machine, 3d printer, lasercutter, it's well over 100
pieces of technology, and thatdoesn't even count the
supporting software that goeswith it.
Right?
(18:08):
So it's a system of you knowmaking sure we support that full
implementation of the rightsoftwares to manipulate the
equipment and everything theyneed to effectively deliver
instruction and the students youknow get that instruction.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So how often are there teachers calling you
saying, hey, this piece ofequipment is broken.
Can you help me figure out howto fix it?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It could.
So it might not necessarily bebroken, but we field questions
daily or, you know, inquiriesdaily from teachers, whether
it's hey, I might have got thiserror message and I didn't know
exactly what to do, or you know,or this particular piece of
equipment the last time I ran itit did this there's going to be
(18:47):
a way that we can prioritizeand move things around and talk.
This is important.
We need to really fix this fast, but our staff maintains
constant contact with theteachers.
We want them to develop arapport with their teacher to
where the teacher doesn't feellike it's a.
You know that they feelcomfortable asking for help.
We want to.
We want the teacher to knowwe're here to support them and
(19:10):
we want them to ask for helpwhen they need help.
We don't want them to sit witha piece of equipment that's not
able to be used that a studentcould be using to get a
meaningful experience.
We want to get that piece ofequipment back online so the
teachers can go back to teaching.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
How are these teachers selected?
Because all the teachers in theGo Tech program don't directly
work for Go Tech.
They work for the schooldivision.
So how are these teacherschosen?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, that's one of those.
Julie calls it a sticky wicket.
So Julie, our VP of advancedlearning here, she always talks
about sticky wickets.
So yeah, as a partner, we'renot a supervisor of the teacher,
we're a partner of the schooldivision.
We're a partner of that teacher.
So what we try to make sure iswe just keep an open line of
communication.
(19:50):
We outline the roles.
You know, when we partner witha school division, there is an
agreement in place between GOTech, ilr and that school
division.
It's a MOU and in that MOU theroles of each entity are
outlined and so we make sure wecommunicate that so everybody
knows what their roles are.
And then we just try to supportthem the best we can, develop
(20:13):
that rapport with the instructorand respond to the need.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
What's your over five years your best story from
working with, whether it be youknow technology, trying to try
to set up the technology in aclassroom or a last minute
something broke with the teacher.
You know what's what's.
What's the best story we got.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
We fielded questions with teachers and you know
teachers when they're thinkingabout all the instruction that
they have to do, all the thingswhen students come through the
door, sometimes it's some simplethings that are just forgotten.
It could be the simplest thingsand I'll give you a prime
example.
Is you know, get a call, thispiece of equipment's not working
(20:51):
.
I've tried everything, I pressthe button, nothing happens.
I've done everything.
Could be as simple as is itplugged in.
So we always start super simple.
You know we've had instancesand then the teachers they'll
get.
You know they might getembarrassed but it's not a big
deal.
They're focused on a lot ofthings in their day and if we
can take any of those off ofthem, we're providing levels of
(21:12):
support that we're we should beproviding.
We've had, we've had instanceswhere things weren't plugged in
or pieces of equipment like themilling machine has multiple
power plugs.
Well, if you plug in thecontroller but you don't plug in
the actual milling machineitself, the controller boots up
and you get all kinds of errormessages.
You're like whoa, and thoseerror messages are just a result
(21:35):
of both machines not havingpower at the same time.
I'm trying to think of somefunnies, I guess you know we
have a competition each year andwe do have a team that always
comes dressed up in costume andI think that surprised us a
little bit that first year.
But they're full of spirit.
You know school spirit.
The teacher's very spirited andthey come fully dressed up in
(21:58):
Halloween-style costumes, fullbody suits of different.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
That competition you mentioned, that's the robotics
competition.
That's in a week and a halfright.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, coming up April 10th here at ILR.
Yeah, that's right, this willbe our third one coming up, but
yeah, so that's been a good one.
I'm trying to think of anystandout funnies.
You know, I think in each timewhen our training coordinators
go out and assist in instructionand from my previous
experiences as assisting ininstruction there's always some
(22:28):
student feedback you get thatyou didn't necessarily expect,
and I think that's what's uniqueabout middle school teachers
and their experiences with theirstudents, and that middle
school age group is tough.
So you gotta, you gotta know toexpect the unexpected.
And then that's something thatwe talk about in our group
trainings all the time is, youknow you put all this equipment
in a classroom.
(22:49):
You try to predict what's amiddle school student going to
do that could, you know, hurtthemselves or hurt the equipment
, or so all those best practices, you know safety and making
sure the equipment lasts in theclassroom.
But at the end of the day,middle school students are going
to do middle school studentthings sometimes, and that's I
would say that there's probablya book of stories out there
(23:09):
somewhere of those, and I'vejust forgotten some of the more
you know more common ones.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
To go back to the whole kind of mission of Go Tech
.
You know we're trying to bringawareness to these career
opportunities early.
You know, not introducing themin 11th grade, 12th grade, when
the opportunity is already therefor them for these programs,
but show them early so then ifthey're interested, they can
pursue those things.
I know a big next part of thisthat you all have been working
(23:37):
on is that 9th and 10th gradeGenerally there's a lot of good
11th and 12th grade programs,dual enrollment programs, cte
programs, 9th and 10th not somuch.
Talk a little bit about thatwork you guys are doing to
bridge, kind of, to bring somelevel of CTE or career and
technical education, stemeducation to the 9th and 10th
grade.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, that 9th and 10th grade gap for CTE pathway
style programs exists in a lotof, especially in a lot of your
rural school divisions and yoursmaller school divisions where
resources are not as plentiful.
So some of the things thatwe've been fortunate to partner
with with Pennsylvania County,with Danville City, with Henry
(24:15):
County, they have each someninth and 10th grade programming
.
The idea there is that thatentire pathway is a continuous
pathway for students.
So we have them in sixth,seventh and eighth grade in Go
Tech and they get all excitedabout a very specific career
path or multiple career paths.
How do we maintain thatexcitement to not lose them by
(24:35):
the time it's ready to sign upfor 11th and 12th grade, dual
enrollment, cte programs andthings of that nature?
So that's the need for thatcontinuation of experiences and
it looks a little different for9th and 10th grade depending on
the local resources for thosedivisions.
That's been one of the biggerchallenges that I think all of
(24:56):
us on the Go Tech team recognize.
You know the middle schoolprogram has been one we can
standardize and scale.
But with ninth and 10th grade,resources vary so much that for
some school divisions, likePennsylvania County, they have a
centralized facility that theyutilize to provide ninth and
10th grade programming at theirSTEM Academy and they have two
(25:19):
different pathways.
They have a medical sciencepathway and they have an
advanced manufacturing pathwayand so that's a centralized
facility.
Students get bused there, theytake a science course in
addition to their CTE course andthen they're bused back to
their home school, danville City.
They have a centralizedfacility on their campus to be
(25:40):
able to bring students to that.
Henry County a little moreunique they do have a
centralized facility for their11th and 12th grade programs,
but they don't have a facilitywhere they could centrally bus
all of their feeder programs for9th and 10th.
So what they did was theyembedded it in their local high
schools and existing CTEprograms.
So there was a collection ofequipment purchased through a
(26:04):
separate grant from Grove,virginia.
This was actually a Departmentof Defense grant.
Anybody that's listening thatmight have heard about the ATDM
program and other programs inthe Manufacturing Advancement
Division of ILR.
You may have heard about theDefense Manufacturing Community
Support Program.
So one of the branches of thatwas to fund some of these 9th
(26:25):
and 10th grade programs locallyin our region.
So each of those schooldivisions were able to utilize
some of that funding to be ableto bridge that gap for 9th and
10th grade.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, I think that's a really cool well one.
I mean that's good that you allrecognized that this is not
just about the middle school,that this is, you know, to
funnel all the way through andrecognizing that gap, and that
you guys are working onholistically.
How can you do that?
And I know, I mean I've heardyou say it I mean now and before
that that's a division bydivision level thing that you
have to do A little moreprescriptive Yep.
(27:00):
So I think I buried the leadhere.
You just won STEM Innovator ofthe.
Year from Starbase Victory,based in Portsmouth.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, so for the last three years I've been fortunate
enough to partner withPortsmouth City Schools and
their Starbase Victory programthat also supports their city
school system.
It's kind of a supplemental toPortsmouth City Schools.
But in the past three yearswe've done a variety of mobile
lab engagements our GoTechmobile lab, which is that
(27:25):
46-foot-long freightliner deckedout in all the things GoTech.
We've taken it down there andenriched different summer school
programs providing mathenrichment.
So when you think GoTech youdon't necessarily think of math
class, but math concepts areabound in a lot of the
activities that we do.
But we did some roboticsactivities that would enrich
(27:48):
some of the weaknesses of theperformance on their Math 6 SOL.
So we did some targetedremediation with students at a
summer school one year utilizingthe bus and the robotics
equipment on the bus.
The following year we supporteda robotics camp down there for
their STAR-based program and itwas in partnership with the
Children's Museum of Portsmouth.
(28:09):
So the bus was used to buildrobots and test robots on.
But our competition fields thatwe reuse each year from our VEX
competition we execute campswith them.
So those were inside of theChildren's Museum and camp
participants bounced from thebus to the museum, and it all
culminated to a competition atthe end of the week.
(28:29):
In the middle of all of thisprogramming with the bus in the
last three years is the peopleof Portsmouth work together with
their CTE advisory boards, citycouncils, starbase, the city
school system, all the way tothe mayor.
Everyone was involved withfiguring out a way to
strategically enhance theoutcomes for their students and
(28:51):
they identified Go Tech as theyneed to put it in their school
system.
So currently, all three middleschools and Portsmouth City
Schools have a GoTech program,and so, by all of these things
and the work of the Institute asa whole and my GoTech team,
they singled me out for theaward, which I was happy to
accept.
But yeah, it was an honor beingdown there to accept the STEM
(29:14):
Innovator of the Year Award fromStarbase Victory Academy.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, I think that's a cool title.
You should put that on your, onyour linkedin name.
You know some people put likemass, you know, phd or something
behind their name on linkedin.
You just stem innovator of jaketaylor, stem innovator of the
year.
Yeah, um, I think that that's areally cool example of you know
, traditionally our serviceregion is southern virginia and
that has clearly expanded beyondthat with a lot of what we do.
(29:39):
And seeing that, you know inPortsmouth, all the way in the
coast, that you know we're beingrecognized.
You're being recognized for thework of this really, really
innovative middle schooleducation program.
That's all the questions that Ihave.
You know, I think this programis so cool I love telling people
about.
When I tell people about whatthe Institute does, first you
(30:01):
say a lot and then, right thenyou start talking about
specifics and I think this one Ialways come back to because
it's such like people can wraptheir heads around this as being
a very needed, cool, excitingtype of program.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
And it has elements of multiple departments here.
You know it's, it's, it's it'smanufacturing advancement
education, and you know ourmanufacturing advancement team
does that with adult learnersand ATDM.
We just happen to have itembedded in the AL department,
or advanced learning department,because it's in K-12.
So there, you know, early onthere was talk like which, which
division should this even landin as a program?
(30:34):
And so you know, we, we workacross programs.
So well, I don't think itmatters, but you know it's, you
know it's been one of thoseinteresting things.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Good luck training however many new teachers you
guys have coming on board in thenext several months and
bringing all the equipment in,and that sounds like a logistics
.
I don't want to say nightmare,because it's not going to be a
nightmare, but that sounds likea lot of a lot of fun to figure
out.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
A lot of fun.
A lot of fun.
Yeah, some of the growing pains.
You know inflation and tariffsand you write grants and the
timeline from when you write thegrants to where you're awarded
those grants.
You know, sometimes a lot oftime has gone by and a lot of
pricing can change in six months.
So we try to write some wiggleroom inside of these grants to
anticipate those changes.
(31:16):
So lots of strategies and bestpractices, but continuous
improvement.
You know that manufacturingconcept of continuous
improvement it's all in ourprocesses with as we move this
program forward in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, Jake, you're doing great work.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Mr.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
STEM innovator of the year.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Thanks for being here .
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